DVD Voice

Tonight I needed a break, and Ponyo fit the bill very well! This is a Japanese cartoon, it is distributed here in the US by Walt Disney, but it is a animation by Hayao Miyazaki (of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, etc). The drawings were top-notch. Very beautiful to see and the story was simple and pleasing.

Great for kids – and since I’m not really much of a grown-up (I’m a waste of age) I enjoyed it! The voice cast for the English dubbed version was very good, easy to listen to. Tina Fey played one of the main characters and her husband was voiced by Matt Damon – even though he wasn’t in much of the movie.

The movie is about the underwater keeper of the seas. His daughter escapes and sees a little boy and she decides that she wants to be human. Because she uses a little bit of magic to turn herself human and escape the ocean, it messes up the balance and the world is on the verge of being destroyed. Unless they can pass the test.

If you are a kid, or just a kid at heart, this is an enjoyable evening. Just throw out any ideas before you watch, and don’t make yourself think you have to only watch grown-up movies. Get some popcorn and live a little!

Rated G. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes).

A sudden change from the violence of martial arts and murderers in the antartic, as tonight Netflix sends along Holes. This is a Walt Disney movie with Sigourney Weaver, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Henry Winkler, and Tim Blake Nelson. It’s about a camp for juvenile offenders, Camp Greenlake, in Texas on the site of a ghost town and large dried up lake. To teach the boys character they are required to dig a hole, 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide, everyday.

It becomes obvious that they are looking for something and while the movie unfolds it begins telling the back story of Stanley Yelnats’, Shia LaBeouf’s character, family and that of the townspeople of the lake. Not to try to give much away, but Stanley is from a family that has been cursed and is unlucky – part of why he’s in the camp to begin with, even if he is out of place.

The movie is just fun. It’s not an edge of your seat type of event, but a fun enjoyable way to spend the evening. Jon Voight is actually really entertaining as this wild-eyed guard at the camp munching on his sunflower seeds and always looking for the Yellow Spotted Lizards to shoot.

The movie is also full of great little lines, which the little kids will no doubt be repeating for you for days afterwards! It’s a great little feel good story. So stop thinking that you only should watch films for grown-ups, just enjoy it.

Rated PG. 117 minutes (1 hour 57 minutes).