PONYO

So, last night I had the honor of watching the movie Ponyo with a few people, and I must say - it is one of my new favorite films right now. It's written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the same guy who did spirited away. It's absolutely adorable, hilarious, and heart felt. Tina Fey, Betty White, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, and Noah Cyrus do voice overs for the English version.

The story follows a little fish human, Ponyo, who runs away from her overbearing Sea Witch Human dad. She meets Sosuke, a little human boy, and they fall in love. I don't want to give too much away because everyone in the world needs to see this movie pronto. Right now. Seriously.

I will say this though - a lot of elements from Hans Christian Anderson's original version of The Little Mermaid can be seen in the film. (Sea Witches, Magic, a little fish with a human head that wants to be a real girl, Ponyo forsaking her magic in order to be human, the threat of little Ponyo turning into sea foam if Sosuke doesn't love her back, etc.) This adds to the awesomeness. I admire people who draw inspiration from works like these, and then make them their own.

Speaking or original works - something inside of me has been itching to write for a long, long time. I keep coming up with fragments of ideas...but...something keeps holding me back from flushing them out into full, well rounded works. I've been making videos with my friend Malorie, and that has soothe the burning desire some (Jesus. Yes - I did just say "soothe the burning desire." HA), but I want to do more. I think I have this problem where I come up with these fantastic ideas for full length stories/movies...but...I don't actually work them out/write them out through trial and error. I have this fantasy that a golden piece of work will just fall into my lap if I just keep thinking about it hard enough. Well - it's not. I need to work on these, flush them out, figure them out, put the pieces together (and let me tell you, I have some pretty golden, glowing pieces that are waiting to become a whole picture). So, in a nut shell...I need to work...and experiment with the ideas I have...and learn as mush about stories and film as I can. I've written out the basic plots to a few of my ideas...but that's it. I need more detail and more experimentation. Actually - I need to just do it! :)

And I will. I am. And I love it. !!!