“Look into the water, its The Little Mermaid all over again, no, wait, its nature coming to balance with man, no, wait, its just Japanese animation flavored into a Disney formula...” Good for you Hayao Miyazaki. Hopefully you were paid plenty. Luckily, on occasion, someone like Pixar proves you can still tell good stories in animation and be commercially successful.
Though on a different category all together, Ponyo is still as bad as Ice Age (with all its sequels). Dudes – if you want this trash to stop, stop going to these movies. We need to vote with our wallets. So long as producers make money on mediocre movies they will continue to finance and produce it. Much like the fast food industry.
On a positive note, the kids enjoyed Ponyo (not that its so hard to please the kids so this is not a major credit), and the animation is pleasing (though I never took to the animated humans in Japanese animation). That’s about it. The repeated theme of man and nature in Miyazaki films does not bother me as much as the lack of any real substance. It’s an insult to the intelligence of a 4 years old. But then again, its very possible this is about the average intelligence of our society so who am I to judge?