i saw ponyo with my 3 year old niece who has (up until three weeks ago) only lived in japan. my sister told me that it costs like 40 (american) dollars to go to the movie theater in japan, so not only was this her (my niece not my sister) first time in an american movie theater, but her first time in a movie theater ever.
and the experience was too much for her:
-the previews start with disney pitching their movie for change we can believe in titled the princess and the frog or something like that (we finally got a black president so now we can finally have a major animated disney movie feature black characters in leading roles; it’s also strange the way the movie was previewed with words about the great disney animation tradition spanning 70 plus years but all the visual references showed in the preview were from disney movies produced in the last 20 years — the past as a series of pop images) and already my niece can’t stand the noise. the previews (with their swelling music and bravado) are just too loud.
-movie theaters have a lof of features in common with pyschological torture techniques — extremes of sensory deprivation and sensory overload. one minute it’s dark and quite, the next you’re brain is bombarded with so many sound and light waves it can’t possibly process them all and you’re left traumatized. since i’ve been going to movies for almost 30 years, i’m use to the (self)-torture, but it almost killed my niece.
even though my niece didnt like it, i thought ponyo was amazing.
brian
Whitney
12 Comments
September 14, 2009 at 11:19 pm
They probably couldn’t show older Disney movie clips because they couldn’t find any that weren’t completely racist.
Gavin said this was the best movie he’s seen this year. Do you think so? I’ve been wanting to see it, but I’ve been seeing GI Joe and Final Destination in 3D instead.
September 15, 2009 at 4:34 pm
pono is the best (new) movie i’ve seen this year. it’s incredible.
but i havent seen gi joe
September 18, 2009 at 9:33 am
but i think what i was trying to say, is that the context in which you view a movie (like if it’s a new movie; if you’re watching in a mega-theater or an local, independent theater; watching it at home drunk or sober; whether it’s a pirated copy of the movie; who you watch the movie with; not to mention the state of mind you find yourself in) largely determines your reaction to the movie. what’s more, each time you watch the same movie makes the movie radically different based on the context.
September 19, 2009 at 12:14 am
Which is why re-watching movies is pretty crucial in how you ultimately understand them, but I hardly ever do that lately.
September 22, 2009 at 4:07 pm
i heard this movie was made for me
September 25, 2009 at 2:47 pm
my niece would tell you that it’s too scary for you
September 26, 2009 at 1:49 pm
she is probably right. i should run all my movie choices by her.
September 26, 2009 at 6:53 pm
My aunts read this post and thought I had written it. Now there are rumors flying around the family questioning which of my sisters adopted a Japanese baby.
September 29, 2009 at 11:20 pm
i forgot i was going to tell your niece she should probably be pretty wary of any movies uncle brian or uncle aaron pick to watch…
October 5, 2009 at 1:00 pm
like cinderella?
October 5, 2009 at 6:58 pm
by cinderella do you mean videodrome?
October 6, 2009 at 11:44 am
no. i told her to not watch videodrome until her 18th birthday. i said the same thing about inland empire.