Customer Reviews

Gake No Ue No Ponyo (OST)

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The creative partnership between filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and composer Joe Hisaishi, despite existing strictly outside the Hollywood world, it nevertheless one of the most fruitful and fulfilling in all of film music. Since first scoring Miyazaki's 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Hisaishi has scored all of their collaborations since then, including the likes of Laputa, Princess Mononoke, the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle.

Ponyo on the Cliff - or `Gake No Ue No Ponyo' to give it its proper Japanese title - is their ninth film together. It tells the story of a young boy named Sosuke who, while out walking near his cliff top home, finds a mermaid stranded on the beach. The mermaid, who Sosuke names Ponyo, is actually a princess, the daughter of the mermaid king Fujimoto, and has run away from her undersea home after she declared her desire to be human. Sosuke and Ponyo become close friends, but soon find that Ponyo's defection to the human world is throwing nature into an imbalance, and could cause devastating environmental effects on the planet. The film has already become the biggest-grossing Japanese film of 2008, and is scheduled to be released in the United States in 2009. The voice cast for the English-language version will apparently include Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Frankie Jonas, Noah Cyrus and Cloris Leachman.

Hisaishi's score, as has been the case throughout his career, is lush and expressive, making use of a full orchestra and choir, with special solos for violin and piano. The opening "Deep Sea Ranch" is a superbly textured, undulating piece full of wonderment and beauty, that eventually becomes a intricate, gently comedic exercise in pizzicato string writing, before eventually introducing the delightfully innocent theme for Ponyo herself on glockenspiel, and eventually by the entire orchestra.

The "Mother of the Sea" theme is an emotional piece for a solo female soprano singing in Japanese, accompanied by a sweeping orchestra; similarly, cues such as "Empty Bucket", "Flash Signal" the gorgeous "Night of the Meteor", and the rich choral version of "Mother's Love" tug at the heartstrings with their emotionally unrestrained writing and tender, unambiguously poignant thematic content. The stirring "Granmanmale" and the second "Little Sisters" cue reprise the oceanic undulations from the opening title with a bold choral element, while "Underwater Town" reprises the `Mother of the Sea' theme for a warm solo vocalist, before concluding the score in beautiful fashion in "Song of Praise for Mother and the Sea", which has a touching violin solo and a more sweeping orchestral and choral arrangement.

The liveliness of cues like "Ura Town" and "I Become Human!", with their urgently rhythmic woodwind writing and blustering piano lines, give the score a much-needed burst of energy to counterbalance the lilting romance pieces, while others like "Ponyo and Susuke", "Ponyo of the Fish of the Wave" and "Toki" are dramatic, driving, light action piece in which insistent string and brass chords insinuate that not all is well in Ponyo's world. The theme for Ponyo's father in "Fujimoto" is a light, but pompous march for twittering woodwinds and bouncing brasses that cleverly captures his regal haughtiness, and the "Fleet March" is a jaunty militaristic piece that uses snare drums and trilling Yankee Doodle flutes, while the "Little Sisters" have an outstanding, energetic scherzo which flits around the entire orchestra with a great deal of zest and vigor.

Cues such as "Encounter", "Kumiko", and the slightly more bombastic "Hot-Bulb Engine Ship" restate Ponyo's theme with whimsical fancy and innocent-sounding orchestrations - harps and chimes - while the pretty, music box-like "Ponyo's Lullaby" reminds the listener that, for all its sweeping beauty, Ponyo is still a story for children. The free-spirited version of Ponyo's theme in "Flight of Ponyo" is an album highlight, and sounds like the kind of music Ron Goodwin or William Walton might have written had he ever been asked to write an anime score. The solo piano versions of the theme, performed by Hisaishi himself in "Tears of Sosuke" and "Finale", are equally excellent.

The whole score is really quite outstanding, and perfectly illustrates Hisaishi's mastery of the orchestra. There are few composers who can illicit such wonderful performances, such nuanced textures, and such clever instrumental combinations as Hisaishi does here. I have often lamented the fact that Hisaishi has not yet been given his opportunity to crack the Hollywood system but, the more I think about it, the less I want him to become `mainstream'. When he is given this much freedom of expression by Studio Ghibli, why would he want to reign himself in by having to answer to target demographics, test audiences, and meddling producers? With a few exceptions (like Alexandre Desplat), too many excellent composers lose their unique voice when Hollywood comes calling, and if that were to happen to Hisaishi it would be a tragedy.

The accompanying `Image Album', released separately on the same Tokuma Japan Communications label, features a couple of additional score tracks and several original songs from the film also written by Hisaishi which, surprisingly, are just as good as the score itself. I defy anyone not to have the insanely catchy "Ponyo on the Cliff" stuck in their head for days after hearing it, especially the cute child-like chorus sung by five-year-old actress Nozomi Ohashi. The variation of the longing "Mother of the Sea" theme from the score features a violin solo by Yasushi Toroshima that is spectacularly beautiful, while the conclusive "Rondo of the House of Sunflowers" features a sweet, intimate vocal performance by Hisaishi's daughter, singer Mai Fujisawa, that melts the heart. Even if you don't speak Japanese, I would unequivocally recommend picking up this companion piece, as it complements the score album superbly.

Scores like Ponyo on the Cliff restore your faith in film music, and remind you why you started listening to it in the first place. It also illustrates perfectly the fact that a great deal of the best modern film music is being written outside of Hollywood, in countries like Japan, and why film music aficionados need to broaden their horizons beyond the studio blockbusters to find the best of the best. Anyone who has not yet experienced Joe Hisaishi's work would do well to seek this score out. It is, by quite a long margin, one of the best scores of 2008.

I bought my copy of "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" soundtrack whilst in Japan. I hadn't seen the movie, nor heard the score prior to that. The only 2 clues I had to what was in store was 1) The trailer on Youtube and excerpts of song, and 2) The reliable and reputed collaboration of Hayao Miyazaki and Joe Hisaishia.

Another excellent purchase!

While "Ponyo" the movie is perhaps Miyazaki's most "childish" animated feature (just my impression) to date, the score is filled with excitement and memorable themes. "Ponyo" the score harkens back to the good old times of animated features in the early 90s; when Disney cartoons reigned supreme before the advent of Pixar; when the scores to Disney cartoons (such as "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin") embodied the essence of the film and carried as much life on its own as the animation did. Not that the scores to animated features these days are lacking in any way - Ratatouille by Michael Giacchino, for eg, was brilliant - but somehow, they do feel different.

Here listening to the score you are reminded of the fact that you're watching a cartoon. Instrumental arrangements are so perfectly exaggerated - light and bouncy for happy times, dark and menacing (but still somehow funny) for dangerous times and sparse instrumentation for sad times. I have to congratulate Joe Hisaishi for capturing all these emotions so well. Above all, "Ponyo" the score fully encapsulates the sense of wonder. The wonder of an alternate, magical world. The wonder of things gone wrong always turning out right. The wonder of naivety, happy endings and dreams coming true.

There are 36 tracks to this "Ponyo" score, with 3 main themes which are immediately memorable. I can't describe them, but if you listen to track 5 "Kumiko", track 10 "Fujimoto" and track 13 "The Sunflower House", you should be able to pick it up. In fact, track 36 on the CD is a vocal version of Kumiko. The vocal track has been immensely popular in Japan, and hit #1 on the Japanese iTunes chart when released as a single. Note also that track 4 comes in a vocal version, but is not on the score soundtrack but available as a separate single. Naturally, both vocal tracks sound like they have been plucked straight from a "The Wiggles" CD. There is a vocal track to a variation of the theme in "The Sunflower House", called "Mother Of The Sea".

My personal standout tracks are
1)"Mother Of The Sea" - a dreamy waltz featuring soprano vocals
2)"Ura Town" - lively, exciting, amazing string arrangements. Listen also to "Toki San" and "Ponyo Of the Fish Of The Wave".
3)"Lisa's Decision" - a sombre, melodious and minimalistically-arranged piece
4)"Sosuke's Tears" - a staple for all Hisaishi scores for Studio Ghibli films, this track features the piano in a melancholic and thoughtful arrangement
5)"Hot-Bulb Engine Ship - for reasons that become immediately obvious when you listen

"Ponyo" the score is an astounding wonder. Get it.

My kids LOVE the theme song and insisted on getting the CD. It's worth it. Such a charming movie, and cute song! Great musical experience.

[ACTUAL Review lies below this logistics blurb. Looking for words of praise? Skip down far below. Fanatically OCD about technicalities like I am? Read on, straight into logistics:] [Yes, this review has been mirrored across two products, because I think it applies to both.]

What Jason Scott wrote about the shortened themes is correct - at least, I would take his word for it. I actually did not purchase this particular import of the CD, but obtained a [licensed] pressing made in Taiwan, which, to my understanding, is "identical to [the] CD distributed earlier in Japan" (according to the back cover of the CD). I have the same situation. It's confusing as to what is the MAIN theme of this film - is it track one, "Deep Sea Ranch" (with the full choir establishing the setting of the sea, the camera panning deep into its depths...?), track two, "Mother of the Sea" (which plays during the interesting opening credits, up into Ponyo pokes her head out of the water), or is it the final track, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" (needs no explanation - end credits!). As it happens you do not actually get very satisfactory [read: not WHOLE and uncut, but still absolutely wonderful] recordings of any of these three key themes on this CD. "Deep Sea Ranch" was never meant to be a real standalone theme, I suppose, so that's perfectly all right that it doesn't come as its own developed piece (unlike, say, "The Merry-go-round of Life" from "Howl's Moving Castle"). As for "Mother of the Sea," Mr. Scott did not point this one out, but it's ALSO shortened. I.E. you get the film version, which is not what I consider to be the orthodox one. In the "orthodox" recording (for example, if you were to perhaps see Hisaishi's 25-years concert in Budokan - by hook or crook - there is an "orthodox" version of this piece) the piece is about twice as long, because the theme is extended into a sort of repeat in B-flat major, instead of cutting off due to film time constraints. I suspect this point is trivial to most people.

Now, the crucial piece, the point that Mr. Scott made about the actual theme song of the film - it is indeed a cut version. An interlude and a final reprise of the theme are taken out of the version on this CD, which shortens it considerably; this cut version on the CD is exactly the one that plays at the end of the movie. The "orthodox" (as I call it) recording of the theme can be found on the single release (dig around, it's a bit scarce) or on the Image Album. The same thing goes for the "orthodox" recording of "Mother of the Sea," which can be found on the Image Album as well. Now of course, if you're all right with just listening to 1:36 as opposed to 2:44 of the catchy and cute Totoro-esque theme, you'll be totally happy. But if you're a Hisaishi maniac like I am, have fun hunting down a good deal for the image album / theme single. I am currently hunting for a cheap offering of the image album in Taiwan, but I'm having trouble. You might want to call up your Japanese friends for some help if you're interested.

[LOGISTICS END HERE. ACTUAL REVIEW BEGINS BELOW.]

I won't compare to Williams or Zimmer here. Hisaishi is a confounded genius and he never fails to deliver. Regardless of whether or not you enjoyed the movie, this music should be great for you - yeah, if you found it "childish" you might have a bone to pick with the mood-setting music, which is by and large light-hearted and spirit-lifting (perhaps unduly so for the straight-laced). Like all film music, Hisaishi takes a couple of memorable themes and exploits them into a gazillion variations that never really bore you, even after the first thousand listens. It's not always as clever as what he did with "Howl's Moving Castle," but it is pleasing to the ear, nonetheless, and perhaps a bit less "stiff" as some listeners may find "Howl." I mean "stiff" is in "completely classical," which was one impression I got off "Howl" (don't get me wrong, I love it all the more for that...but some people can't stand the feel of classical music); by comparison, the score for "Ponyo" is a lot more bouncy-cheery-wa-ha-ha. You occasionally get the piece that will make your death-metal-lover pout (e.g. whenever the choir comes in, concurrent with the appearance of Ponyo's mother), but then you have so many pieces that you just know will make you smile like "Ura Town" (track four) because of the sheer happiness in their compositions and orchestrations. It helps to know the movie, but it's not necessary - for example, I actually laughed out loud at track 32 and thought inwardly: "RUN RUN RUN PARALLEL TO THE GROUND...NOW SPATTER THAT OLD LADY WITH RANCID FISH WATER" [if you've seen the film, you will probably remember...if not, don't mind that little outburst].

This soundtrack is a great show of Hisaishi's ability to compose in the vein that the movie calls for. It's a fully armed score that goes from super-happy to very serious at the drop of a dime. The movie on the whole is meant to be a bit light-hearted, and Hisaishi's score brings out just that magic. Compare this score to something a bit more heavy-handed like "Princess Mononoke" [whoof. Goosebumps.] and you'll see just how amazing Hisaishi is with his tone-setting music.

I've been restating a lot of stuff, so I'll cut myself short here. Great composition, great [mood-setting] orchestrations / arrangements, great for everyone; great music!