Saturday, July 4, 2009

A Little Disconcerting

So there I was, wasting my morning on Apple Trailers to see what movies are coming out. I saw the trailer for Ponyo and decided to check it out. I'd been looking forward to this movie for a while, being a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki since seeing Princess Mononoke back in college, but I still hadn't seen the trailer. I realized that Apple would have the dubbed version, but I was okay with that. I had originally seen Princess Mononoke dubbed, and I was mostly wondering about Ponyo's storyline and animation.

Here's the Youtube version of the trailer:

As it went along, I thought I recognized a familiar voice. Sure enough, Liam Neeson was listed at the top of the screen as one of the voice actors. Awesome, I thought. Qui-Gon is going to be in this! But then I saw, further toward the front of the list, the name "Frankie Jonas." Hm, I thought, Jonas. I'd been seeing that name a lot lately. Surely this couldn't be one of the famous Jonas Brothers?

Well.... here's Frankie Jonas on IMDB.

Yeah, it figures.

Since I'd never heard a Jonas Brothers song in my life, I decided maybe it wasn't that bad. I'd check them out on Youtube. This is the video I ended up watching:

The video's actually not that bad. I kind of like the idea of doing a tribute to spy movies, buddy cop shows, and kung fu movies. True, all the actors have "Disney Channel hair," but what do you want from kids these days?

But the song... the song!

I can still hear it... I can still hear it in my head...

Is Ponyo still going to rock? Probably. And there's always the subtitled version. For all I know, Young Master Jonas may actually be a good voice actor. But couldn't they have picked someone else?

(While on the topic of anime, I should add that I still haven't seen the teaser trailer for The Last Airbender. I'm sure my curiosity will overwhelm my revulsion someday and I will watch that trailer in a moment of weakness. I am just as sure that feelings of regret and self-loathing will immediately follow.)

2 comments:

Kawaika said...

I saw the trailer for The Last Airbender, and it actually looks decent. Shyamalan is directing it.

Russ said...

I, too, enjoyed the last airbender trailer. Then I got to sit in on a conversation in which my friends all bitched about how the tattoo on his head isn't one smooth color. I realized that they (and I) have too many expectations set by the stellar series for this movie to be great. Good, perhaps. But why do we need this when the series was just so awesome. If anything it's just an inconvenience because it caused the creators to fast track the series and short us one book. At least that's what it seems like.

I also enjoyed the Ponyo trailer. Once again Miyazaki has produced a vibrant and dreamlike world, one more alive than the real world. But this time, I found the design of the main character to be so repulsive and horrifying that it has the potential to ruin the entire film for me. Great lord Cthulhu will be pleased at this new animated abomination.