The new episode of Villainy INC is on the air. Be sure to listen for further talk of things we really should have discussed last episode, a formal apology to the listeners, and our take on the Disney-Marvel acquisition. And you thought we’d let that one just slip by.

[podcast]http://www.evillairproductions.com/podcast/ep82.mp3[/podcast]

No zombie segment this week since the only one we got was about 2 pages long. If you want your zombie plan read off on air, send them to greg@evillairproductions.com. And please keep them to a paragraph. We only have 10 minutes for this segment.

As discussed after the song break, a lot of our listeners loved the music from Howl’s Moving Castle. I now present to you music from the man himself. The man playing piano and then conducting is Joe Hisaishi, composer and pianist of almost all of Miyazaki’s work. This is one of his best themes straight from the source. Enjoy.

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A couple days a ago I had the pleasure of seeing Ponyo in a local movie theater here in Salt Lake. I’d been looking forward to seeing Ponyo since it had first been announced that Miyazaki was making another movie after Howl’s Moving Castle. Since my experience with his movies had only been on DVD (and viewed through my crap 12 inch TV), I danced with anticipation to finally be able to see one of these films on a 50 foot screen.

I’m not sure what else I can say about the experience. IT’S FREAKING MIYAZAKI. The man was a legend before Ponyo, and he continues his legacy of brilliance with his latest film. If you get a chance to see it in theaters, definitely take the opportunity. The film is fantastic. An amazing amount of care and detail is taken into every frame of the movie, and the story is something that anyone can connect with. Anyone remember how scary it was making new friends as a child? Now imagine your new friend is a magical goldfish girl. Yeah. Whoa.

The characters are breathtakingly human. The main child, Sosuke, lives and breaths on screen. You won’t believe how real he comes across. Ponyo is aggressively likable, and older audiences will definitely relate to the mother character. My favorite character had to be Fujimoto. He’s the oddball father of Ponyo, and his design and characterization instantly grabbed me. Hmmm I relate to the crazy misunderstood character most. Who’d a thunk it.

I’ll stop gushing now. Even though the film is intended more for younger audiences (i.e. Totoro), Ponyo is still an amazing piece of work that is defiantly worth your time and money. The story’s great, the animation rocks, the music is amazing. Definitely give it a try.