Ponyo, the new film by Hayao Miyazaki, opens today nationwide, with rave reviews from NYT’s Manohla Dargis. She writes:

To watch the image of a young girl burbling with laughter as she runs atop cresting waves in “Ponyo” is to be reminded of how infrequently the movies seem to express joy now, how rarely they sweep us up in ecstatic reverie. It’s a giddy, touchingly resonant image of freedom — the animated girl is as liberated from shoes as from the laws of nature — one that the director Hayao Miyazaki lingers on only as long as it takes your eyes and mind to hold it close, love it deeply and immediately regret its impermanence.

Good question she poses. Is she right? Is it true that the movies have lately been confined to exploring the a darker or more muted range of human experience? When was the last time you saw a movie that was truly joyful?

NYT: Forces of Nature, Including Children