Tonight's Movie: Ponyo (2008)

Last week I saw Hayao Miyazaki's PONYO (2008) for the first time thanks to Studio Ghibli Fest 2025.

The annual Studio Ghibli Fest, hosted by Fathom Events, screens Miyazaki's films each year at my local Cinemark Theatre.

Over the years I've gradually been watching all of the Miyazaki films my kids have recommended for me; I've watched each one on a big screen, in the original Japanese language, with English subtitles. Review links for all of the Miyazaki films I've watched to date are at the bottom of this post.

I described PONYO to friends as "sweet, innocent, and mildly creepy." Creepiness aside, I really enjoyed it, ranking it just behind MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) and KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (2009).

Ponyo (Yuria Nara) is a little fish who kisses one of her many fishy sisters goodbye and escapes from her strict -- and rather weird -- father Fujimoto (George Tokuro). She heads for the surface and a shoreline off Japan, where a little boy named Sosuke (Hiroki Doi) finds her and gives her her new name.

Ponyo becomes very attached to Sosuke, especially after he feeds her some ham, which she loves. Ponyo uses magic -- and a lick of blood -- to transform into a little girl, and she's eventually taken in by Sosuke's mother Lisa (Tomoko Yamaguchi).

Ponyo's rather spooky father wants her back, but her beautiful sea goddess mother (Yuki Amami) may hold the answers so that everyone is happy with their futures.

PONYO was also written by director Miyazaki, and as with his other films, PONYO is very much a "fairy story" in which things happen which aren't logical to us but seem perfectly normal to the characters in the world it portrays.

A 13-year-old witch leaving home is a normal rite of passage in KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, and here Lisa, an otherwise very normal mother "holding down the fort" while her husband Koichi (Kazushige Nagashima) works on a ship, thinks nothing of a little girl who was once a fish moving in.

One of the ongoing themes in my favorite Miyazaki films is people caring for one another, and that "reassuring" quality reappears again here, not only with Lisa and Sosuke caring for Ponyo, but with Lisa's work at the local old people's home.

I also love the multigenerational interactions in Miyazaki's films, where young children spend time with and make friends with the elderly as a matter of course. I like the way we see how they benefit one another's lives.

Like Miyazaki's other films, PONYO is at once unique and derivative, drawing on classic children's literature for some of its inspirations. In this case it's easy to see allusions to stories such as THE LITTLE MERMAID and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, from wanting to become a human with legs to a magical kiss.

At the same time, the movie has its own tremendous creativity, humor, beautiful visuals -- I loved the sea goddess -- and most of all, heart. I really enjoyed it.

PONYO runs 101 minutes. It's rated G.

PONYO is available on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as in a DVD/Blu-ray combo set.

Voices in the English-language cast, for those interested, include Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Noah Cyrus, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, and Lily Tomlin.

Previous reviews of Miyazaki films: CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986), MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988), KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989), HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (2004), and THE WIND RISES (2013).

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