Gake no ue no Ponyo
Tags: romantic, cute, magical realism, entertaining

Plot synopsis:
Deep under the surface of the ocean, a sea-wizard named Fujimoto (English: Liam Neeson Japanese: George Tokoro) stands at the bow of his submersible, surrounded by an air bubble and an assortment of sea creatures. They swim circles around him as he pours magic potions into the water. Out of a side porthole, a red goldfish peeks out, making sure not to be seen, before waving goodbye to her smaller siblings and swimming off to join a school of jellyfish. She rests on top of one, domed by another, as they float towards the surface and far from her home.When she wakes up, she finds herself in the harbor of a seaside town, Tomonoura. When a large bottom trawler comes towards her, the goldfish swims away from the jellyfish in an attempt to escape but is quickly pulled into the mess of garbage and debris that the trawler picks up in its net. She becomes trapped within a glass jar but manages to escape the net and make it towards shallow water. Meanwhile, a young boy named Sosuke (English: Frankie Jonas Japanese: Hiroki Doi) runs down the hillside path from his home to the water's edge to play with his toy boat. There, he notices the goldfish stuck in the jar and breaks her out of it, though cutting his thumb in the process. As he holds the seemingly lifeless fish in his hands, she licks his wound clean. Happy that she's alive, the boy takes her back up the hill as a series of strange waves come in and reach for him. The waves return to deeper water where Fujimoto is waiting. He is horrified to hear from them that the goldfish, his daughter, has been taken by a human.Sosuke puts the goldfish, which he names Ponyo (English: Noah Lindsey Cyrus Japanese: Yuria Nara), in a bucket full of water and brings her with him to the car where his mother, Lisa (English: Tina Fey Japanese: Tomoko Yamaguchi), is waiting to take him to school. Just before she gets in, she notices Fujimoto crossing her yard with a portable pump on his back. She scolds him for spraying what she thinks is fertilizer, though he attests it's merely pure ocean water to keep him from drying out on land, before driving off. Lisa drops Sosuke off at school before going to work at the nursing home next door. Sosuke hides Ponyo's bucket in the bushes but his secrecy doesn't go unnoticed. Kumiko (English: Jennessa Rose Japanese: Eimi Hiraoka), a classmate, asks to see what he's hiding but snubs her nose when shown Ponyo, calling her a boring fish. Ponyo squirts water into Kumiko's face and she begins to cry. Startled, Sosuke goes through the side fence and meets with a few senior citizens sitting outside. While some, like Yoshie (English: Betty White Japanese: Tomoko Naraoka) and Noriko (English: Cloris Leachman Japanese: Tokie Hidari), adore Ponyo, bitter Toki (English: Lily Tomlin Japanese: Kazuko Yoshiyuki) is suspicious of Ponyo's odd appearance and gets squirted in the face as well. The commotion attracts Lisa and Sosuke rushes to the water's edge to escape punishment. However, Fujimoto's waves surround him and take Ponyo back to sea. Sosuke calls after Ponyo but is collected from the water by Lisa who does her best to console him.Ponyo is taken back into the submersible and placed within a bubble. Fujimoto calls her by her given name, Brunhilde, but she rejects it, claiming her name as Ponyo. She declares her love for Sosuke and her desire to be human and sprouts arms and legs in a defiant act of magic. Fujimoto believes humans to be too much trouble and forces Ponyo to revert back into her original state, putting her in a deep sleep. He then leaves to consult Ponyo's mother who he must summon.Arriving home, Lisa is disappointed to hear that Sosuke's sailor father, Koichi (English: Matt Damon Japanese: Kazushige Nagashima), is unable to come home that night. As his ship passes their hill, Sosuke sends his father a message via Morse code using his signal light. Still peeved, Lisa sends her own unfriendly message, but Sosuke manages to cheer her up.Presumably the next day, Ponyo is awoken by her smaller sisters and quickly evolves feet, hands, and teeth before breaking out of her bubble home. She floods her father's study and releases his most powerful magic. The surge of energy turns Ponyo into a fully fledged human girl and sends her and her siblings rushing towards the surface of the ocean where a massive storm has formed.Sosuke leaves school, braving the strong winds and rain, and runs to meet his mother at the nursing home where the power has gone out. Lisa is encouraged to go home though the roads soon become treacherous due to the high waves. As they drive up the hill towards their home, Sosuke notices Ponyo waving at him as she runs atop the massive waves at sea. The waves follow the car as Lisa struggles to stay on the road. When they reach the house, Ponyo transverses a wave to the road and runs up to Sosuke, hugging him tightly. Lisa takes them both into the house as the waves get bigger and the storm continues. There, she dries them off and goes to start the backup generator where Ponyo helps it using some of her magical talents. For dinner, Lisa gives them hot tea and ramen noodles. Ponyo is fascinated with the new tastes and experiences but soon grows tired and falls asleep on the couch.The storm dissipates to reveal some flooding. Worried about the senior center, Lisa leaves Sosuke in charge and drives down the hill to check on the seniors. Sosuke falls asleep on the couch with Ponyo. Fujimoto, having discovered the breach in his magic, finds Ponyo with Sosuke. He leaves to contact her mother, Granmamare (English: Cate Blanchett Japanese: Yûki Amami), an ocean spirit. She appears at his submersible where he tells her that Ponyo's actions have spun everything into chaos. The moon has come closer to the earth causing a surge in tides and sending satellites plummeting from orbit like falling stars. Granmamare assures Fujimoto that if Ponyo and Sosuke pass a test, everything will go back to normal.The following morning, Sosuke and Ponyo wake to find that the house is completely surrounded by water. Only the tops of hills and the tallest trees are visible. Sosuke worries for his mother so Ponyo helps him by enlarging his toy boat. They pack a few things and set sail together. Along the way, they meet a family adrift with a small baby. Ponyo shows her generosity by offering the baby and his mother some of her soup and uses her magic to cure the baby when he comes down with a cold. As time passes and they continue their journey, Ponyo becomes more and more tired. When they reach a stretch of road that's not flooded Ponyo's magic wears off and the boat is reduced to its normal size. Sosuke sees his mother's car further up the road and runs to it, calling for Lisa. But she is no where to be seen. Sosuke becomes upset but Ponyo cheers him and encourages him to keep looking. They walk down the road hand in hand.Meanwhile, the senior center is completely submerged, but the elderly run about the yard with renewed energy; a result of the magic keeping them safe underwater. Fujimoto explains to them that theyre about to witness a testimony to true love while Lisa stands nearby talking to Granmamare. She returns to the others, worried about Sosuke but confident that he'll be ok.Sosuke and Ponyo reach a tunnel and, as they walk through it, Ponyo suddenly reverts back to her fish form and falls asleep. Sosuke quickly runs to the end of the tunnel and places her in his bucket which he fills with water. He tries to wake her up but Fujimoto appears to him. He tells Sosuke that he must accompany him to help Ponyo but someone shouts to Sosuke not to trust Fujimoto. Toki stands on a mound where the other senior citizens were brought under water, but she refused to follow. She calls to Sosuke who runs to her. As he leaps into her arms, Fujimoto's waves engulf them and bring them to the senior center under water. There, Sosuke is reunited with his mother. Granmamare approaches him and Ponyo, now awake, and calls Ponyo to her. She asks if Ponyo is willing to live as a human and give up her magic. Ponyo nods yes. Granmamare then asks Sosuke if he can love Ponyo whether she is a little girl or a fish, to which Sosuke says yes.Granmamare then brings everything back to normal and sends everyone back to the surface. Fujimoto shakes Sosuke's hand and bids Ponyo farewell. As he leaves, Ponyo leaps out of Sosuke's bucket, kisses him, and transforms into a little girl right before his eyes.

Review: I thought that the trailer featured its song which was quietly hypnotic, and I didn't have to wait for an invite to make sure I got my ticket for the sneak preview of the movie, scheduled to open here next week.For fans of Studio Ghibli films, you'll probably know what you're in for, as Miyazaki has yet another winner in his filmography, that will win new fans over.
Characterization here is top notch, and it's hard not to fall in love with Ponyo, in whichever form adopted, especially when she's such a playful being who doesn't hide her emotions - if she's upset with you, either she turns away or you could expect a jet stream come spewing from her mouth into your face!Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is a definite shoo-in to my top films of this year without hesitation.
After I thought about the other Ghibli movies, I may know the reason: this film had most of the elements of a great Miyazaki anime: cute characters, wonderful key animation, a great soundtrack composed by Joe Hisaishi and the warm story telling giving you the feeling of watching a high quality Japanese animation film.
Ponyo may at times feel so unique and fresh, it may feel alien like.The viewing experience provide a wonderful change from all the generic children's products that are generally commercialised to please the adult demographics (ie/ Animals that talks like their human counterparts, Eddie Murphy in Shrek.) It is perhaps comforting to know that good old fashioned hand drawn cells still work so incredibly well in this digital era where Toystory/WallE/Shrek/Cars generally triumph.
While Hayao Miyazaki's movies have always been hit-or-miss with me with regards to story, they are unequivocally gorgeous to the eye, with characters of simple animation against a backdrop of artistic images.
Ponyo sticks to that formula, with a lead character so adorable I want a plush doll of her and scenery so pretty it wouldn't look out of place framed up as a picture on a wall.The story, on the other hand, I didn't enjoy quite as much as his last two wide-releases, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.
Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli shows his wonderful touch animating, infusing life, in every little action of the characters in Ponyo.
Ponyo (G, 1:43) — Fantasy: Fairy Tales, 2nd string, remakeWell, I suppose it was unrealistic to expect to hit the trifecta in a single weekend, but I must confess my surprise that the flik that proved to be the dud in the trio was this confection from Hayao Miyazaki, acknowledged master of anime and the genius behind My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke.As expected, the artwork was ethereal, whimsical, and utterly charming.
(I'm usually happy to encounter mention of Darwinian processes, but what the heck this is doing in a kids' fairy tale is beyond me.)Once near the surface, Ponyo gets her head trapped in a jelly jar, but she's freed by 5-year- old Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), an unfailingly kind and polite little boy whose mom (Risa or Lisa, Tina Fey) works in a retirement home and whose dad (Koichi, Matt Damon) is a frequently absent ship's captain.
Oh, and balloons up to the same size as Sosuke.There's a Greek chorus of old ladies at Lisa's workplace, the Moon comes to visit for an extended stay, a typhoon covers everything in 20 metres of standing water but causes no damage, ocean waves turn into fish with eyes, a toy boat gets magically enlarged to become a seaworthy craft, and Guran Mamere (Cate Blanchett), the spirit of the sea, arrives in time to help rebalance the karmic equilibrium of the planet.Wonders to behold, to be sure, but bearing no obvious connection to each other, just a bunch of novel ideas thrown together at random.
We later find out that he is the father of one of the main characters, the fish girl Ponyo who wants to become human after befriending Sotsuke, a 5-year old boy living in a house by the sea.
The film's subplot of Ponyo's magic causing a rift in the natural order and causing the moon to come closer (which explains the flood) is never sufficiently delivered to the audience.I was simply expecting a better delivery from a master storyteller like Miyazaki.
Return to Innocence - A Review of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Said to be inspired from Disney's The Little Mermaid, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is Japanese animation master, Hayao Miyazaki's next big work after the well-received Spirited Away in 2001 and Howl's Moving Castle in 2004.
In Ponyo, his signature style of animating fantasy realms and children characters are on display once again.Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), the boy lead in the film discovers a 'goldfish' trapped in a glass jar while playing by the seaside below the cliff.
Aside from Miyazaki's ability to cast vivacious and animated characters, the film lacks elements of thrill and wonder when measured against previous works, resulting in a deficit of big screen presence.The sparks of Ponyo and Sosuke failed to light up the film in a big way but moments of warmth, kindness, and love can still be found in recognizing the film as one that is not made for the kids, but of the kids who everyone is or once was..
After watching the film, I knew that it is another Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli classic.This film, inspired by my favorite fairy-tale "The Little Mermaid," is about a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke, and his relationship with a goldfish princess, whom he named Ponyo, who longs to become human and be with Sosuke.
The worlds he depicts are beautiful, teeming with life, color, and spirit, and "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," his latest, is no exception.Allegedly Miyazaki's final film, he abandoned even the aid of computers in crafting "Ponyo," each frame being hand drawn and colored by his Studio Ghibli artists, and with stunning results.
"Ponyo" has a simple beauty to it that rivals that of "My Neighbor Totoro," and fantasy sequences that recall the best of "Spirited Away."For its great cast (Tina Fey, Matt Damon Cate Blanchett, and Liam Neeson comprise a great dub, however blasphemous that may sound to Miyazaki purists), easy-going earnestness, and beautifully inventive visuals, "Ponyo" is my pick for animated film of the year, 'up- setting' Pixar's 2009 heavyweight, which had emotion to spare but came up short in adventure.But those select few will share my disappointment when the envelope is opened and the monosyllabic winner is read on Oscar night.
"Ponyo" is a modern family classic on par with "The Little Mermaid" and the rest of the Disney golden-era library.Miyazaki is a magician, and like a magician, everything he shows you isn't essential to your comprehension of the trick, but the end result is so beautiful that there's no sense in questioning it..
Miyazaki, recalling his earlier works, paints a brightly-colored world obviously geared for the younger audiences and the raw effervescence gleefully strips off the grim thematic elements that distinguish its immediate predecessors.Ponyo (voiced lovably by Yuria Nara), a fish with a young girl's face (making her look like a cuddly child in a pink overgrown Halloween costume), escapes away from her underwater home and her school of siblings to explore the surface.
Hayao Miyazaki has captured the imagination of audiences young and old across the globe, and his most recent cinematic work of art is "Ponyo," a children's fairytale borrowing on story elements from The Little Mermaid.
Of course like other Miyazaki classics such as "Spirited Away" and his last film, "Howl's Moving Castle," "Ponyo" is full of a creativity that can only be truly appreciated by adults, but this it is distinctly more a children's story than those recent efforts.
It's a magical story best described as beautiful and lovable, aiming for charm instead of conflict."Ponyo" is the story of a bug-eyed childish-looking fish of the same name, the daughter of an undersea sorcerer, who longs to escape the sea and become a little girl.
Among the highlights are droplets of water that Fujimoto sends after Ponyo that move like living waves, as well as a variety of other magnificent sea creatures and breathtaking storm scenes make "Ponyo" as awing as any other Miyazaki film.As a children's story, however, "Ponyo" concentrates its efforts on being adorable.
Most glaringly, its climax is uneventful despite how overall likable all the characters are."Ponyo" will surely satisfy Miyazaki's fans in every way with its imagination, and newcomers will still be smitten by his simple yet visually ambitious storytelling, but this is distinctly more of a children's movie, best for families and others who love fantasy regardless of its form or target audience.
Now I seriously wish more animation could be like Hayao Miyazaki's new Anime' (Japanese animation) film, "Ponyo." In an age where most animation (American and Japanese) is so highly sophisticated and overdone with CGI and special effects, Miyazaki's "Ponyo," on the other hand, revels in its hand-drawn simplicity and epic fairy tale storytelling dynamics that easily brings back memories of better, simpler times.Miyazaki's films in recent years - since roughly the beginning of the 21st century - have avoided taking on the current trend to mix their hand-drawn animation with CGI and special effects magic (and if they have, he does a damn good job of concealing their use or making them less obvious), and I make it a point to place his films in a much higher regard than many of his contemporaries in Japan and the United States.
(His "Spirited Away" in 2002 happens to be my favorite animated movie of all time, American, Japanese, or otherwise.)The story of "Ponyo" is something straight out of a children's fairy tale: 5-year-old Sosuke (voice of Frankie Jonas, younger brother of the musical Jonases) is a young boy who was playing by the ocean one day when he manages to rescue Ponyo (Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus's younger sister), a rebellious young goldfish who had just escaped from her father Fujimoto's (Liam Neeson), the god of the sea, underwater kingdom.
Ponyo manages to adopt a human form as a little girl about Sosuke's age so that she could live on land, but in the process, however, setting off a chain of events that have upset the delicate balance of nature, a change that may have grave consequences for both humanity and the world below."Ponyo" is an amazingly spirited animated fantasy-adventure about the power of love and friendship in the unlikeliest of places, from one of the unlikeliest of places.
And even though you get the idea that Fujimoto is this film's villain, he's really not such a bad guy; he's just a doting and concerned father who obviously loves his daughter and wants to keep her away from harm and danger, although he is aware that her actions can have grave consequences for both his undersea kingdom and the rest of humanity.The story and animation soared beyond my wildest dreams and expectations about what "Ponyo" could do in either respect.
On the surface, "Ponyo" could be seen as a simple story about a little fish-girl who gets a taste of the human world and wants to join it and the friend she makes there, a little boy names Soske (somewhat like "The Little Mermaid"), but there is an entire different level at play here.
Ponyo is the kind of movie you'll want to see to enjoy the- insert superlative/great-awesome-wonderful adjective here- animation, the outstanding and eye-popping wonders of water (yes, water) and all of the characters who have a purity and goodness that reaches to everyone, even the supposed villain.
And no wonder: it's about a little boy living with his mother- we get the sense, as in E.T., that the parents have some problems getting along, though in this case it's because the father works on a ship out at sea- and one day he finds a goldfish by the water at his home (the 'cliff by the sea' that the Japanese title originally had), accidentally cuts his little finger which the goldfish suckles at, and takes the goldfish home.Unbenownst to the little boy, Sosuke, little Ponyo as she is called turns into a human - or rather, wants to become human once she is taken away by her father, the underwater wizard-of-sorts Fujimoto (voiced perfectly by Liam Neeson).
This should not detract you from watching this fun film of growth, hope, and friendship.What does come across well is Miyazaki's very elaborate and magical animation and story that has elements of wonder and fantasy.
Similar to Spirited Away, we see the different worlds of the humans and the sea creatures and I feel that Miyazaki may be trying to draw the viewers attention to the vast and undiscovered nature of things that live beneath the sea and our acceptance of them and thing that are different.I managed to watch the subtitled version of this last year and was pleased by the story and plot.
Set in a small port town, Ponyo is the tale of an independent young boy, effectively living in a single-parent household with his father continually at sea, who discovers an odd creature with shifting human features at the water's edge.In Hayao Miyazaki's hands, the ocean is a wild, vibrant collection of churning life, and its residents (particularly that one determined, shape-shifting fish) an irresistible, elemental force of passion and curiosity.
Director Hayao Miyazaki is one of the modern titans of worldwide animation cinema, even though his films have not had as much diffusion as they would deserve.Unfortunately, his most recent film Ponyo on a Cliff, suffered from the same destiny because, at least in my country, it was released on very few cinemas and with zero publicity.That's a shame, because Ponyo on a Cliff is an excellent animation film which tells a very imaginative story, which is simple on its shape but complex on its depth.Ponyo on a Cliff does not obey to Hollywood formulas, there are not any musical numbers or well defined villains.It simply tells an ingenious, deep and hugely entertaining story.It would be a mistake to compare it with the Disney film The Little Mermaid only because both are based on the traditional fable from Hans Christian Andersen.They are so different with each other that it would not have any sense to say Ponyo on a Cliff is "better" (although I definitely enjoyed it much more), because it is based on a different value system, where selling toys or satisfying marketing requirements is not important...the emphasis is on showing the vision of a true artist like Miyazaki, whose amazing imagination forges a story of an unusual and unpredictable structure, but with human and realistic characters who are easy to identify with.The only fail I found on this movie is that some details feel a bit forced.In spite of that minor fail, Ponyo on a Cliff deserves a very enthusiastic recommendation for many things but mainly, because it is full of magic and imagination.It may not be Miyazaki's best movie (I think that one is Princess Mononoke so far), but still, this is an excellent film worthy of admiration..
Like the other Miyazaki films I've seen, Ponyo showcases beautiful animation, creative characters and interesting settings.
It's also great how the film teaches that trying to be a magical creature and a human simultaneously doesn't work out well, as you must choose one side to live a better life.As usual for a Studio Ghibli film, the animation is richly defined and gorgeous to look at, with the same lovable Miyazaki character designs and some impressively crafted effects and backgrounds.
On the surface, 'Ponyo' might sound like a simple fairy- tale, but with such youthful and altruistic protagonists, the film soon becomes less of a love story and a more a fantasy indulgence movie in which a boy's greatest dream of being able to play with his new pet like a best friend comes true.
The animation is beautiful, Ponyo (Nara) and Sôsuke (the little boy, voice by Hiroki Doi, who finds Ponyo) are adorable, and the music is great, and it has a happy ending.If you were unfamiliar with Miyazaki, I wouldn't recommend this as your introduction to his movies because of the odd plot.
The two bond quickly but her father brings her back into the ocean after which she unleashes enough magic to cause an imbalance in the natural order of life & makes her intention clear of becoming a human.Written & directed by Hayao Miyazaki who has continued to defy every expectation with his subsequent features, Ponyo is another wonder from the master storyteller that presents him capturing the beauty & cheerfulness of early years with same passion & simplicity that was evident in his very own 1988 classic My Neighbor Totoro.While the story continues to evoke a sense of warmth & love from its audience throughout its runtime, what's really heartwarming about it is the attention it gives to a few elements that actually mean a great deal to children but is often overlooked by adults.
I'm embarrassed to say the least that I've so far watched only My Neighbour Totoro (eyes that pile of Ghibli DVDs) and love it to bits, but I guess this would serve as a final push for me not to continue missing what would likely be animated films that I would enjoy.Ponyo (voiced by Nara Yuria) is a magic goldfish that yearns to know what is life beyond the sea, with her constant forays in a bubble to the surface of the water to sneak a peek.
I'm embarrassed to say the least that I've so far watched only My Neighbour Totoro (eyes that pile of Ghibli DVDs) and love it to bits, but I guess this would serve as a final push for me not to continue missing what would likely be animated films that I would enjoy.Ponyo (voiced by Nara Yuria) is a magic goldfish that yearns to know what is life beyond the sea, with her constant forays in a bubble to the surface of the water to sneak a peek.