Gake no Ue no Ponyo

A goldfish sneaks away from home and floats off on the back of a jellyfish. After getting stuck in a glass jar, she drifts to the shore where she is freed by Sousuke, a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother Lisa in a house by the sea while his father Koichi works on a fishing boat. After healing a cut on Sousuke's finger by licking it, the goldfish is named Ponyo by her new friend.

Unknown to Sousuke, Ponyo already has a name and a family. Her father Fujimoto, a sorcerer who forsook his humanity to live underwater, searches frantically for his daughter Brunhilde. When found and captured, Ponyo rejects her birth name and declares that she wants to become a human. Using the power received from Sousuke's blood, she grows arms and legs and escapes to the surface once more. But the magic released into the ocean causes an imbalance in nature, causing the Moon to start falling out of orbit and the tides to grow dangerously stronger. Reunited with Ponyo, Sousuke must pass an ancient test to restore order in the world and let his companion live on as a human.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ponyo Main

Kouzuki, Yuria Japanese

Sousuke Main

Doi, Hiroki Japanese

Fujimoto Supporting

Tokoro, George Japanese

Lisa Supporting

Yamaguchi, Tomoko Japanese

Granmammare Supporting

Amami, Yuuki Japanese

Yoshie Supporting

Naraoka, Tomoko Japanese

Kumiko Supporting

Hiraoka, Eimi Japanese

Toki Supporting

Yoshiyuki, Kazuko Japanese

Koichi Supporting

Suzuki, Toshio Producer

Miyazaki, Hayao Director, Script, Executive Producer, Animation Director, Screenplay

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Medel, Jennifer Script

Reviews

Jul 23, 2008

aranelcharis

Recommended

3 words describe this movie: Death By Cuteness [Note: This review is based off of the Japanese version, not the Disney dubbed one!]

If you thought Totoro was cute, you ain't seen nothing yet. Ponyo is the cutest little...fish-girl ever. The movie is loosely based on "The Little Mermaid," but don't think Disney. Think instead of when you were a kid, and the world was brighter, magical, full of wonder and delight. Those are the feelings which describe what happens when you enter the world of Miyazaki.

Story - Although there's more story to Ponyo than your average Miyazaki film (eg: Totoro again), the film is geared ... more to a younger audience, and therefore has simply a slow progression of events which unfold for the main character Sousuke, who saves what he calls a "goldfish" from the ocean, trapped in a jar. Unbeknownst to him, her father is looking for her, as she has run away from home. Sousuke, however, promises to protect the "goldfish" he names "Ponyo," and Ponyo slowly becomes more and more human as she spends time with Sousuke.

Art - The art is great Miyazaki as usual. This time, the art reflects a child's view of the world. I particularly liked the backgrounds that look they're colored pencil/crayon/chalk (though still drawn with lots of detail) and the sea creatures. Actually, any of the ocean scenes are amazing. It felt like I was in an aquarium.

Sound - The beginning of the movie was an opera piece, which was quite interesting, and a normal orchestral score after that. The seiyuu who played Ponyo has the most adorable voice too. Voice acting throughout was top-notch.

Character - If you do not fall in love with Ponyo, you have no heart. She's innocent and adorable. Sousuke seems really smart for a 5-year-old, and very kind, obedient, and generous. If I had kids, I'd want them to be like the characters in this movie. The "grown ups" seem to be overly cheery, and this was the main thing I found incredulous in the film. What kind of mom leaves 2 kids alone at night? What kind of adults seeing 2 kids alone in a candle-powered boat, simply wave hello to them? What kind of adults calmly talk to sea-spirits like they're next door neighbors?? Yeah, this only happens in Miyazaki world.

Enjoyment - I love the ocean, and little kids (when they're not brats), and the whole fish-out-of-water element (haha, this movie literaly has a fish-out-of-water), so I obviously loved this movie. You know it's great when you get out of the movie theater and you`re still smiling.

If you like other Miyazaki movies, I think you'll like this one. If you don't like slow paced, slice of life (with a dash of magic) movies, then you probably won't enjoy it as much. If you do, just sit back, relax, and let Miyazaki take you to another world...

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 27, 2010

seekster

Mixed Feelings

Let me preface by noting that I am a Miyazaki fan that consider Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke (in that order) the best animated films ever to come out of Japan (or possibly anywhere). Spirited Away in particular had it all, a good story, memorable music, incredible visuals, and likable characters that grew as the story progressed. I also saw Howl's Moving Castle and while I thought it was good it wasnt up to the same quality as Spirited Away or Mononoke (still maybe about the level of Kiki though).

Now I also admit that I saw the dubbed version of Ponyo featuring a cast ... of star voices alongside Miley Cyrus's youger sister and 1/3 of the Jonas brothers. As the rule goes, Disney makes everything worse but I still rate this a 6/10 because quite frankly the voice acting was passable and was the least of this movie's problems. So take a deep breath and lets dive right in.

Story:

I really have a hard time believing that this was written by Miyazaki. To put it bluntly the story ranged from bad to nonexistent. Even if the story was different in the Japanese version it would have to be completely different do even be decent. I just finished watching and I still dont know what happened. There are far too many inconsistency but I will save those for character. Most Miyazaki films have a story in which the main character(s) face and overcome some sort of adversity and grow over the course of the story. In Ponyo the characters dont change a bit (save for Ponyo who changes physically at random). The only two things that can pass for adversity in this plot are a typhoon (which isnt that bad since its basically only Ponyo saying "hi") and a journey that Sasuke and Ponyo take to find his mother Lisa after the storm (which is not really that adventurous considering that its short and they travel with the villagers most of the way anyway). Also the message is hard to grasp, sometimes the movie tries to have an environmental message, sometimes it tries to have a message about trust, love, and not judging on appearances. Maybe it was trying to have lots of messages but failed miserably at all of them. Oh yeah and there is some Majora's Mask thing with the moon getting close but that only seems to be an issue whenever Liam Neeson's character shows up.

Art:

If it wasnt for the art being so good I would swear this wasnt a Miyazaki film. I havnt seen water animated so well in the traditional anime art style before. Also the colors work together well. Having said that the art style used isnt one I like all that much but thats a personal preference and all said I was able to stomach it fine.

Sound:

Now this is for the English Dub so I cant speak for the Japanese version but the voice acting was fairly lacking considering the big names in this cast. Matt Damon has maybe 5 lines (most delivered by an Aldis lamp in a funny scene), Tina Fey (Lisa) is spunky and fun until about the part where Ponyo shows up in the storm as a girl and then she becomes really bland and one dimensional. And Kate Blanchet's lines were so badly written that it was hard for her to do anything with them. Still all of these voice actors did decent jobs. As for Ponyo, Ms. Cyrus (Miley's younger sister), well considering most all her character did was shout and moan she did a good job, it was nice of Disney to throw her a bone (or ham in this case). And one of the Jonas brothers voices Sasuke (does it really matter which one?) and as such Sasuke as 1/3 the personality of a normal human being. The only voice acting job in the English Dub that is good (Tina Fey was good for the first half) is Liam Neeson who voices the sometimes crazy sea wizard guy. He actually brings a sense of depth to his character, going from wacky to grim on a dime in a way that really works.

On a different note, why wasnt there a memorable song to Ponyo. All Miyazaki films have left me humming the theme after I saw them but Ponyo seemed to be lacking in any good music and instead had some kiddy playground song at the end (think puff the magic dragon only for younger audiences). Also some of the dialogue seems out of place for young audience, particularly an exchange with a mother in a boat where she explains to Ponyo that if she drinks the soup the mother can make milk for the baby...yeah thats odd for a kids movie.

Character:

Again the only characters I liked were Liam Neeson's crazy wizard and the spunky Lisa (Tina Fey) whose character was replaced by blandness halfway through the movie. I still cant believe how easily Lisa bought into the whole Ponyo used to be a fish but now is a girl thing. There is also a nice conflict with Lisa and the father in which Sasuke tries to take both sides but this goes away later on (along with the father who doesn't seem important enough to get an invitation to the party at the end of the movie). Ponyo herself is a decent yet one dimensional character. She almost always seems happy even when the scene doesn't call for it, and despite being adorable is also a bit creepy at times.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 18, 2011

8thSin

Not Recommended

'Gake no Ue no Ponyo' had been lying in my hard disk drive for over a year before I finally got to seeing it. I somehow knew I would not like this film, and have been putting it off until now. It could've been because this movie seemed so childish from clips I saw in variety shows, the obnoxious little girl singing its theme song, and the surprising amount of marketing campaign for an animated film. However, being somewhat of an anime fan, and an avid Japanese movie fan, this is a film that I had to watch. My hunches are wrong sometimes, but unfortunately, ... this was not the case... it was even worse than my low expectations. If you think this movie is a masterpiece and don't want to read any negativity about it, you might as well stop reading now. I will be analyzing a few key scenes from this film that stood out for me, and it won't be pretty.

We have become accustomed to all these Ghibli feature length films with deep values in recent years, but once every while, they do release kiddie films like 'Ponyo', which seemed like an attempt to replicate the success of 'Tonari no Totoro'. The stories are similar in that they both tell the tale of a child's encounter with a mysterious kiddie bait (interesting enough, the word "ponyo" means "blobby" in Japanese), and the short adventure this child takes with the creature. Unlike 'Totoro', which has become an iconic masterpiece for Studio Ghibli (enough to be included in their logo), 'Ponyo' lacks the same level of magic because its story is a mess and there are too many useless themes. In addition, the subject character lacks the enigma because, well... it speaks.

The opening sequence was very enjoyable, conveying Ponyo's life in wander and beauty of the sea without a single word being spoken. However, I was a bit disappointed by the animation. Sure, it is detailed and fluid, but this is just the matter of budget per frame. It seemed very, very outdated with its coloring, like watching a classic Disney film rather than a 21st century Ghibli film. The "fish wave" scenes were spectacular, but otherwise, there is nothing in this film that we haven't seen before. While this retro hand-drawn cel style animation is certainly preferred by some and has its merits, I find it alarming that other animation studios have made a giant leaps in animation quality in the past few years while Ghibli, once industry benchmark in anime, have been largely unchanged... arguably even deteriorated in terms of quality since peaking out with 'Howl's Moving Castle'.

I have nothing but praise for musical score in this movie. All the pieces were fully orchestrated, and really sets the mood for every scene, whether it's a jolly comedy, exciting action, or mysterious fantasy moments. Sound mixing / volume adjustment was outstanding, such as the sudden spike in audio volume in a "chase" scene to show the impending danger, perfectly timed to what's happening on the screen. Every piece was obviously designed specifically for each scene, and the main theme music is very memorable, also used as the instrumental for the theme song sang by the little girl in the end. Unfortunately, there was a major miscast with the seiyuu in using old school dorama actress Yamaguchi Tomoko as the mother. Often typecast into tough female roles such as single businesswoman, she seems to be the perfect fit on paper as the strict mother of the protagonist. However, the character design simply seemed too "soft". Her voice acting experience being very limited, she ended up sounding overly unemotional in some scenes. She certainly is no Kimura Takuya when it comes voice acting.

The story development was forced in many occasions. There were quite a few face-palm scenes in this movie, like when Ponyo's father started talking to himself in an underwater scene just to explain the situation to the audience. It was hard to believe such reputable studio and director would resort to such poor storytelling technique. Another questionable scene was near the end, when the kid finds his washed away green bucket just as Ponyo was losing her power and returning to her fish state. It's a kiddie movie, but that is just way too convenient lazy writing.

The themes in this movie were also very confusing. As mentioned earlier, the concept is almost identical to that of 'Totoro'. But Ponyo herself is a ripoff of 'Little Mermaid' (and the forbidden love with human), and then they added Ryuuguu castle reference to fairy tale 'Urashima Taro', plus a tunnel reminiscent of the one in 'Spirited Away'. The water controlled by Ponyo's father also moved like the black goo from 'Mononoke Hime' (and the two subsequent Miyazaki Hayao films). Did they simply run out of ideas, or are they trying to capitalize on their past success?

There were three other scenes that I found very disturbing. First of which occurred while Ponyo was transforming in the water bubble, and her "sisters" come for help. It must have been a symbolism to a new birth, representing multiple sperms trying to penetrate the ovum. The second one occurred near end of the movie, when a mother of a newborn baby was explaining the process of breast milk production. The final one occurs shortly after when they enter the underwater castle, another sperm race to ovum entry scene. The whole movie was presented as a children's movie, and these three scenes had absolutely no place in this film. And worse yet, they verbally raise the stake: "It's up to you to save the world", from what? A shameless attempt to manufacture an epic adventure. Unlike other Ghibli films, this one did not have a real lesson learned or a concrete message. Fragmented and poorly structured plot without a central theme. The story is a complete mess despite simplicity, things just happened, and characters just behaved the way they did without apparent character development. Admittedly this is a children's movie, but it should not require intelligence level of a child to be enjoyable.

The ending was the most unsatisfying one among all Ghibli film I have seen thus far. Things happened in a rapid succession, leading to a sudden jump and kiss out of the blue. It couldn't have been any more rushed than it was. The transition to the theme song was abrupt, and poor credit roll was a complete waste of an addictive theme song. This is totally inexcusable execution of the ending for what has become a mediocre anime movie. With 'Howl's Moving Castle' being a personal flop, and 'Tales of Earthsea' being a widely accepted failure, this is strike three Ghibli for me. I don't want to sound like one of those film fans who cling in the past, but they simply don't make anime movies the way they used to.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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