Here's another one! Man, I feel very productive, re-watching all these Studio Ghibli films and reviewing them. This is another film by dearly beloved Miyazaki Hayao and one of the more recent films of his career. This is a fun, children-friendly movie that revolves around a little goldfish that wants to become a human, a little like The Little Mermaid, the original story not the Disney movie.
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
I am, again, not going into to much detail concerning the story and plot of the film, this portion will tapper off and stop at some point.
The film starts off with showing a sorcerer, who evidently is Ponyo's father, which isn't stated until later on in the film. He is messing around with these giant potion bottles while Ponyo escapes the little underwater boathouse. She makes it all the way to the surface where she meets Sosuke, licking wound of his to heal him. Sosuke is a little 5-year-old boy who's house is on a cliff next to the ocean. He scoops up Ponyo and takes her to school with him while her father is trying to get her back. Sosuke gives her the name Ponyo, by the way. In that same day, her father is able to take her from Sosuke using the waves but Ponyo has experienced how humans are and wants to be one. She yells at her father that she wants ham, she ate some with Sosuke, and that her name is Ponyo not Brunhilde.
Her father, Fujimoto, is really upset at this, telling her how the humans are ruining the oceans and that he is waiting for a time to unleash the Age of the Ocean, something like that. Ponyo tries to use magic to become a human but the transformation isn't complete because her magic isn't strong enough. Fujimoto reverses her magic then leaves and her sisters help her out of the bubble he leaves her in. Ponyo somehow escapes again and enters this room that has a well full of magic, gaining access to it she is able to become a little human girl. The magic ends up flowing into the ocean, causing an upset in the balance of nature...
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
I am, again, not going into to much detail concerning the story and plot of the film, this portion will tapper off and stop at some point.
The film starts off with showing a sorcerer, who evidently is Ponyo's father, which isn't stated until later on in the film. He is messing around with these giant potion bottles while Ponyo escapes the little underwater boathouse. She makes it all the way to the surface where she meets Sosuke, licking wound of his to heal him. Sosuke is a little 5-year-old boy who's house is on a cliff next to the ocean. He scoops up Ponyo and takes her to school with him while her father is trying to get her back. Sosuke gives her the name Ponyo, by the way. In that same day, her father is able to take her from Sosuke using the waves but Ponyo has experienced how humans are and wants to be one. She yells at her father that she wants ham, she ate some with Sosuke, and that her name is Ponyo not Brunhilde.
Her father, Fujimoto, is really upset at this, telling her how the humans are ruining the oceans and that he is waiting for a time to unleash the Age of the Ocean, something like that. Ponyo tries to use magic to become a human but the transformation isn't complete because her magic isn't strong enough. Fujimoto reverses her magic then leaves and her sisters help her out of the bubble he leaves her in. Ponyo somehow escapes again and enters this room that has a well full of magic, gaining access to it she is able to become a little human girl. The magic ends up flowing into the ocean, causing an upset in the balance of nature... 
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
As I have said before, at least I think I've said this before, but this whole Miyazaki marathon I'm doing is the first time I've seen these films in Japanese. The English dubs omit a lot of things that the original Japanese include, like the words boyfriend and girlfriend. Disney is the one who releases the films in the US and they don't really include those kind of words in their animated films. What I really mean is that the couples, or really in Miyazaki's case insinuated couples, are completely friend zoned. I don't remember if they friend zone Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle because it'd be quite hard to do so after the kiss, but they did it in Spirited Away and this film, too.
Not the point, sorry I went off on a tangent, but I really like this film. It's simple and sweet, it also felt a little too short though. There were some things in the film I didn't understand like, why does Sosuke call his parents by their names? My theory was that he was adopted but then he said that Lisa used to breatfeed him when he was a baby which made me rethink that a little. Why would you tell your 5-year-old that he was adopted? I thought he was adopted a little later like around the age you start to retain memories but I guess not. Ponyo also called her father by his name, which is how you find out his name is Fujimoto.
The movie does end happy, as all of Miyazaki's works do, so I don't really feel the need to explain the ending in the spoiler section. I'm not going to delve into it at all, but I'm going to leave things at that. The movie was good, I enjoy it and it's one of my fiance's favourite Studio Ghibli films. He was so excited when I told him I was going to be writing about Studio Ghibli next, so he sat in on my review watching.
What do you think? I know that this movie was really popular when it first came out, but did you like it? Or do you think that the movie could do better? Comment below and tell me your thoughts! Thank you for keeping up with me and continuing to read my blog! I don't know yet if next week will be another Studio Ghibli post or not, so anticipate the next one! See you next week!
Not the point, sorry I went off on a tangent, but I really like this film. It's simple and sweet, it also felt a little too short though. There were some things in the film I didn't understand like, why does Sosuke call his parents by their names? My theory was that he was adopted but then he said that Lisa used to breatfeed him when he was a baby which made me rethink that a little. Why would you tell your 5-year-old that he was adopted? I thought he was adopted a little later like around the age you start to retain memories but I guess not. Ponyo also called her father by his name, which is how you find out his name is Fujimoto.
The movie does end happy, as all of Miyazaki's works do, so I don't really feel the need to explain the ending in the spoiler section. I'm not going to delve into it at all, but I'm going to leave things at that. The movie was good, I enjoy it and it's one of my fiance's favourite Studio Ghibli films. He was so excited when I told him I was going to be writing about Studio Ghibli next, so he sat in on my review watching.
What do you think? I know that this movie was really popular when it first came out, but did you like it? Or do you think that the movie could do better? Comment below and tell me your thoughts! Thank you for keeping up with me and continuing to read my blog! I don't know yet if next week will be another Studio Ghibli post or not, so anticipate the next one! See you next week!
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