is a 2008 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

, animated by

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...

for the

Nippon Television Network JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed sub ...

Dentsu Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertis ...

, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners,

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,Mitsubishi, and distributed by

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

. The film stars Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Tomoko Yamaguchi,

Kazushige Nagashima is a Japanese tarento, sports commentator and former professional baseball player. His father is Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima. Biography Nagashima was born in Tokyo, Japan, the oldest son of former Japanese national team manager ...

Yūki Amami is a Japanese actress. Career Amami joined the Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western- ...

, George Tokoro,

Rumi Hiiragi is a Japanese actress. Career Hiiragi first appeared in numerous commercials. She starred in the NHK ''asadora'' and voiced Chihiro in Hayao Miyazaki's award-winning anime film ''Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film ...

Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer born in Tokyo and raised in Aomori and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. She has been called "one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world", and her vocals and ...

Kazuko Yoshiyuki (born 9 August 1935) is a Japanese film actress and voice actress essayist. Biography Early life Kazuko was born in Tokyo as a first daughter of Eisuke Yoshiyuki, a writer, and Aguri. She has an older brother, Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, a novelist, ...

and

Tomoko Naraoka is a Japanese actress and narrator. The daughter of a painter, she was born in Komagome, Tokyo, Komagome, Hongō, Tokyo, Hongō (present-day Bunkyō, Tokyo, Bunkyo), in the city of Tokyo City, Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from Joshibi University ...

. It is the eighth film Miyazaki directed for Studio Ghibli, and his tenth overall. The film tells the story of Ponyo, a

goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have bec ...

who escapes from the ocean and is rescued by a five-year-old human boy, Sōsuke after she is washed ashore while trapped in a glass jar. As they bond with each other, the story deals with resolving Ponyo's desire to become a human girl, against the devastating circumstances brought about by her acquisition and use of magic. The film was originally released in Japan on July 19, 2008 by distributor Toho. It was a major commercial success, grossing over $204 million worldwide and becoming the fifth-highest-grossing anime film of all time. It received critical acclaim for its uplifting themes, visual design, and simultaneous appeal towards young children and all audiences. An English-language version of the film was released on August 15, 2009, releasing to 927 theatres across the U.S., the widest opening for a Studio Ghibli film across the U.S. It was produced by

The Kennedy/Marshall Company The Kennedy/Marshall Company (K/M) is an American film-production company, based in Santa Monica, California, founded in 1992 by spouses Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. It presently has contracts with Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Ent ...

and released by

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

Plot

Fujimoto, a once-human wizard, lives underwater with his daughter

Brunhild Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label= Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda ...

e and her numerous smaller sisters. While she and her siblings are on an outing with their father in his four-flippered submarine, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrell ...

. After an encounter with a

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets th ...

, she becomes trapped in a glass jar and drifts to the shore of a small fishing town where she is rescued by five-year-old boy Sōsuke. While shattering the jar with a rock, Sōsuke cuts his finger. Brunhilde licks his blood, healing the wound almost instantly. Sōsuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her. Meanwhile, a distraught Fujimoto searches frantically for his lost daughter whom he believes to have been kidnapped. He calls his wave spirits to recover her, leaving Sōsuke heartbroken and confused by what happened. Ponyo refuses to let her father call her by her birth name, declaring her desire to be a human named Ponyo. With magic, she forces herself to grow leg- and arm-like appendages and start changing into a human, a power granted to her by Sōsuke's human blood that she licked. Fujimoto forces her to change back into her true form and leaves to summon Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare. Meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father and inadvertently uses his magic to make herself human. The huge amount of magic that she releases into the ocean causes an imbalance in nature, resulting in a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

. Ponyo goes back to Sōsuke, who is amazed and overjoyed to see her. His mother, Lisa, allows her to stay at their house. Lisa leaves after the tsunami subsides to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works, promising Sōsuke that she will return home as soon as possible. Gran Mamare arrives at Fujimoto's submarine. Sōsuke's father, Kōichi, sees her traveling and recognizes her as the Goddess of Mercy. Fujimoto notices the moon appears to be falling out of its orbit and

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

s are falling like shooting stars, symptoms of the dangerous imbalance of nature that now exists. Gran Mamare declares that if Sōsuke can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and that the balance of nature will be restored. Fujimoto, still worried, reminds her that if Sōsuke fails the test, Ponyo will turn into sea foam. The next day, Sōsuke and Ponyo find that most of the land around the house has been covered by the ocean. Since it is impossible for Lisa to come home, the two decide to find her. With Ponyo's magic, they make Sōsuke's

pop pop boat A pop-pop boat is a toy with a very simple steam engine without moving parts, typically powered by a candle or vegetable oil burner. The name comes from the noise made by some versions of the boats. Other names are putt-putt boat, crazy boat, fla ...

bigger to traverse the waters, seeing marine life from the Late Devonian period and more people on boats. When they reach the forest, however, Ponyo tires and falls asleep, and the boat slowly reverts back to its original size. Sōsuke drags Ponyo to the shore, where he finds Lisa's abandoned car. As they continue walking, Ponyo mysteriously reverts to her fish form. Meanwhile, Lisa and the residents of the nursing home are temporarily able to breathe water because of Gran Mamare. Ponyo and Sōsuke encounter Fujimoto, who warns the boy on the imbalance of nature, begs him to give him back Ponyo. Despite their attempt to flee, they are captured and Fujimoto takes them down to the protected nursing home. Sōsuke reunites with Lisa and meets Gran Mamare, with whom Lisa has just had a long private conversation. Gran Mamare asks him if he can love Ponyo whether she is a fish or human; Sōsuke replies likewise. She then tells her daughter that if she chooses to become human once and for all, she will have to give up her magical powers. Ponyo agrees, and she is encased in a bubble given to Sōsuke, who is instructed to kiss it to complete Ponyo's transformation, as the balance of nature is restored. The previously stranded ships head back to port. Fujimoto respects his daughter's choice, having decided he can trust Sōsuke. Ponyo then joyfully jumps high in the air and kisses Sōsuke, completing her transformation as a human.

Cast

Production

Development

Hayao Miyazaki, the film's director and writer, was prompted to create ''Ponyo'' after producer Toshio Suzuki suggested he make a film aimed at children, noting the success of '' Howl's Moving Castle'' (2004). The film would be created from a mixture of real-world and fictional influences, combined with a desire to implement new art and animation approaches developed by other Studio Ghibli staff in a feature-length film. In 2004 and 2005, Miyazaki spent time in Tomonoura, a seaside town in Setonaikai National Park, where he familiarised himself with its community and environment. His experience in Tomonoura established the kind of setting he wanted for his next film. During his time there, he read the complete works of

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

. He took particular interest in '' The Gate'', a book involving a character named Sōsuke who lived at the bottom of a cliff. This provided him more concrete ideas for characters and settings. Initially, Miyazaki solely considered the concept of a film that would depict a stormy sea with "waves higher than the house on a hillside". He later created the character Ponyo, a name he thought of as an

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

of what "soft, squishy softness" feels like when touched. Miyazaki recalled that as a nine-year-old he borrowed a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's "

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...

" from his neighbour, and that while he was reading it he had difficulty accepting its premise that its protagonist did not have a soul. When preparing pre-production materials, Miyazaki hit a creative block before visiting the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

art museum, where he found himself startled by an 1852 painting named ''

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama '' Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends u ...

'' and its attention to detail. He remarked, "I thought, my work is shoddy compared to those artists. I was just astonished. At that point, it became clear to me. Our animation style could not go on as before." At the time

Katsuya Kondō is a Japanese manga artist, character designer In visual arts, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of ...

, Miyazaki's colleague, had been the animation director of '' House Hunting'' (2006), a 12-minute short film made for screening at the Ghibli Museum. The short used solid and simple lines, and largely used hand-drawn animation. During the production of the short, Kondō had discussed the possibility of producing a feature-length film like this. Kondō accepted an offer to work on the next Studio Ghibli feature film soon after completing the short, identifying an opportunity to progress the ideas behind ''House Hunting'' with more consideration to story. Production of ''Ponyo'' began in May 2006. Kondō was given the role of animation supervisor, and worked closely with Miyazaki in outlining a set of goals that defined the direction of the project, including the use of

traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

throughout production. Borrowing from Kondō's experience in animating ''House Hunting'', ''Ponyo'' would use solid and simple lines; in isolating basic animation elements, the film would aim to demonstrate the advantages of hand drawn animation through the depiction of motion that cannot be reproduced in any other medium. An example of the simple style is when Miyazaki painted a picture of Ponyo riding on a flock of fish, called "Ponyo is Here", which was inspired by him listening to ''

Ride of the Valkyries The "Ride of the Valkyries" (german: Walkürenritt Ritt der Walküren, links=no) refers to the beginning of act 3 of '' Die Walküre'', the second of the four operas constituting Richard Wagner's '' Der Ring des Nibelungen''. As a separate pie ...

'' while writing a letter to his staff about going with a more elemental style. This would later become a scene in the film. In normal productions, animating a sailing

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

would usually involve drawing one cel and sliding it across the frame, which would fix it in a predefined perspective and direction. Miyazaki, however, wanted the ships that appeared in ''Ponyo'' to be drawn frame-by-frame. A few previous Studio Ghibli films used computer-generated imagery (CGI), the earliest being ''

Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida ...

'' (1997). For the production of ''Ponyo'' however, the computer graphics section at the studio was closed to prioritize hand-drawn animation. Some elements of the film were inspired by Richard Wagner's opera ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...

''. Ponyo's birth name, Brunhilde, is a deliberate reference to the eldest of the nine legendary Valkyrie and Wagner's Brünnhilde. The music also makes reference to Wagner's opera. The character of Sōsuke is based on Miyazaki's son Gorō Miyazaki when he was five. Miyazaki wanted his next film to be ''Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea 2'', but producer Toshio Suzuki convinced him to make ''

The Wind Rises is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and KDDI. It was rele ...

'' instead.

Music

''Ponyo''s eponymous theme song, " Gake no Ue no Ponyo", was released ahead of the film on December 5, 2007, performed by

Fujioka Fujimaki is a Japanese folk band, created from two members of the 1970s novelty group , and . They are best known for their collaboration with the eight-year-old singer Nozomi Ōhashi for the theme song of the Studio Ghibli film ''Ponyo''. Biography ...

(a duo consisting of Takaaki Fujioka and Naoya Fujimaki who are known for their underground band ''Marichans'' from the 1970s) and eight-year-old Nozomi Ōhashi. It entered the top 100 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

Weekly Charts on July 14, then rose to 24th on July 21, then 6th on July 28, and after the release of the film it ranked 3rd on August 4. By the end of 2008, it was ranked as the 14th highest selling single on the Oricon Yearly Charts. Ōhashi was also the youngest participant in the

59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen The , referred to from hereon as "Kōhaku", was aired on December 31, 2008 from NHK Hall in Japan. The music show on New Year's Eve is broadcast on both television and radio, and divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing te ...

, beating Cute's

Mai Hagiwara is a former Japanese singer and actress. At age 6, she auditioned for Hello! Project Kids in 2002 and later became part of Cute, a Japanese idol girl group associated with Hello! Project. Career 2002–2005: Hello! Project Kids, 4Kids In 2 ...

's record at age 11. Afterward, Ōhashi announced her unit with Fujioka Fujimaki was disbanding. An English-translated pop version of the theme was recorded by Frankie Jonas and Noah Cyrus, the voices of Sōsuke and Ponyo in the North American dub, to tie in with the film's English release. The theme plays over the second half of the English version's closing credits; the first half is merely a translated version of the theme rather than remix. The film score of ''Ponyo'' was composed by

Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He is also known for his piano scores. Hisaishi's music has been known to explore ...

, Miyazaki's regular collaborator. The score album, published on compact disc in Japan by

Tokuma Japan Communications is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, m ...

, in South Korea by Pony Canyon Korea and throughout Europe by Germany-based label Colosseum, received a great deal of press in the West, including positive reviews from several veteran film music reviewers.

Distribution

Japan

The film was released by

on July 19, 2008, in theatres across Japan on 481 screens—a record for a domestic film. As it had beaten '' Pokémon: Giratina & the Sky Warrior'' (which had opened on the same day). It grossed ¥10 billion ($91 million) in its first month of release, and a total of ¥15.0 billion ($153.1 million) as of November 9, 2008. Tokyo Anime Fair chose ''Ponyo'' as Animation of the Year of 2008, as revealed in a press release by Anime News Network.

International

''Ponyo'' was released in the U.S. and Canada on August 15, 2009 by

and

, opening at a wide release at 927 theaters across America, which is by far the widest release for a Studio Ghibli film ever in the U.S, as compared to other Miyazaki films (''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...

'' opened in 26 theaters, '' Howl's Moving Castle'' opened in 36 theaters, and ''

'' opened in 38 theaters). The film's English dub was directed by

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios ...

Brad Lewis Bradford Clark Lewis (born April 29, 1958) is an American film producer, animation director, and politician. He produced ''Antz'', the Oscar-winning ''Ratatouille,'' and '' How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World''. He also co-directed ''Cars ...

and

Peter Sohn Peter Sohn (born October 18, 1977) is an American animator, voice actor, storyboard artist, and film director. He is known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios as the director of 2015's ''The Good Dinosaur''. He has also been the voice of Emil ...

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

and produced by Frank Marshall,

, John Lasseter, Steve Alpert, and Kathleen Kennedy; the English script was written by

Melissa Mathison Melissa Marie Mathison (June 3, 1950 – November 4, 2015) was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement. She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films ''The Black Stallion'' ...

. In July 2009, there were multiple pre-screenings of the film in California. Miyazaki traveled to America to promote this film by speaking at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and the

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, an ...

released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on March 2, 2010, as the first film produced by Ghibli or directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata to be released on Blu-ray in America.

GKIDS GKIDS is an American film distributor based in New York with, according to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS releases critically acclaimed, mostly hand-drawn, international films—such as the works o ...

re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17, 2017 under a new deal with Studio Ghibli. Ponyo was released in Southeast Asia on January 1, 2009. The film was re-released from March 25 to 28, 2018 for its 10th anniversary.

Reception

Box office

On its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, it made $3,585,852 on 927 screens, which is a per screen average of $3,868. It also opened at number nine at the United States and Canada box office. The film made a total of $15,743,471 in the United States and Canada and $187,461,411 in other countries for a worldwide total of $203,204,882. It was released on DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

, as well as a DVD/Plush Toy pack, on March 2, 2010.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has a 91% "Certified Fresh" rating, based on 172 reviews with an average score of 7.61/10, stating "While not Miyazaki's best film, ''Ponyo'' is a visually stunning fairy tale that's a sweetly poetic treat for children and Miyazaki fans of all ages." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 86 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...

'' gave the film four out of five stars, and praised the film's simple thematic elements and its visual scheme, and compared the film to Miyazaki's classic animation ''

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the story o ...

''. ''Anime Diet'' cited the quality of the translation, noting, "The story and the core of the film was communicated more than adequately through the professional dub and it did not get in the way of the sheer delight and joy that Miyazaki wanted to convey." Citing "slight pacing problems," it gave ''Ponyo'' a rating of 88%. Critics at the Venice International Film Festival generally had high praise. Wendy Ide of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' said ''Ponyo'' "is as chaotic and exuberant as a story told by a hyperactive toddler," and gave it 4 stars out of 5. Roger Ebert of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' gave the film four out of four stars, stating that, "There is a word to describe ''Ponyo'', and that word is magical. This poetic, visually breathtaking work by the greatest of all animators has such deep charm that adults and children will both be touched. It's wonderful and never even seems to try: It unfolds fantastically."

Awards

The film was rated #2 on

's list of "2008 Hit Products in Japan", after the Wii console. ''Ponyo'' was an entrant in the 65th Venice International Film Festival. It received a special mention in the

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Future Film Festival, for "the high artistic and expressive quality of animation able to give form to wonderful imagination of the worldwide cinema master". In 2009, ''Ponyo'' won five awards at the 8th annual

Tokyo Anime Award The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after th ...

s. The awards included "Anime of the year" and "Best domestic feature". Miyazaki received the award for best director and best original story, and Noboru Yoshida received the award for best art direction.'Ponyo' tops anime awards
Schilling, Mark, Variety (February 20, 2009) The film won the awards for Animation of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Music at the

32nd Japan Academy Prize The ceremony was held by the ''Japan Academy Film Prize, Japan Academy Prize'' Association to honor its selection of the best films of 2008 on February 20, 2009. Nippon Television, NTV broadcast the event, which took place at the Grand Prince Hot ...

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * Kanazawa, Makoto (2008). "Interview with Hayao Miyazaki" special feature. ''Ponyo'' (Blu-ray). StudioCanal. Interview on June 30, 2008. * * Tsuchiya, Toshio (2008). "Interview with Toshio Suzuki" special feature. ''Ponyo'' (Blu-ray). StudioCanal.

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

"Dai2" interview on May 21, 2008.

External links

*
Official press kit
at Wild Bunch International Sales * * * * * * * {{Authority control 2008 fantasy films 2000s Japanese-language films 2008 anime films 2008 films Animated films about fish Anime and manga based on fairy tales Anime with original screenplays 2000s children's animated films 2000s children's fantasy films Fictional fish Fictional goldfish Films about families Animated films about magic Films about mermaids Films about shapeshifting Films based on The Little Mermaid Films directed by Hayao Miyazaki Nippon TV films Films scored by Joe Hisaishi Films set in Fukuyama Films set in Japan Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year winners Japanese animated fantasy films Studio Ghibli animated films Toho animated films 2000s English-language films