Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

Ever since I stumbled upon his 1989 film, “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, on television many years ago, Hayao Miyazaki has been a favorite director of mine. At the time I didn’t really understand what it was or where it came from, but I did recognize that what I was seeing was something truly extraordinary. Gorgeous animation with a peaceful, charming setting whose thoughtful serenity poised itself as a stark contrast to anything I had ever seen in an animated movie before. Now Disney has brought over Miyazaki’s latest film, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” (or just “Ponyo”), for Western audiences to enjoy.


The titular character of Ponyo is a curiously human-headed goldfish, whom after straying from her seemingly human father’s undersea hideout meets a small boy named Sosuke who places her in a bucket of water and slowly wins her friendship while introducing her to life on the surface. Without giving away too much, a series of events causes Ponyo to begin to yearn to be human and sets in motion some funky disturbances that could upset the delicate balance of nature. Along the way we meet Sosuke’s mother, Lisa, whose independent spirit seems to provide the film with it’s requisite strong-headed female Miyazaki character. Her strained relationship with Sosuke’s oft-absent father seems to be a conscious reflection of Miyazaki’s own family life (Sosuke being based on Miyazaki’s own son) in which he would would often not be home while he worked night-and-day on his films.


The most striking aspect of Ponyo is that it is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. For a studio so well known for the richness of it’s animation, it’s amazing to see that even now the wonderful imagery produced by Studio Ghibli still has the capacity to captivate and mesmerize. Even days after the viewing, scenes of Ponyo running atop ever-swelling waves (and I say that literally) of fish or sprouting frog-like appendages remain etched into my mind.


This visual splendor seems to be enhanced, somewhat unexpectedly, by a simplification of the art in comparison to what one usually expects from Miyazaki’s animation. The extremely detailed backgrounds have been replaced by a more impressionistic style, more closely invoking child-like crayon drawings. This doesn’t reduce the breath-taking effect of the film’s backgrounds, and indeed, my favorite scenery in the film was of Ponyo’s father’s claustrophobic hideout with an assortment of magical potions and gadgets strewn about. The character animation itself has also been given an overhaul, with a reduced emphasis on shading and broader outlines, adding to the effect. The overall look has a warmth to it which the more detailed of Miyazaki’s films lack.


These visuals provide the beginning of the film with an amazing sense of discovery, as we are slowly introduced to the magical underwater world of Ponyo and to Sosuke’s life on the surface. Simply seeing the world unfold before my eyes and trying to put it together in my head while these amazing things were happening on screen made this the most enjoyable portion of the movie to me. Ponyo certainly begins with a bang. The pace slows down somewhat later in the film when Sosuke and Ponyo set out on an adventure of their own. While this portion of the movie is meant to be more laid-back and contemplative, I missed the more exciting pace of the former part of the film. I thought the ending itself is infused with a sense of deus ex machina, though not quite as jarring as in “Howl’s Moving Castle”.


For it’s theatrical release, Disney is presenting Ponyo with an English dub. While I usually find myself preferring the original language for whatever movie I see, I was really impressed with the voicework on display for “Ponyo”. While nuances are inevitably lost in translation, it was good to see a large studio like Disney embracing the origins of the film by preserving Japanese honorifics in the dub. One of my pet peeves in animation is when obviously adult voice actors are hired to do voices for children, so I was also happy to see actual child actors utilized for the parts of Sosuke and Ponyo. Most importantly, however, Liam Neeson is awesome as Fujimoto. It was a shame not to see him on-screen more often, as his strange mannerisms made him my favorite character in the whole film and Neeson’s commanding voice made him all the more enjoyable to observe.


Though it lags somewhat towards the end, there is enough charm, splendor and beauty in Ponyo to more than justify a viewing and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It is a great film for children, families and people who just love wonderful animation.