For those of you who are still unaware of who Hayao Miyazaki is, here is a brief introduction. Mr. Hayao Miyazaki is the proud founder of Studio Ghibli, a world renowned anime studio that has a very long history of producing some of the best works of animation in the world. Among his amazing works of art include Princess Mononoke, Graves of Fire files, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro (Totoro later became the official mascot of the studio), Spirited Away (won an Oscar in 2003 for best animated features), The Cat Returns, Howl’s Moving Castle and recently, Gendo Senki ( an anime version of the fantasy novel Earthsea). He is currently 67 years old and his health is not very good and this new movie, produced very recently by the studio is purported to be the last movie directed by this legendary director.
Warning: spoiler ahead, continue reading at your own risk.
What is this story all about? This story is said to be inspired by ” Little Mermaid”, the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson. Ponyo is a cute little fish that looks very much like a goldfish, except that she has fiery red hair and the face of a little girl. She is the offspring of a man, who is most probably a marine biologist who grew tired of human being’s endless pollution, decided to go and live out in the open seas and fell in love with the goddess of the sea. Being part deity, part fish, she gave birth to a million little red fish with Ponyo being the eldest and probably the brightest among the million siblings that she has.
One day, out of curiosity, she hijacked a couple of jelly fish and head out to explore the lands above. As she came very close to the beach, she had to flee from a ship and ended up being trapped in a net with her big red head stuck in an empty jar. She is later saved by a cute little boy named Sosuke who lives with her mother in a cute little house on top of a cliff overlooking the sea. Thus, began a beautiful friendship between a boy and a fish which tragically ended after just one day when her father later kidnapped her back to the sea with the help of a swarm of wave-like creatures. Sosuke was obviously devastated but kept hoping that one day Ponyo would return to him and they would be best friends forever (BFF).
Ponyo after returning to her underwater home gets grounded in an almost cruel way, being trapped inside a small little bubble that barely fits her huge read head. It turns out that since Ponyo already had magical blood inherited from her mother, she is able to grow hands and legs after drinking a drop of Sosuke’s blood (Sosuke got a cute little cut while trying to break open the jar that trapped poor little Ponyo). She is more than determined to go to the island and see cute little Sosuke again. While trying to escape his father’s huge underwater castle, she stumbled upon her father’s secret safe and got sucked into a pool filled with a very potent elixir, the source of everything magic in the deep blue sea. With this elixir, she transformed into a cute little girl with huge read hair while the rest of her million siblings turned into gigantic waves that when combined together turned into tsunami and later drowned the whole island.
Her father initially reluctant was later coaxed by her mother into accepting Ponyo’s choice of a man and respected her decision to live on the lands above. However, in true fairy tales tradition, Sosuke must first pass the ultimate test of love: he must accept Ponyo in her truest form, a fish with a huge read head and no matter what happens he must continue loving her unconditionally. If he happens to fail by full moon, the whole island will remained drowned forever and Ponyo will turn to bubbles and return to the sea. And in true fairy tales fashion, Sosuke passed the test with flying colours but now it’s Ponyo’s turn to make a scarifice. In order for her to live on land and become Sosuke’s BFF, she must scarifice all her magical powers and she will not be able to return to the seas. And again, to complete the whole fairy tale theme, in order for her to turn into a cute little girl again, Sosuke must kiss her fish mouth but to give it a twist, Ponyo took the first step to kiss her man instead of the other way around. From that day, they became the best BFF ever and lived happily ever after.
So, the verdict: I love this movie as much as I love any other Ghibli’s animation, just like I loved My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service but not as much as I loved Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa or even The Cat Returns. I will never ever hate this movie as much as I hated Gendo Senki, which somehow left a huge black spot on the rather illustrious history of this animation studio. That translates as an everage of 3.5 over 5 for being really cute (it is clearly intended for a very young crowd) with a sensible and rather enjoyable storyline (which would have made more sense if I manage to get a DVD with better subtitles), cute and simple back to basics, old school 2D animation which tells a story that moves you in a way that no 3D animation can, but not as breathtaking as his previous movies, the two most notable movies in my personal opinion being Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away (my favorite Ghibli movie of all times).
So there you go. If you’re looking for a movie to remind you of the first love you have in your kindergarten days, this is definitely the movie for you. A very beautiful love story that tells us how innocent and pure love can be when you put SEX aside for once and really care for another human being despite whatever shortcomings they may have. That’s true love.
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