Ponyo On A Cliff By The Sea

One word to describe Ponyo: Trippy. Ponyo is one trippy animation, and don't you forget that. It's almost as if Miyazaki ordered his creative team to let their imaginations run wild. Ponyo is somewhat random, strange and somewhat disjointed enough to give the logically-minded a brain fart, yet is able to be cheerful and pleasing at the same time.

Ponyo seems somewhat different from Miyazaki's usual environmentalist themes, since Ponyo is a celebration of the might of the ocean, and a little introduction to what's been lost in the oceans even before the advent of humans. As the human world is slowly overcome by the ocean due to Ponyo's unleashing of strange and powerful forces in the pursuit of humanity and true love, the creatures previously known only as fossils reappeared. They were even given a little introduction by the characters.

I think Ponyo is an interesting mix between the Little Mermaid, with a spot of Howl's Moving Castle, Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, along with a touch of Ghibli'esque art. In fact, the art is slightly unusual in the extensive use of color pencils in the backdrops. As is typical in the fantasy-themed Ghibli films, the changes in the peoples' environments and the random strangeness of unusual events seems to be taken pretty well by the others. The lack of tragedy and true villians also leaves the film up to interpretation as to its meaning and intention.

Overall, I'd say this film was an audiovisual feast, with Joe Hisaishi behind the music and Miyazaki at the helm again. The film does not fail to disappoint, and has a nice healthy 9/10.

As a side note, Fujimoto called Ponyo "Brunhilde", which also happens to be the name of the valkyrie that was trapped in an eternal sleep within a ring of fire till a suitable human was brave enough to enter the said ring and thus rescue her...