Ponyo

Ponyo
Japanese theatrical poster
Directed by	Hayao Miyazaki
Written by	Hayao Miyazaki
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki
Starring	Japanese version: Yuria Nara Hiroki Doi Tomoko Yamaguchi George Tokoro Kazushige Nagashima English version: Cate Blanchett Noah Cyrus Matt Damon Frankie Jonas Tina Fey Liam Neeson Laraine Newman Madison Davenport Cloris Leachman Betty White Lily Tomlin
Cinematography	Atsushi Okui
Edited by	Takeshi Seyama
Music by	Joe Hisaishi
Production companies	Studio Ghibli The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Distributed by	Toho JPN Walt Disney Pictures U.S. Optimum Releasing U.K. Madman Entertainment AU
Release dates	Japan: July 19, 2008 United States & Canada: August 14, 2009 Australia: August 27, 2009 United Kingdom: February 5, 2010
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥ 3.4 billion (US$ 34 million)
Box office	¥ 15 billion (approx.) (US$ $164,565,997 Japan Only)

Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Gake no Ue no Ponyo, literally "Ponyo on the Cliff") is a Template:Fy Japanese animated film by Studio Ghibli, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is Miyazaki's eighth film for Ghibli, and his tenth overall. The plot centers on a goldfish named Ponyo who befriends a five-year-old human boy Sōsuke and wants to become a human girl.

The film has won several awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. It was released in Japan on July 19, 2008 and August 14, 2009 in the US and Canada, where it reached #9 in the box office charts for its opening weekend.

Plot

The plot is centered on a fish girl who lives in an aquarium in her father's underwater castle with numerous smaller sisters. When her father takes her and her siblings on an outing in his four-flippered submarine, she is driven by a desire to see even more of the world and swims away. She ends up stranded on the shore of a small fishing town, and is rescued by Sōsuke, a five year old boy who lives on a cliff by the sea. After taking a great liking to her, Sōsuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her forever. Meanwhile, her father, Fujimoto, is looking for his daughter, upset that she ran away. He calls his wave spirits to return Ponyo to him. Sōsuke is heartbroken by this, and goes home with his mother, Lisa (or "Risa" in some translations), who tries to cheer him up, but to no avail. Ponyo and her father have a confrontation, where Ponyo refuses to let her father call her "Brünnhilde". She declares her name to be Ponyo, and voices her desire to become human because she has started to fall in love with Sōsuke. Her father silences her with difficulty and goes to summon Ponyo's mother. Meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father, and uses his magic to make herself human. This causes an imbalance in the world, which in turn results in a huge storm. Riding on the waves of the storm, Ponyo goes back to visit Sōsuke. Lisa, Sōsuke, and Ponyo stay the night at Sōsuke's house, hoping the storm will be over, whereupon Lisa leaves the house to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works.

Granmammare, Ponyo's mother, arrives at Fujimoto's submarine. Fujimoto notices the moon has come out of its orbit and the satellites are falling like shooting stars. Granmammare declares that if Sōsuke and Ponyo pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and the world order will be restored. Sōsuke and Ponyo wake up to find that most of the land around where the house has been covered by the ocean. Lisa has not come home yet, so with the help of Ponyo's magic, they make Sōsuke's toy boat life-size and set out to find Lisa. While travelling they see ancient extinct fish swimming, such as the Gogonasus and Licosus. After landing and finding Lisa's empty car, Ponyo and Sōsuke go through a tunnel. There Ponyo loses her human form and resumes the form of a fish. Sōsuke and Ponyo are taken by Fujimoto into the ocean and down to the protected nursing home where they're reunited with Lisa and meet Granmammare, both of whom had just had a long private conversation. Granmammare asks Sōsuke if he can love Ponyo even if she is a fish or mermaid. Sōsuke replies that he loves Ponyo in all forms. Granmammare then allows Ponyo to become human once Ponyo kisses Sōsuke on the surface.

Cast

• Yuria Nara (Noah Cyrus in the English adaption) as Ponyo, the daughter of Fujimoto and Granmammare.
• Hiroki Doi (Frankie Jonas in the English adaption)) as Sōsuke, a five-year-old attendant of Himawari Nursery School ("Himawari" is the Japanese word for sunflower).
• Tomoko Yamaguchi (Tina Fey in the English adaption)) as Lisa, Sōsuke's mother.
• Kazushige Nagashima (Matt Damon in the English adaption) as Kōichi, Sōsuke's father.
• George Tokoro (Liam Neeson in the English adaption) as Fujimoto, Ponyo's father.
  • Tokoro also voices the role of Suigyo, a goblin controlled by Fujimoto.
• Yūki Amami (Cate Blanchett in the English adaption)) as Granmammare, Ponyo's mother.
• Akiko Yano as Ponyo's younger sisters.
• Kazuko Yoshiyuki (Lily Tomlin in the English adaption) as Toki, a wheelchair-bound housekeeper of the Himawari Nursery School.
• Tomoko Naraoka (Betty White in the English adaption) as Yoshie, a housekeeper of the Himawari House. Like Toki, she is also wheelchair-bound.
• Tokie Hidari (Cloris Leachman in the English adaption) as Noriko, a housekeeper of the Himawari Nursery School who does numerous things with Yoshie. She was formely a career woman in her younger days.
• Rumi Hiiragi as The Young Mother, who meets Ponyo and Sōsuke during their journey to find Sōsuke's mother.
• Shinichi Hatori (Kurt Knutsson in the English adaption) as The Announcer, a television news reporter who relays information about the hurricane.
• Emi Hiraoka (Jenessa Rose in the English adaption) as Kumiko, an attendant of Himawari Nursery School and a friend of Sōsuke.
• Nozomi Ōhashi as Karen, an attendant of Himawari Nursery School.

Additional voices in the Japanese version of the film are provided by Akiko Takeguchi, Yoshie Yamamoto, Tomie Kataoka, Mutsumi Sasaki, Michiko Yamamoto, Eiko Kanazawa, Shirō Saitō, Akihiko Ishizumi, Keiko Tsukamoto, Ikuko Yamamoto and Yūsuke Tezuka. Additional voices in the English version are provided by Carlos Alazraqui, Bob Bergen, Jennifer Darling, Crispin Freeman, Jess Harnell, Danny Mann, Mona Marshall, Laraine Newman and Colleen O'Shaughnessey.

Production

Production on Ponyo started October 2006.

Miyazaki was intimately involved with the hand-drawn animation in Ponyo. He preferred to draw the sea and waves himself, and enjoyed experimenting with how to express this important part of the film. This level of detailed drawing resulted in 170,000 separate images—a record for a Miyazaki film.

Ponyo's name is an onomatopoeia, based on Miyazaki's idea of what a "soft, squishy softness" sounds like when touched.

The seaside village where the story takes place is inspired by Tomonoura, a real town in Setonaikai National Park in Japan, where Miyazaki stayed in 2005. Some of the setting and story was affected by Wagner's Die Walküre. The character of Sōsuke is based on Miyazaki's son Gorō Miyazaki when he was five. Sōsuke's name is taken from the hero in the famous novel The Gate.

The name of the ship on which Sōsuke's father works is Koganeimaru, a reference to Studio Ghibli's location in Koganei, Tokyo. Maru (丸) is a common ending for ship names. It literally means circle.

Distribution

Japan

The film was released by Toho on July 19, 2008, in theatres across Japan on 481 screens—a record for a domestic film. 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.

North America

File:Poster ponyo us.jpg

American movie poster for Ponyo

Ponyo was released in the U.S. and Canada on August 14, 2009, 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 opened in 26 theaters, Howl's Moving Castle opened in 36 theaters, and Princess Mononoke opened in 38 theaters).

The film is produced by Frank Marshall, Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Steve Alpert and Kathleen Kennedy.

In July 2009 there were multiple pre-screenings of the movie in California. Miyazaki traveled to America to promote this movie by speaking at the University of California, Berkeley and the San Diego Comic-Con.

The film is rated G by the MPAA.

Soundtrack

Nozomi Ōhashi in January 2009.

Ponyo's theme song was released on December 5, 2007, performed by Fujioka Fujimaki (famous duo Takaaki Fujioka and Naoya Fujimaki) and eight year old Nozomi Ōhashi. It entered the top 100 on the Oricon 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 (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 participart in the 59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, beating ℃-ute's Hagiwara Mai's record at age 11. Afterwards, Ohashi announced that 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 English version's closing credits.

Reception

The film has received great critical acclaim. As of August 16, 2009, Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a "certified fresh" rating of 93%, based on 86 reviews (80 "Fresh"; 6 "Rotten"), with an average score of 7.7 and a Top Critics' score of 91%. The consensus is that "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 its opening weekend in North America it made $3,506,000 on 927 screens, which is a per screen average of $3,782. It also opened at number nine at the US box office.

The Japan Times 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.

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 on Times Online said Ponyo "is as chaotic and exuberant as a story told by a hyperactive toddler," and gave it 4 stars out of 5. Additionally, famed movie critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, the highest rank on his review scale, 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."

The movie was rated #2 on Dentsu's list of "2008 Hit Products in Japan", after the Wii console.

Awards

Ponyo was an entrant in the 65th Venice International Film Festival. It received a special mention in the Venice 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 Awards. 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.

The film won the awards for Animation of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Music at the 32nd Japan Academy Prize.

External links

• Official website
• Official US
• Template:Amg movie
• Ponyo at Metacritic
• Ponyo at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ponyo at Box Office Mojo
• Ponyo at IMDb