Written by: Hayao Miyazaki (I promise I’m not doing this on purpose, lol)
Running time: 101 minutes
So this movie begins with Brunhilde (I didn’t even know this was her real name lmao, thanks Google!) sneaking off on the back of a jellyfish while she and her siblings are on an outing with their father. Brunhilde gets trapped in a glass jar after an incident and drifts to the shore of a small town where she is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sōsuke.
Sōsuke breaks Brunhilde out of the jar and put her in a bucket of water. He renames her Ponyo, takes her to his school and tries to hide her. Unfortunately, Ponyo’s dad finds her and takes her back home. Ponyo and her dad, Fujimoto have an argument during which she declares her desire to be known as ‘Ponyo’ and to become human.
Her dad refuses, but with her magic and Sōsuke’s blood (hmm…), she is able to grow “legs” and “arms” and starts changing into a human.
Fujimoto forcibly changes her back into her true form and leaves to speak to Ponyo’s mother. While he is away, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, escapes and mistakenly uses Fujimoto’s magic potion to make herself fully human (at least, I think it was a mistake).
Fujimoto’s potion causes an imbalance, resulting in a tsunami in the small town. Ponyo goes back to Sōsuke and stays with him and his mother while they wait out the storm.
Sōsuke’s mum, Lisa, leaves after the kids have been fed to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works. She leaves Sōsuke in charge and promises to return home as soon as possible, but she obviously doesn’t.
Meanwhile, Fujimoto’s wife declares, after their little chit-chat, that if Sōsuke can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and then the order of the world will be restored. We follow Sōsuke and Ponyo as they search for Lisa and as Sōsuke is tested at the end.
This movie was so cute. It was so engaging and like the other characters, I wanted to see Sōsuke pass the test. The most concerning thing about the movie though was Sōsuke and Ponyo’s age. They were both five. Why were they letting two five-year-old kids make big decisions by themselves? lmao. I had so many questions after I finished the movie. It also definitely took me some time to warm up to Ponyo’s character.
My favourite scene was when Sōsuke and his very upset mother were communicating with his dad in Morse code (I’ve been trying to learn it for some time now). That scene was just so hilarious.
Oh and the food in this looked so good. Man, I wanted to try it out myself. I gave this 8/10. I really liked it.
Have you seen this Studio Ghibli movie? What was your favourite scene? Let’s chat about it in the comments.
xo,
Elle.
The Human Curveball 