Okay, in case you couldn’t tell from that opening spiel, I loved this movie. I adored this movie. I got drunk on this movie. You would never believe that two hours on a crowded plane flight could go by so fast. Good god, that was euphoric. Ponyo is a blast of explosive, unstoppable giddiness that rushes over you with the clamoring, chaotic excitability of the rollicking ocean that serves as its setpiece. It’s a tsumani of childlike wonder that throws caution to the wind and runs full-tilt ahead with the sea breeze spraying foam in its face, laughing like a sugar rush all the way and pulling you along with grubby, roly-poly hands. It is sheer, concentrated joy, unfiltered and unrestrained, bursting with endless life and cacophonous glee, almost smothering in its radiance at times. There was a point about halfway through this movie where I literally had to start massaging my cheeks mid-scene, because I had been grinning so goddamn hard that my jaw was actually hurting like hell. And there was still an entire second half left that was just as insatiable. It’s entirely too much of a good thing, and I’m so fucking happy for every single second of it.
The plot, for what it’s worth, is one of Studio Ghibli’s most bizarre storylines yet, and that’s saying a hell of a lot. Set in a seaside, mountainous village, our protagonist Sosuke is a five-year-old boy with the world in his hands and the wind at his heels. And whimsy comes calling for him in the form of Ponyo, who at first appears to be an odd goldfish with a human face, but is quickly revealed to be the daughter of an aquatic mage (voiced by Liam Neeson, of all things) who keeps the natural world in balance from his undersea palace. He means well, but he’s also overprotective and inflexible, and he’s determined to keep his daughter under the sea lest she upset the balance and cause the end of the world. But because Ponyo is about as emotionally reasonable as any five-year-old, she pulls away from him in favor of continuing life on land and her instantly wonderful friendship/romance with Sosuke. And the end result of that childish rebelliousness does, in fact, end up throwing the world out of balance, but it doesn’t matter, because as long as she and Sosuke get to be together, they can whether any storm that blows their way.
In fact, that’s the driving ethos of the entire film; throwing caution to the wind and just doing what makes you happy. Ponyo and Sosuke’s relationship is the kind of simple, uncomplicated love that you only really get to experience when you’re as young and uncomplicated as they are. They don’t need any justifications or rationalizations for their bond; they just make each other extremely fucking happy, and that’s all that matters. Their desire to be together literally ends up causing a Biblical-level apocalypse, but it’s a joyful, buoyant apocalypse, showcasing a world that doesn’t fall apart at all but only changes and evolves to become even more wonderful than it once was. Liam Neeson is the stuffy adult in the room prattling on about the importance of keeping the balance and how Ponyo should “respect her father”, while Ponyo and Sosuke are the kids without a care in the world just doing what makes them happy, because fuck it, it makes them happy, and that means it’s worth doing.
And as strange as it sounds to say in the face of that choice coming very close to ending the world, it results in the single most exuberant, radiant, explosively positive fictional experience I’ve ever come across, even possibly topping Chuunibyou in terms of feel-good comfort food. Miyazaki has always been a master of showcasing childlike mindsets in his films, writing stories that feel like they come from the perspective of children, but Ponyo is perhaps the most distilled essence of that idea ever, even more so than My Neighbor Totoro. It’s a story that runs on the simple, childlike id of pursuing what makes you feel good and letting everything else fall by the wayside. Nothing gets in the way of good times, not overbearing parents, not difficult tests, and sure as hell not the end of the world. It’s just moment after moment, scene after scene of sheer, unbridled happiness, spilling out in chaotic spirals just as riveting and unflappably confident as a five-year-old’s imagination. It’s a cavalcade of utterly adorable sequences and setpieces, taking whatever situation the characters find themselves in and spinning them into empathic gold. And when things really get going with the end of the world stuff, the resulting typhoon of whimsy is so stunning and vibrant that it might just knock your fillings loose if you aren’t paying attention.
And it’s so. Fucking. Delightful. It’s the kind of film that leaves your jaw agape almost constantly, in awe of the feelings it’s able to so consistently inspire in you. I can’t remember the last time I felt this overwhelmed by happiness, this consistently giddy at every single moment of this masterpiece. Ponyo and Sosuke’s chemistry is instantly magical, and every single second they spend goofing off together made my cheeks grow wider and wider until, well, like I said in the opening paragraph, thank your lucky stars I still have a jaw intact at this point. You almost feel like this is their story, one they’re telling together and making up as it goes along, seeing what daredevil insanity they can whip up next. What new ways can they find to make each other laugh? What new ways can they find to make each other smile? And the side characters are just as winning; the old ladies at a retirement home who play an unexpected role in the climax, Ponyo’s fish sisters who provide aid to her along the way with perfect unity, hell, even Liam Neeson as the nominal villain is an effortlessly lovable dope who just wants to be a good dad, even if he has no idea how. And on the subject of parents, Sosuke’s mom is utterly fucking amazing and I want to marry her immediately. Seriously, every single moment this badass, loving, take-no-shit reckless driver of the century is on screen throws me right back to when I was a kid and saw my parents as these unstoppably radiant forces who could do anything and nothing would stand in their way, not even the oncoming Biblical floods. I don’t even have a favorite anime mom list yet, but she has already handily topped the competition.
And the animation. Sweet buttery fucksticks, the animation. This isn’t just at the same godly tier we’ve come to expect from Ghibli films, this breaks the dimensional barrier of what animation is even capable of. Every second is moving, every motion is completely fluid, every frame has a million different active pieces that bring this world to stunning, enchanted life. The color palette of cheery pastels and poppy vivids somehow captures childhood with more alacrity than any single other aspect of anything I’ve ever seen. And when the sea magic starts taking over, the resulting spectacle of rising tides and rushing fishes and a world turned upside down took my goddamn breath away with shock. None of this should be possible. There’s no way this was all storyboarded, colored, inked, and finished by human hands. There’s no way this level of constant fluidity, expressivity, and volume could exist in a rational world. But this isn’t a rational world, after all; this is Ponyo, and the animation is just as unchained, exhubarent, ebullient, majestic, colossal, and endlessly triumphant as the characters and story it brings to life.
That, in the end, is the true beauty of Ponyo. It’s a film of pure, radical joy, refusing to let a single scrap of darkness or decay in. It is light personified, and that light is so blisteringly bright that it’s all but impossible to handle. It is a full-throated defense of the importance of being happy and the power of positive energy, and it proves that message by leaving me so goddamn happy that I feel I could burst from it all. Ponyo is nothing short of a masterpiece, one of Studio Ghibli’s best films and one of my new all-time favorite anime experiences ever.
