Let us dispense with the formalities up front. Ponyo, the latest from Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki, is a film that deserves to be seen. More importantly, it is a film you deserve to see. From the very first moments of the dialog-free prologue, you’ll know you’re witnessing great art and that you’ll be leaving the theater very happy.
A straight-up description of Ponyo is difficult because while on one hand it is fairy-tale simple in its broad strokes, it is also hallucinogenic in its disinterest in tethering itself to the constraints of our real world. The fairy tale simplicity, first. Ponyo (Noah Cyrus) and Sosuke (Frank Jonas—yes the leads here could cast an episode of “Disney Channel: The Younger Sibling”) love each other but they’re from opposite sides of the tracks. They wish to be together, but in doing so they introduce disharmony into their worlds; disharmony that can only be overcome through pure love and an acceptance of differences completely lacking in cynicism.
Now for the hallucinogenic stuff. Ponyo is a magical fish-like creature. Her father is a formerly human alchemist, Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), who lives on a submarine and is on a mission to to return the ocean to its primordial state, untainted by humans. Ponyo’s mother is a sea goddess, Gran Mamare (Cate Blanchett), a being of ephemera and magic. Sosuke, though, is a normal 5-year-old boy living on in a cliff house with his mother (Lisa/Tina Fey) and his father (Matt Damon), who is often out to see on his fishing boat. Sosuke and Ponyo meet when he finds her stuck in a bottle and thinks she’s a goldfish (Ponyo is a name he gives her). Their love is immediate and total, but unlike the romantic love of your typical fairy tale, this is the unemcumbered devotion of children for a new best friend or adored sibling.