Ponyo [SteelBook] [Blu-ray]

Overview

Acclaimed anime master Hayao Miyazaki returns for his ninth animated feature with Ponyo, which deals with a friendship between a five-year-old boy and a goldfish princess who yearns to be human. The daughter of the king of the ocean, Ponyo is no ordinary goldfish -- she has all the magic of the sea at her disposal. But when five-year-old Sosuke befriends the spunky little fish near the seaside home he shares with his mother and father, a special connection sparks between the two children, and Ponyo becomes determined to become human. Transforming into a little girl, Ponyo shows up at Sosuke's doorstep, delighted to make herself at home with her new land-dwelling family. But having a magical fish princess walking around on dry land begins setting the mystical balance of the world off kilter, and even though the innocent love Ponyo feels for her dear friend is strong, it will take some help from the greatest powers in the ocean to make things right again.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/12/2020
UPC:	0826663208382
Original Release:	2008
Rating:	G
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	464

Special Features

Exclusive booklet; Feature-length Storyboards; Behind the Microphone; The Five Geniuses Who Created Ponyo; Interviews with Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki; Theme Song Press Conference; Music Video; Opening Event at Hibiya Scala-Za Theatre; 1080p High Definition; English SDH subtitles

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Noah Cyrus	Ponyo
Cate Blanchett	Gran Mamare
Matt Damon	Koichi
Tina Fey	Lisa
Frankie Jonas	Sosuke
Kurt Knutsson	The Newscaster
Betty White	Yoshie
Liam Neeson	Fujimoto
Janessa Rose	Kumiko
Lily Tomlin	Toki
Cloris Leachman	Noriko
Carlos Alazraqui	Additional Voices
Bob Bergen	Additional Voices
Johanna Braddy	Additional Voices
Marsha Clarke	Additional Voices
John Cygan	Additional Voices
Jennifer Darling	Additional Voices
Madison Davenport	Additional Voices
Courtnee Draper	Additional Voices
Crispin Freeman	Additional Voices
Jess Harnell	Additional Voices
Ella Dale Lewis	Additional Voices
Sherry Lynn	Additional Voices
Danny Mann	Additional Voices
Mona Marshall	Additional Voices
Mickie McGowan	Additional Voices
Laraine Newman	Additional Voices
Colleen O'Shaughnessey	Additional Voices
Jan Rabson	Additional Voices
Yuria Nara	Ponyo
Hiroki Doi	Sosuke
Tomoko Yamaguchi	Lisa,Voices
Kazushige Nagashima	Koichi
Yuki Amami	Granmammare
George Tokoro	Fujimoto
Jennessa Rose	Kumiko (English Version)
Hirohi Doi	Voices
Joji Tokoro	Voices
Joe Hisaishi	Composer

Technical Credits

Hayao Miyazaki

Melissa Mathison

Hayao Miyazaki	Director,Screenwriter
Toshio Suzuki	Producer
Koji Hoshino	Executive Producer
Kathleen Kennedy	Executive Producer
John Lasseter	Executive Producer
Frank Marshall	Executive Producer
Melissa Mathison	Screenwriter
Natalie Lyon	Casting
Shuji Inoue	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Hayao Miyazaki has an unmistakable vision when it comes to making movies. Unlike anything else in the realm of animated film -- including the fantastically innovative examples from Pixar -- his films are crazy, visceral, epic fairy tales about the burden of growing up and taking responsibility for your world. Some of his more complex works tackle even bigger themes, about humanity's ambivalence between beauty and destruction (especially in works like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind). But Miyazaki has also shown an aptitude for telling a different kind of story: tales that manifest in sweet, delightful, nearly conflict-free fables centering on small children, and usually cinematically narrated with the purity of a child's perception. He's hinted at this in many of his past efforts, but he hasn't constructed an entire movie this way since 1988's My Neighbor Totoro. That is, until 2009's Ponyo. A new, very different take on the premise of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Ponyo is about a precocious little fish named Brünnhilde, whose father just happens to be the flamboyant and sinewy king of the sea. Determined to reach the surface and explore new places, the aquatic princess makes a break for it, and happens to meet a five-year-old boy named Sosuke, who lives in a house overlooking the ocean in a tiny fishing village with his mother, Lisa, and his father, a fisherman who is often away. After rescuing his tiny friend from being stuck inside a discarded glass jar, Sosuke makes a strange, instant connection with the little goldfish, whom he names Ponyo. Ponyo's oddly human face soon shows that she loves her new best friend as well, but of course, her father cannot allow a magical princess fish to straddle the worlds of sea and land -- it upsets the mystical balance of the world, and begins to interfere with the tides and the moon. But the innocent love between Ponyo and Sosuke is too profound to restrain her, and she wills herself to transform into human form, first springing funny little feet that make her look like a chicken, and soon changing all the way into an adorable five-year-old girl, with hair the same red color that her iridescent scales used to be. A splendid, gentle adventure follows, as Ponyo's mother, a huge, ethereal sea goddess, weighs in on the issue to state that if the pure love of the two children is as strong as it seems, then Ponyo can be permanently granted a human form, thus restoring the earth's balance. The adorable children thenceforth engage in extremely brave, always cute antics, as they face the floods wrought by the sea storm that brought Ponyo to land in the first place. All along the way in this delightful fable, Miyazaki shows his incredible aptitude for understanding how children talk, move, and most importantly, think. That he's able to so deftly narrate in child-mind is so touching, it would almost be poignant -- if it weren't so resiliently uplifting and sweet. The movie also shows the usual Miyazaki brand of worldly divination. Everything in the story's environment shows the magical spark of life; even the ocean's waves are capable of opening a squinty eye to reveal their intent. For American audiences -- even those that aren't familiar with Miyazaki's style -- it's a movie with all the heart of Pixar's best and a giant dose of its own unique, rapturous charm, making it timeless enough for children and grown-ups alike.