Ponyo

i just have so. much. thoughts about this movie. it actually means the world to me. i saw it for the first time when i was very young, it’s one of the first movie i’ve ever watched at the cinema and i was actually playing sosuke and ponyo with my childhood best friend. so yeah it holds a huge sentimental value BUT without all of this i am still able to say that this is one of the most wonderful animated movie ever created and a criminally underrated ghibli. visually, this is one of the most beautiful cartoon ever made, not up to debate. i want to start this in depth review by saying that this movie speaks to a part that’s already lost for most people when they watch it, it speaks to this childlike sparkle. it is so meaningful to me probably because i saw it as a child and it helps me reminisce what it was back then, how it felt and how i felt. this movie really is so tender. ponyo’s character is at the same time endearing but fierce and stubborn toward her father. she refuses to let him tell her how her life is supposed to go, she wants to be free and she’s willing to take risks in order to be. she’s not brunehilde anymore, she’s ponyo.  really, i love her so much, but it’s sosuke who always spoke to me the most and i couldn’t really figure why. now i realize that it must’ve been because of the way he is portrayed in the movie. it’s subtle and i’ve spent years watching it without noticing but as futile as it sounds: he is his own person. he is not pictured at any moment like someone’s something and the most striking way it is done is that he is not shown as lisa’s child, he is sosuke. he is this very unique little boy with his own personality that i love so endlessly. i think i wanted to be perceived like him when i was younger. i wanted to be self-sufficient to the point that it would be so hard to notice that i could be anything else than unapologetically myself. in fact it is not even explicitly said in the movie that lisa is sosuke’s mom. i really realized this part of sosuke’s character when i heard him call lisa by her name and not by the usual « mom » we always hear from the child, it creates such a unique effect. i can’t name a single movie who portrays a child that way. it is only adding to the fact that sosuke does so much stuff by himself throughout the movie. he is a clever boy that has been teached how to do all of that, most likely by his mom. nonetheless, he never does anything dangerous for his well being, like boiling the water for the ramen. we really are able to understand how lisa is looking over him while still letting him be independant. one doesn’t exclude the other. she never underestimates her child and on the contrary, gives him responsibilities because she knows he can handle it. he is a little boy but he is not only that and lisa knows it. i want more than anything to be lisa to the children around me. it’s so amazing to see that this love and goodwill lisa has for her child is the very same that sosuke has for the people he loves. he really is such a kind, empathetic, considerate, joyful and adventurous boy while being so collected. i love more than anything this one scene where ponyo and sosuke find lisa’s empty car and sosuke starts crying because he is worried something bad happened to his mom. those tears are so meaningful. to me this whole scene stands for the fact that letting your child become who he is supposed to be is inevitably going to put him in situations that can be difficult to manage, we all go through some at some point. however, if he knows he is loved and therefore is a loving person himself, he will find the strength to keep going and will even have people to hold his hand when it’s needed, just like he did or would for others.  sosuke probably would have never even left the house to search for his mom if he didn’t have the self-confidence she helped him build. just like a toddler wouldn’t take his first step if a loved one wasn’t on the other side ready to catch him. more than anything, lisa taught him love. it’s okay to cry, it means that you care and it’s because you do that you won’t give up even if you’re scared. everytime i watch this scene i can’t help but be so proud of this little boy who went across the unknown to make sure his mom was okay. it’s a very important message hidden in such a beautiful and simple scene. i could talk about this movie for hours but i need to say that, above all else, this whole movie is how the world is perceived through a child’s eye: the fish you found and lost turned into a magical girl who wants to be your friend, the car your mom is driving is acting like an unhinged submarine capable to escape a tsunami, you cruise around your flooded city in a plastic boat that heats by candlelight, your mom is the goddess of the ocean. this is childlike imagination coming to life. this movie is nothing less than a child fantasy. it’s wonderful and it could explain why a lot of people don’t really like this ghibli, but to me it really embodies what my favorite type of movies tend to be, which are films that look really simple and childish on its surface but really are anything but that. although, we can see that this child’s world is sometimes tinted by the anxiety of adults, just like in the beginning with ponyo’s dad perceiving the world as something so dangerous about to swallow her daughter with those huge dark waves, when all ponyo could see is bright colors and an exciting adventure beginning. like i previously hinted it, this movie also questions us about parenthood and how we should preserve this sparkle kids have and which makes them so radiant, instead of suffocating it with our fears that we slowly turn into their own. that’s why i think that the main and only difference worth mentioning between sosuke’s character and ponyo’s is that sosuke always has been at peace. he was free when ponyo was trapped by the environment her dad created, what he sincerely thought was best for her. sosuke never had to fight to be himself like ponyo had to. the adults around him wanted to know who he was, not shape him like they would like him to be. no kid should be called lucky to be like sosuke, because, really, he is just allowed to be in tune with himself if anything. i wish every kid could have what he has. it’s no wonder i wanted to be him in the playground. i know why he is my favorite now. anyway, ghibli always feels like a safe place but ponyo is just the closest to home a movie could ever make me feel. this movie literally changed me as a person. thank you mr miyazaki for speaking to a part of me i never want to lose <3 you really did make a movie that tell children « it’s good to be alive ».