Ponyo

You have to watch the kid-oriented Ghibli movies with a childlike innocence. When the young characters feel, try to remember what those feelings felt like when you were a kid. The first time Ponyo is taken from Sosuke by the waves, we see the kid deal with loss in a way that only a child can. He stares out into the ocean, pondering not only of whether he will ever find her again, in those vast and unforgiving tides, but also what Ponyo really meant to him. She’s more than a goldfish; she’s his adopted sister. Ponyo can only remind me of myself when I’d lose something important to me back when I was a kid. Think of when you lost that first pet goldfish — or maybe hermit crab or snail. It was like losing a part of your childhood; like an early chapter in your life’s story had an abrupt change of course. It’s the same feeling of your parents telling you you’ll be moving to a new house, or that time you got in trouble for doing something you didn’t know was bad to do. Everything seemed bigger, and newer then. Everything was saturated with detail. Remember the first time you read Harry Potter (JK Rowling aside)? You were so immersed in that world, you remember not only all of your favorite characters roaming the halls of Hogwarts, but also yourself. Remember the first time you played Oblivion or Skyrim? You felt like you were in those worlds, living that life. You get the idea; It’s this same feeling of Miyazaki-esque immersion that guides Ponyo. The many beautiful and adventurous aquatic sequences in this film are almost ethereal — evoking classic Disney scenes in Fantasia or The Little Mermaid. And these are bolstered by Hisaishi’s gorgeous soundtrack, as always. In a similar way this feeling plays a part — in a more mature sense — in Spirited Away, which happens to be my favorite of his. His art and stories crystalize the obvious truth that things just don’t hit the same as they did back then. Miyazaki is a master at communicating this feeling of nostalgia to us. It’s what I love so much about his films (apart from how incredibly beautiful the art style and animation are). The way things are portrayed; he brings that sense of wonderment back, in a world that is increasingly forgetful of that. I love these movies.