Ponyo Reviews
A thing of seemingly unending delight.
| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 28, 2024
Ponyo, for the most part, is a beautiful, heartwarming piece that should bring a smile to anyone’s face, regardless of age.
| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2024
Miyazaki represents the last animator still wholly dedicated to an art form that is slowly dying. Relish animated films like this while you can.
| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 4, 2023
Perhaps not the film for the adventurous young adult, Ponyo proves that remarkable visual inventiveness more-than makes up for candy-sweet morals and glass-fragile plot lines.
| Aug 1, 2023
It's not on the same level as Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away, but it is a very magical and charming film.
| May 17, 2023
Fun but more for the kiddies.
| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 22, 2021
A moving animated film from Miyazaki, one that subtly illustrate the universe of childhood. [Full review in Spanish]
| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 5, 2021
Remains very safely in the realm of whimsical childhood adventure, sadly abandoning the heavy adversity found in previous efforts.
| Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 29, 2020
With the exception of one or two arresting sequences, such as Ponyo dashing pell-mell on the crests of the storm's waves and the sight of prehistoric fish magically unleashed by the flood, the film just didn't enchant me.
| Nov 23, 2020
In a world in which innocence is so rarely portrayed with any conviction on the big screen, Miyazaki does so with incredible majesty and grace and awe-inspiring wonder.
| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 20, 2020
I watched Ponyo for the first time this weekend, and I have one thing to report: Ponyo love Sasuke. Thank you for reading.
| Aug 4, 2020
Ponyo gets it. There are other, different worlds than this, but they don't have what we have.
| Jan 18, 2020
The environments on display are even richer than those shown in "Nausicaä", yet that movie has a much tighter structure. In the end it just doesn't matter.
| Jan 17, 2020
It is a stunning and joyful experience that I highly recommend for families to watch together.
| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 6, 2019
The score by Joe Hisaishi perfectly captures the essence of what's going on throughout the entire film... It evokes emotion and helps add so much to the film to connect you to it.
| Aug 20, 2018
At its best, this is a master working in a minor key; at its worst, it feels like a project in search of structure and conviction.
| Dec 13, 2017
Inspired very loosely by Hans Christian Andersen's original The Little Mermaid, Ponyo is an exceedingly charming modern fairy tale.
| Dec 13, 2017
Not as profound as Miyazaki's other works, but the fact that an animated children's film actually has the brains to go for larger, resonant themes is worth congratulation.
| Original Score: B | Apr 21, 2014
Miyazaki's ode to motherhood; the sea is the greatest nurturer of all. The underwater sequences are some of Ghibli's most luminous, complex reflections of nature's teeming beauty.
| May 6, 2013
The fantasy elements are so seamlessly blended with real elements. There is very little disbelief by the characters, and you want to believe yourself by the end.
| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 22, 2012