Gake no ue no Ponyo - aka: Ponyo - Fish-child

Hayao Miyazaki's new movie Gake no ue no Ponyo (literally "Ponyo on the cliff by the sea") just came out here. Sadly I won't be watching it in the theatre, since it'll be sans subs; but since I (like almost everyone else on the planet except my girlfriend) pretty much assume that Miyazaki can't make a bad movie, it'll probably be pretty great.


It's about Ponyo, who is some kind of fish-child-thing who runs away from home and meets a boy who lives on a cliff. Of course she wants to become a real girl, and go walkin' around on those... Whaddya call 'em? Oh, feet. It doesn't look to be too deep, but it's probably really touching, and I'd imagine it to be close to Tonari no Totoro in terms of its overall feeling. It's squarely aimed at kids though, and of course kids have apparently been key to it's success. And how do you hook kids? Other than monkeys? With a SONG!

Wasn't that adorable? Seriously, all the kids are humming it. It's in their brains now, and it's not going away until their parents take them to the goddamn movie. Ok, maybe I'm humming it too. And now you are too. It goes:

Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo
Sakana no ko...

Yeah about that sakana no ko thing. Ponyo is often refered to as a goldfish, and I don't want to be all churlish and whatever but that is one funky looking goldfish. She does a little like Jimmy, the Hideous Penguin Boy though. While explaining the plot to me somebody fumbled around for what she is (there is a lot of confusion, even amongst the young) eventually settling on "fish-child". Fish-child is a fair translation of sakana no ko too, so let's go with that. I'm pretty sure that her actual species is "Cute", but probably those pencil-pushing poindexter scientists don't have that in their exercise books yet. Look sharp scientists.