Ponyo

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Year:	2008
Country of origin:	Japan
Director:	Hayao Miyazaki
Genre:	Not Miyazaki's best
Starring:	Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Jôji Tokoro, Tomoko Yamaguchi
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/
Tagline:	Welcome To A World Where Anything Is Possible.
Favourite line:	N/A - Subtitled

After the spellbinding Spirited Away and the hauntingly beautiful Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki here gives us an altogether more simplistic tale.

The plot:
Sosuke is a young boy who lives with his mother and father on a rocky outcrop right next to the sea, his father passing by occasionally on the ship he captain's.
One day, Sosuke discovers a small fish with a human face, names her Ponyo and keeps her in a bucket. When Ponyo disappears after having been 'rescued' by her wizard like father, she puts all her efforts into becoming human so that she can return to Sosuke and live life as a little girl instead of a fish!

And it is certainly enchanting, though somehow lacks the scale and scope of most of Miyazaki's previous output.
Coming across as slightly more 'child-friendly' than before, this didn't captivate to quite the same degree and, the worry is, now that Miyazaki has the support of Pixar, could we be seeing a slight watering down of his imagination to fit the Disney model more appropriately? I hope to God not, as it was the riot of creativity that set him apart, and brought him to the attention of Pixar's John Lasseter in the first place, so to adapt to blend in would seem to make little sense.
With a sequel to Porco Rosso currently in production, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Ponyo was good, but it was no Princess Mononoke.