A TALE OF MISCHIEF, FUN AND FRIENDSHIP
A Goldfish Finds Her Way
Memorable characters, imaginative visuals and irresistible charm make this latest masterpiece from the visionary Miyazaki an unforgettable film-going experience. Ponyo (voiced by Noah Cyrus) is a mischievous and adventurous little goldfish, who drifts away from the undersea home she shares with her father, the wizard Fujimoto (voiced by Liam Neeson), and hundreds of little sisters. Far from her home, she meets Sosuke (voiced by Frankie Jonas), a 5-year-old boy who lives by the sea with his mother Lisa (voiced by Tina Fey). Sosuke gently cares for his new pet and quickly wins Ponyo’s heart. Ponyo’s father, desperate for his daughter to return to their undersea home, uses his magic to bring her back, much to Ponyo’s dismay. But Ponyo, ever the stubborn little goldfish, longs to return to her special friend. She magically transforms herself into a little girl and finds her way back to Sosuke’s house where she and her friend embark on a series of adventures.
“In one of my favorite scenes, Ponyo arrives at Sosuke’s house as a girl while a storm rages,” says John Lasseter. “Sosuke’s mother makes noodles for her—which she discovers she loves. It’s so special, because Ponyo is a little girl but she’s a brand-new little girl and everything is brand new to her.” But Ponyo’s desire to be human upsets the delicate balance of nature and triggers a gigantic storm. Only Ponyo’s mother, a beautiful sea goddess (voiced by Cate Blanchett), can restore
nature’s balance and perhaps make Ponyo’s dreams come true.
“‘PONYO’ transcends age groups: everybody enjoys this film,” says Lasseter. “I’ve watched it with many audiences and people are truly entertained by it. There’s a depth and a beauty to the film; it really works for all ages.”
A FILM WITH CHARACTER
Who’s Who in “PONYO”
PONYO is voiced by Noah Cyrus, (FEMALE, yes, little SISTER of Miley Cyrus).
The cute appearance of the little goldfish-girl belies her formidable powers. Inquisitive and self-assured, Ponyo has carefully planned her escape from the Coral Tower where her father Fujimoto lives, but she isn’t sure where she’ll end up. “She likes to explore and she’s a very happy fish,” says Cyrus of her character. When Ponyo meets Sosuke, she quickly learns to love him. She delights in the newness of the human world, which is completely alien to her with such wonders as ham, instant noodles and a flashlight. Ponyo uses her magical powers calmly and casually; they’re nothing special to her. The balance of nature hinges on her decision to venture beyond the limits her father has set for her. Cyrus says “PONYO”—the character and the movie—has something for everyone. “Ponyo loves Sosuke and she is very funny. It’s a very funny movie and there’s a lot of adventure.”
SOSUKE is voiced by Frankie Jonas, (the bonus Jonas, the fourth Jonas Brother).
Five-year-old Sosuke is a kind-hearted, well-mannered little boy who’s unusually mature for his age. When he finds a little goldfish while playing with his toy boat on the beach below his house, he names her Ponyo. He treats her with a gentle affection that quickly wins her heart. “Sosuke—what a sweet child!” says Melissa Mathison, (writer of the worldwide movie box office bonanza "E.T."), who adapted Miyazaki’s screenplay for the Englishlanguage version. “I made every attempt to solidify it as Sosuke’s story. His bewilderment, his maturity, his humor and his taciturn methods of communicating were quite sweet.” Sosuke is a brave, serious child, although he has a minor mischievous streak: he giggles when Ponyo spits water all over his fussy classmate. The respect and consideration he shows the elderly ladies at the senior center reveal his good heart. Says Jonas: “‘PONYO’ is very humorous, and so is Sosuke. There’s a lot of adventure and action and some insane parts that are really funny. Kids’ll love it. Adults will like it because it’s about bringing the family together. Don’t be mad at each other, always be together. Always, always love each other.”
LISA is voiced by Tina Fey.
Sosuke’s mother Lisa is hard-working and affectionate, but perpetually short of time. Working at the senior center and caring for her son leave her tired and impatient with her husband Koichi. Sosuke’s father often spends days at sea, leaving
all the work at home for her. “Here is an independent woman, not a single mother, technically, but perhaps a de facto one,” says Brad Lewis, co-director of the English-language version. “Because of her independent spirit, she feels contemporary. And she was funny in bold ways.” Lisa juggles her obligations ably: when Ponyo appears at her doorstep, she cares for the little girl, serving her warm milk and honey and ramen noodles; she struggles with her home generator, looks after Sosuke and goes to check on the elderly women in the supernatural storm Ponyo inadvertently generates. No wonder she’s tired.
FUJIMOTO is voiced by Liam Neeson.
The put-upon alchemist Fujimoto commands formidable powers, but he realizes he can’t stop his daughter Ponyo from doing what she chooses. His red hair and flamboyant costumes make him look like an older version of Howl, from “Howl’s Moving Castle.” An environmentalist at heart, Fujimoto is deeply affected by the trash that has been cast into the sea. He creates magic potions that help keep the sea healthy and dreams of restoring the seas to extraordinary vitality. “My character journeys under water in a strange support craft,” says Neeson. “He and the audience see garbage littering the ocean floors. It packs a very visual message into the animation of some of the horrors we’re doing to the oceans of the world.”
KOICHI is voiced by Matt Damon.
The captain of a large, sea-going vessel, Koichi often has to break his promise to be home for dinner, which gets him in trouble with Lisa. Sosuke finds himself in the role of referee between them. Koichi is clearly proud of his son, boasting of his ability to flash signals to the ship from a mechanical beacon, and he loves his wife. But his work often takes him away from his family.
TOKI is voiced by Lily Tomlin, NORIKO is voiced by Cloris Leachman and YOSHIE is voiced by Betty White.
The three elderly ladies at the senior center know and like Lisa and her son. Sosuke is obviously their pet: he speaks to them politely and brings them small presents. When he finds Ponyo, he eagerly shows her to them. Toki is often crabby in a
comic way, complaining about her joints. Noriko is the quietest member of the trio, while Yoshie is the most maternal. Says multi Emmy winning actress Betty White: “The little boy and I have a great rapport. We really love each other. Someone doesn’t have to be your real grandmother—you can love somebody enough to think of her as your grandmother.”
GRAN MAMARE is voiced by Cate Blanchett
Miyazaki describes Ponyo’s goddess-mother as “Mother of the Sea.” A beautiful apparition, she commands the power to grant Ponyo’s wish to become a human. But first she confers with Lisa, to see if she’s ready to care for a rambunctious new
daughter, and she asks Sosuke if he’s willing to accept Ponyo for who she is and who she will become. “The character was gorgeously animated,” says Lewis. “And Cate has one of the most beautiful voices you’ll ever hear in your life. It was so powerful when she started reading the beautiful prose.”
ARTIST, STORYTELLER, LEGEND THE FANTASTIC VISIONS OF HAYAO MIYAZAKI
Artist, Storyteller, Legend
One of the most respected and admired filmmakers working today, Hayao Miyazaki consistently transports moviegoers into worlds of fantasy unlike anything they’ve experienced. The only foreign director to win the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature, Miyazaki is a hero to animators, animation fans and audiences around the world. “He is one of the great filmmakers of our time and has been a tremendous inspiration to our generation of animators,” says Lasseter. “At Pixar, when we have a problem that we can’t seem to solve, we often look at one of Miyazaki’s films.”
Miyazaki says the look of the ocean in “PONYO” was significant. “If a child looks at the sea, it could look like a living creature,” says the director.
“I made the film with the idea that the ocean is a living thing.”
“It reminded me of when I was on holiday at the beach with my boys,” says Lasseter. “The waves were very different—coming up out of the water and smashing right on the boys. They were scared, so I started giving the waves personality—like they’re hiding from the kids and waiting for them to come close and then they’d reach up and get them.
“In ‘PONYO,’ Miyazaki actually made the ocean a character,” Lasseter continues. “The waves become creatures and the style of the water is actually very believable for the world that he created.”
“A little seaside town and a house at the top of a cliff. A small cast of characters. The ocean as a living presence,” says Miyazaki. “It’s a world where magic and alchemy are accepted as part of the ordinary. The sea below, like our subconscious mind, intersects with the wavetossed surface above. By distorting normal space and contorting normal shapes, the sea is animated not as a backdrop to the story, but as one of its principal characters.”
Miyazaki’s treatment of the natural world in his films reflects his commitment to preserving the Earth. Much of “PONYO” takes place underwater, featuring a beautiful, awe-inspiring ocean that’s startling in its majesty. But it is also under assault. Early in the film, Ponyo is actually trapped in an old jar tumbling through the ocean; she’s ultimately rescued by her future friend Sosuke. “‘PONYO’ can be seen on lots of different levels,” says Liam Neeson, the voice of Ponyo’s environmentalist father. “There’s an ecological side to the film that’s painted in very graphic detail.”
“That speaks to the kind of stories Miyazaki always tells: he forces us to look at what human beings are doing to the Earth,” says Kathleen Kennedy, executive producer of the English-language version. “There’s an underlying message in all of his movies that has to do with conservation and the environment and taking care of the place we live in.”
Of course, Miyazaki’s passion extends to the visuals his team creates. Animated features have become increasingly realistic as filmmakers employ computer graphics for life-like, three-dimensional settings and characters. Yet Miyazaki showcases the power of drawn animation to create fantasies, offering a personal vision of an alternate reality. Instead of rendering thousands of individual blades of grass bending in the wind, he suggests a breeze passing over a grassy hillside by moving a rippling line of color over a painted background.
The results suggest the difference between poetry and prose. Miyazaki’s philosophy was summed up in a sign he once posted for his animation team: “Do everything by hand, even when using a computer.”
Music is an essential element in all of Miyazaki’s films. For “PONYO,” the director called on Joe Hisaishi, a frequent Miyazaki collaborator, to compose the film’s distinctive score. “When Mr. Hisaishi heard about Ponyo’s story he said the melody came to him right away,” says Miyazaki. “He ran back home and started working on it, then played me the tune on the piano in the studio.
“Katsuya Kondo, our supervising animator, has a daughter a little younger than Ponyo,” continues Miyazaki. “They helped create the lyrics for the title song when they sang together at bath time.”
“PONYO” HEADS OVERSEAS
Creating the English-Language Version
Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall were tapped by Studio Ghibli to bring “PONYO” to American audiences. “There is such a legacy that Miyazaki has contributed to the world of animation that I think everybody who came to the project considered it a privilege to be a part of it,” says Marshall. “We want to introduce this movie to the family film-going audience because it is a movie that is for all ages. Adults will really enjoy taking their kids because there’s something there for them as well. It really is an amazing ride when you experience a Miyazaki film.”
“Miyazaki’s producer in Japan, Toshio Suzuki, contacted us and asked if we would consider working with them to bring Miyazaki’s work to North America,” explains Kennedy. “It was an interesting question because we usually have the conversation in reverse: How will our movies work in Japan?
“The amazing thing with Miyazaki’s movies, and we can attest to this with our own children, is that kids will even watch them in Japanese,” Kennedy continues. “The visuals in his work are so extraordinary, and his ability to communicate story and emotion and character are so specific that the visuals tell you the story. Add to that an outstanding English-language voice cast. We felt very strongly that there was an opportunity to take ‘PONYO’ and showcase Miyazaki’s work as a global experience.”
“‘PONYO’ is just stunning visually and tells a wonderful story. The magic in the film, the adventure itself are beyond description,” says co-executive producer John Lasseter. “It’s so beautiful and full of heart and it features great characters. I want
people all over the country to see it, fall in love with it, and discover Miyazaki’s whole library.”
Headed by Lasseter, a team of creative talent was assembled to help make Miyazaki’s newest animated masterpiece accessible to English speaking audiences throughout the world. Lasseter called on Pixar veterans Peter Sohn and Brad Lewis to share with him the directing duties of the Englishlanguage voice cast.
“It’s an English translation of Japanese poetry,” says Lewis. “We’re interpreting the spirit of what Miyazaki created. The first task was getting a translation of the overall story to help us understand the character motivations so we could properly cast the voices. What’s interesting is that sometimes a Japanese voice may not be the same vocal tone we want to use for the English-language version. There’s no literal translation for the story points, the
character motivations, the vocal tones or vocal performances.”
The filmmakers also needed an English-language version of Miyazaki’s script. The job called for someone who would not only understand Miyazaki’s vision, but could make it work in English and within the confines of existing animation. “It was a challenge to figure out who should do the English script,” says Kennedy. “Melissa Mathison did the screenplay for ‘E.T.,’ and the minute she was introduced to Miyazaki’s films, she was captivated. She said, ‘I absolutely want to do this.’”
“‘Miyazaki’ was all I needed to hear when asked if I would tackle this adaptation. He is a great artist and any association with him would be an honor,” says Mathison. “It was an exciting and unusual assignment—quick, down and dirty, something I had never done before. Definitely an interesting challenge: ‘adapt the Japanese translation to English, fit the words to the mouths, and please do it in four days!’ And, the project being handed to me was nothing less than the latest film of an artistic genius.
“I have long been a dabbler in Japanese culture: literature, movie, art, religions. I am an admirer of the culture,” Mathison continues. “I wanted to clarify—crystallize—a Japanese story for a Western audience. I was to adapt while retaining the social touches that make the story particularly Japanese in nature. I did not want to underestimate the power of the original aspiration—a fairy tale told within the world of a small fishing village in Japan. I wanted the emotions and the humor of the language to match that inherent in the drawings.”
“Obviously, we couldn’t do a literal translation, which made it a little more difficult, but Melissa wrote the script in a relatively short time,” says Kennedy. “When we showed it to Miyazaki and Suzuki, they were amazed at how she managed to bridge the translation so that Miyazaki’s story came through.”
Traditionally, when animated films are created, the voices are recorded first, followed by the visuals, so synchronization is achieved during the animation process. When a Japanese animated film like “PONYO” is prepared for American release, the actors must try to match the “lip flaps” of their characters while giving a convincing reading. The differences in the cadence, word order, sound and grammar of English and Japanese only add to the difficulty of assembling a satisfactory translation.
“Doing a voice for animation is hard work, but John [Lasseter] was there and Melissa [Mathison] was there,” says Liam Neeson, who provides the voice of Ponyo’s father, Fujimoto. “Sometimes we’d have to change words, if they didn’t quite fit the Japanese phrasing, and Melissa would come up with an alternate word. The script was not set in concrete.”
Filmmakers recruited top talent when it came to casting the English-language version. “The casting was incredibly fun,” says Kennedy. “People who already knew Miyazaki’s work gave us an immediate ‘yes’ on the telephone. For anyone who didn’t know his work, they felt like they’d made an exciting discovery. In the end, we put together a pretty phenomenal cast.”
“There are three generations of actors in the cast—from Noah Cyrus to Tina Fey to Cloris Leachman,” adds Marshall. “It was kind of fun to call Cloris, who I worked with back in 1970, and say, ‘Hey, you wanna be in a Miyazaki film?’ She was thrilled.”
With a roster of characters that includes children, elderly ladies, an alchemist, a goldfish and a goddess, “PONYO” demanded an unusual array of voice actors. Fortunately, Kennedy and Marshall had an “in-house” assistant to help them select the younger talent. Kennedy explains: “Our daughter, Meghan, who’s 10 years old, said, ‘Miley Cyrus has a sister: she’s really talented, and her name is Noah. And there’s also a Bonus Jonas—the Jonas Brothers have a brother named Frankie. Frankie and Noah Cyrus are the same age.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘Oh my God, this is perfect!’ And when we went to their families, they were immediately interested.”
The young duo even recorded a song for the English-language version of “PONYO.” But the movie itself remains the highlight for Jonas. He recalls the day he got a DVD of the original “PONYO” to review. “I took it home that night and watched it on my computer and thought, ‘Wow! I’m gonna be in this movie, this is gonna be awesome!’” says the 8-year-old.
“I got all of the Miyazaki films and they were all really good. Anime is cooler because it has more color and it has a different vibe—I like that about it.” Jonas was even more excited to see the finished version of the English-language “PONYO.”
“You hear your voice and you think, ‘Wow! People are gonna like this,’” he says.
“Frankie is one of the sweetest kids in the world,” says co-director Brad Lewis. “He’s a cool little guy. His voice, his attitude, how hard he wanted to work—it was instantly clear to us all. And Noah has this lightning personality—Ponyo has it too, a self-assured little girl, so Noah was perfect for the role. Together with the help of [co-director] Pete Sohn, they did a phenomenal job.”
But Cyrus says it wasn’t easy to provide the English voice to a goldfish who’s animated to speak in Japanese. “It’s hard, because you have to make your words go exactly with the words in the animation, so it’s kind of weird, but it’s really cool to be Ponyo.”
Lisa, Sosuke’s mother, called for an actress who could capture the character’s humor. “When we started tossing out names we thought instantly of Tina Fey,” says Lewis. “She brings a naturally funny quality to any situation and has a real strength in her voice. We all had to smile when we heard Tina as Lisa.”
Filmmakers were similarly pleased with the casting of Liam Neeson as the voice of Ponyo’s father. “He has such a dramatic ability to make minute changes in his vocal range and he so beautifully walks the line between authority and caretaking that you get a perfect sense of a nurturing father who just has some foibles,” says Lewis. “Liam did a beautiful job.” Neeson was a fan of Miyazaki’s work: “Miyazaki has the ability to draw you into the story from the first frame of this magical world,” he says. “I know ‘PONYO’ is partly inspired by ‘The Little Mermaid,’ but there are other legends and mythological stories in there, too, I think. I certainly saw some ‘King Arthur’ as well.”
Betty White shared similar affection for “PONYO”—and the experience. “Voiceover is akin to stealing,” laughs Betty White. “You don’t have to memorize your lines: You’re reading them. And you don’t have to put your eyelashes on, so it’s a lovely way to go. But you do have to convey a character, using just your voice. I was captivated by the film from the word go. Within five minutes, these characters literally come to life. You know them. The little boy is wonderful. And little red-headed Ponyo is so cute, you just want to pick her up and hold her! I can’t remember seeing anything quite like it. I use the word genius for Hayao Miyazaki. His film takes on a reality for you in no time at all. Oh, it’s lovely!”
HAYAO MIYAZAKI AND STUDIO GHIBLI
Embracing Traditional Animation
In recent years, Japanese animation or anime has emerged as an increasingly popular and influential art form in the United States—and around the world. Universities, colleges and even high schools have large anime clubs, and every week, fan conventions are held across North America.
Modern Japanese animation began in the late 1950s, as the country rebuilt from the devastation of World War II. Among the first postwar-Japanese features were Taiji Yabushita’s “White Snake Enchantress” (1958) and Toei Animation’s adaptation of Wu Chen En’s 16thcentury novel, “The Journey to the West—The adventures of the Monkey King” (1960). The latter was released in America in 1961 as “Alakazam the Great.” To date, Japanese studios
have produced more than 4,000 animated features, television series and direct-to-video
projects.
Born in Tokyo in 1941, Miyazaki became interested in animation after seeing “White Snake Enchantress.” After studying political science and economics at prestigious Gakushuin University, Miyazaki turned his back on a conventional business career to become an animator.
As an in-betweener at Toei, Miyazaki worked with assistant director and mentor Isao Takahata. Takahata was later made director of the 1968 feature “Little Norse Prince Valiant,” with Miyazaki serving as scene designer and key animator. They were given considerable freedom to emphasize strong characterizations and character interaction and the result was Toei’s most critically acclaimed movie at the time. Miyazaki made his feature directorial debut in 1979 with “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro.”
With an already-recognizable cinematic style, Miyazaki breathed new life into Lupin, a thief and James Bond parody created by manga (graphic novel) artist Monkey Punch years earlier. He followed “Cagliostro” with “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984), an ecological fable based on his popular manga series. In 1985, Miyazaki and Takahata founded Studio Ghibli in conjunction with Tokuma Shoten Co., Ltd. The name comes from a scorching wind that blows across the Sahara desert, as the artists hoped to breathe a hot wind of excitement into the world of Japanese animation.
At Ghibli, Miyazaki established himself as one of the world’s foremost animation directors with the rollicking adventure “Castle in the Sky” (1986) and “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), a charming environmental tale. “Kiki's Delivery Service” (1989), an engaging story about an adolescent witch’s coming of age, ushered in a series of box-office hits for Miyazaki, including “Porco Rosso” (1992), a bittersweet romance about a dashing pilot in the 1930s who gets turned into a pig. Miyazaki followed “Porco Rosso” with the powerful ecological saga “Princess Mononoke” (1997). The brilliant “Spirited Away” (2001) became the top-grossing movie in Japanese history, while “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004) occupies the No. 4 spot. Disney began its association with Studio Ghibli in 1996 when it agreed to distribute “Princess Mononoke” and all the earlier Ghibli films. “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” the first video title released, entered the Top Ten on Billboard’s sales chart and sold more than a million copies. In 1999, Miramax Films offered a theatrical release of an English-language version of “Princess Mononoke.” The film received critical acclaim and was released on home video the following year. Walt Disney Studios presented a theatrical release of Miyazaki’s masterpiece, “Spirited Away,” in 2002, which won the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has subsequently released other prestigious Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli titles in English-language versions for the DVD and video markets.
