Why so much hype?

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This review contains spoilers.Ponyo is a Japanese animation about a boy that discovers a goldfish that can turn into a human girl. The magical realm where the goldfish is from, tries to find her.Ponyo is beautiful for an animated movie. Each frame is well animated and the feel of the movie is unique. The color palette is incredibly vibrant and even with this vibrant palette, all of the characters are distinct.The voice acting for the English audio is great. It features well known actors such as Liam Neeson. Likewise the Japanese audio is good.The story is good but requires the audience to watch a movie that does not have a villain. The story has no villains. Each character is willing to listen to reason. The plot is really an adventure the main characters embark on with challenges that nature throws at them.The movie is first and foremost a slice of life movie. The movie explores a realist theme with dashes of fantasy. The audience can see this by seeing that the fantasy elements are only seen by the boy initially. The fantasy elements then expand and the movie ends with the village being in more or less the same condition of when the movie started. Slice of life movies are not for everyone. The movie can be too slow or boring for some audiences.Ponyo is highly recommended. The movie is a unique animated movie that adheres to the slice of life genre.

Now, Hayao Miyazaki is one of my favorite movie producers. He makes very quality anime films that all ages can get and enjoy. He is enthusiastic with his art and very creative/emotional. Ponyo is one of Miyazaki's newer films but it isn't the least at all. He incorporates so many genres all in one like; romance, drama, adventure, action, amongst so much more. The basis of the plot of this movie is the main character, Ponyo, who is a fish at them time escapes from her home in the ocean. She escapes to the coast where she finds a little boy named, Sasuke. They have many adventures and run into some trouble with each other. In the end they fall in love and Ponyo becomes a human. Pretty eventful, right? That's why its ranked in one of my top favorite movies.

If you aren't familiar with Hayao Miyazaki, he's like the Japanese Walt Disney. He and his studio, Studio Ghibli, are responsible for Spirited Away, Grave of Fireflies, Princess Mononoke and others. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (henceforth referred to as Ponyo) is one of their most recent films. I love Miyazaki movies, particularly how they animate water; Ponyo's defining characteristic is that it's about the sea so, naturally, it was on my to-watch list.Plot wise, Ponyo feels pretty thin. There is a fish that wants to become a little girl. Only through true love can this happen…and also only through true love can she save the world from being flooded.There isn't too much else to say about this one, quite honestly. The animation is beautiful, Ponyo (Nara) and Sôsuke (the little boy, voice by Hiroki Doi, who finds Ponyo) are adorable, and the music is great, and it has a happy ending.If you were unfamiliar with Miyazaki, I wouldn't recommend this as your introduction to his movies because of the odd plot. I'd start off with something like Spirited Away or Kiki's Delivery Service, and then after a little while, add Ponyo to your queue.I checked on the cast of voice actors for both the original Japanese cast and the American dub. Looking at the cast, you can tell this was definitely a big budget movie; Matt Damon (Kôichi), Betty White (Sôsuke grandmother), Tina Fey (Sôsuke's mom), and last but not least, the voice of the villain is Liam Neeson! We watched the original Japanese audio and it was great but, if you prefer dubs, I think Ponyo would be a good experience. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, Liam Neeson's voice is so distinct I wonder if it would break my suspension of disbelief.

Spoilers, but really, there's not much to give away, its Ghibli's version of Disney's version of the Little Mermaid.Synopsis: Ponyo is a goldfish who lives under the sea with her wizard father and many goldfish sisters. One day she ventures to the surface to satisfy her undying curiosity about the world above the surface. She meets a boy named Sosuke there, and a strong bond of love develops between them. She gets into her father's magical elixirs, miraculously acquires legs and goes to live with Sosuke on the land as a real human girl, but Sosuke must make a commitment to her, or she will dissolve into sea foam, and the world might end (not really sure about that last part, it wasn't very well explained)Story: 6.0 This, as the poster says, is the Little Mermaid. Well, kinda. Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Sea-Maid was actually a tragedy, and had an appropriately tragic ending. Now, there's nothing wrong with doing a Miyazaki version of the Little Mermaid, but I still can't give it high marks for originality, unlike many of his other movies which had brilliant stories. Really, the thing I had the biggest problem with was that Miyazaki set everything up to follow the Anderson version, even adding the sea foam element, but at the last minute, the great "test" ended up being nothing but an underwhelmingly simple question. Lots of buildup, and then the story Disneyed out, lacking the courage to stick with the Anderson ending. Just like Disney, they take Anderson's The Little Sea-Maid and tack on a happy ending, but this was obviously tacked on with little effort. Perhaps if the "test" had been more of an ordeal I could have accepted it. We might as well have been watching an animated version of one of Shakespeare's tragedies, but everybody lives in the end, with nothing more than a single line of dialogue to explain the difference.I understand that this was supposed to be a movie for five year olds, but Miyazaki seems to have forgotten that five year olds don't pay for movie tickets or buy DVDs, their parents do. This movie, unlike his other works, has little to offer older audiences. It doesn't have to end with the mermaid dead, but you could have at least let the tension build so audiences felt relief when the expected tragic end was avoided.Animation: 8.0 The animation here is not as strikingly beautiful or detailed as Spirited Away, but it's still gorgeous. The character designs are typical for Ghibli. Perhaps the best of the visuals appears about half way into the movie, where Ponyo has acquired the magic she needs to become human and she runs along the surface of the stormy ocean to get to the land and see Sosuke. It's impressive, and worth watching the movie if just for this sequence.Sound: 7.0 The Japanese cast definitely put more emotion into their performances. I wish Disney would hire more professional voice actors rather than going for big names. Not that Liam Neeson or Cate Blanchett did a bad job. Actually I enjoyed their performances. It's just that they are so recognizable, and also that there are so many truly great voice actors and actresses out there that could have done this, possibly better. A good example is during the scene where Sosuke and his mom are driving in the storm, trying to get home from the Senior Center while the waves crash around them. Tina Fey's performance is good, but Tomoko Yamaguchi was superior, vocally conveying the peril of her situation where Fey sounded more "in control." The music was almost entirely orchestral, and fit the feel of the movie. There were very few vocals. The credit song, "Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea," is cute and fun. Overall, it's a good soundtrack for the movie, but not one I would buy.Characters: 7.0 Characters are where Miyazaki has always excelled. He is such a keen observer of human behavior, especially that of children, that his animation captures them like magic and this is no exception. However, when re-creating the story of the Little Sea- Maid one character was left out, and that robbed the story of its necessary tension. In the original, there is another girl. The Prince has to choose between the Mermaid and a human Princess. It's a triangle, and that is of course why the ending fell flat. Of course he was going to choose Ponyo, there was nobody else. Also, Sosuke has a dad who is captain of a ship. The part seems to have been added just so Matt Damon could have half a dozen lines in the film. Add to this that earlier in the movie, Fujimoto, Ponyo's dad, states that he wants to rid the world of all the nasty humans, but now he's fine with his daughter becoming one and going off to live with them. That's a hell of a flip-flop to let go completely unexplained. Unfortunately, Fujimoto's miraculous change of heart seems to be the only development we get from any character in the show.Overall: 7.0 There were moments of pure magic in this film, as there are with all Miyazaki films. It was beautiful. While there may have been issues with the story, the animation and sound were still worthy of a Ghibli film, and that makes it worth watching. I recommend it, but only to those who have already seen all the others. If you still haven't seen Spirited Away, Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa, or My Neighbor Totoro, see those first.