Ponyo

Movie name: Ponyo
Year of release: 2008
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, Lily Tomlin, Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8

Synopsis:Each film that Hayao Miyazaki directs is always a happening, and justifiably so. Throughout his career, the director has created masterpiece after masterpiece. Always a huge hit in his homeland of Japan, his films have extended their beauty and impact throughout the rest of the world in these last years. "Spirited Away" won the Oscar in 2002 and "Ponyo" his latest offering is another beautiful and magical effort. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid", the story follows a little creature from the seas, who upon meeting a little boy named Sosuke longs to be human and be with him. Through her magic, she comes to his little town, where Sosuke lives with his mother and father (his father currently away in the high seas on his boat). However Ponyo's magic causes an unbalance in nature, something that her choice to be human or return to the oceans can solve. This film follows familiar themes that populate Miyazaki's films: the relationship of humans with nature, how men destroy and corrupt mother nature, the relationships between families, the absence and return to purer lifestyles. "Ponyo" isn't as fantastically detailed as "Spirited Away" or even "Howl's Moving Castle" were, but it's animation and magic touch the core of the child in each and everyone of us. A true gem waiting to be discovered.