Gake no Ue no Ponyo

Anime lovers will be thrilled to know that there is another big anime movie that has just been released. Gake no Ue no Ponyo, which is literally translated to English as Ponyo on the Cliff, is the brainchild of Hayao Mizayaki.

Hayao Mizayaki is not a stranger to anime fans. In fact, he is considered to be the king of Japanese anime. With his countless successful works, this is not a surprise. Just to name a few of his creations:

• Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
• Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
• Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
• Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle)
• Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)

His latest, Gake no Ue no Ponyo, is no less than a hit as well. With more than 1.25 million people watching it on its opening weekend, the movie earned almost 1.6 billion yen!

So what is this about? The Japan Times narrates:

The title character, Ponyo (voice by Yuria Nara), is a girl fish with a human face who decides one day to leave her underwater home — and her school of smaller sisters — to see what lies on the surface. Riding on the back of a jellyfish, she is nearly trapped by a drift net, but escapes — with her head stuck in a glass jar. Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), a boy who lives on a house on a seaside cliff, spots Ponyo in the shallows and rescues her. He is delighted with his new pet — and Ponyo is delighted to be in the human world at last. She says her first words, to Sosuke’s astonishment — and begins a transformation from half-fish to human.

I’ll stop there in case you haven’t watched it yet. My question is: when will this be released in other countries?

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Posted July 23rd, 2008 by Maki |