Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo (Official Studio Ghibli Website) is an animated feature released in 2008.
Here, I’ve collected some trivia and behind-the-scenes stories about Ponyo.
None of this is essential to enjoying the film, but I think there are some interesting details here.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
On this pageContents
Ponyo (2008): 8 Pieces of Trivia and Behind-the-Scenes Stories
Early designs, character references, and musical ideas offer different ways to revisit Ponyo. The stories below show some of the choices behind the finished film.
1. Ponyo Was Originally Going to Be a Frog
In the finished film, Ponyo is a fish child—a goldfish princess. In the early plans, however, she was a frog.
Miyazaki has spoken about this, and the early frog designs also appear briefly in the documentary How Ponyo Was Born.
Source: Ghibli Textbook 15: Ponyo (ジブリの教科書15:崖の上のポニョ, in Japanese)
2. Ponyo and Fujimoto Have Real-Life Ghibli Models
Ponyo was modeled on the daughter of animation director Katsuya Kondō. Her father, Fujimoto, was modeled on Kondō himself.
Miyazaki seems to have had a firm image of Kondō in mind. During recording, he reportedly explained how Kondō would behave. Fujimoto’s slightly worn, tired appearance also seems to reflect the director’s impression of him.
Sources: Ghibli Textbook 15: Ponyo, The Place Where the Wind Returns, Continued (続・風の帰る場所, in Japanese)
3. Fujimoto Was Once a Crew Member on the Nautilus
Fujimoto pilots a submarine called the Basking Shark, or Ubazame-gō. His backstory also makes him the only Asian crew member formerly aboard Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, the submarine in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Perhaps his time on the Nautilus shaped his love of marine life and his dislike of humanity’s destructive side. I imagine he met Gran Mamare then too. That would have been an encounter with the mystery of the sea.
Source: Ghibli Textbook 15: Ponyo
4. Sōsuke is Named After a Classic Japanese Novel
Sōsuke takes his name from the protagonist of Natsume Sōseki’s 1910 novel The Gate (Mon).
After the release of Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki stayed for about two months in a vacant house in Tomonoura, on the Seto Inland Sea. He spent his free time reading Sōseki.
An early title for the film was Sōsuke Under the Cliff, after the place where the novel’s Sōsuke lives.
Source: Ghibli Textbook 15: Ponyo
5. Why Ponyo Becomes a Fish Again in the Tunnel
Near the end, Ponyo becomes half-fish as she goes through the tunnel. After leaving it, she has returned to fish form.
The film does not explain this directly, but the documentary identifies Gran Mamare’s magic as the cause. Ponyo has entered the barrier she created, and so returns to her original form. Knowing that is why she resists entering.
I take the barrier’s purpose to be showing Sōsuke Ponyo’s true form: can he still love her once he knows what she is?
Source: How Ponyo Was Born (ポニョはこうして生まれた, in Japanese)
6. Ponyo Smells Like Fish
After escaping from Fujimoto a second time and taking human form, Ponyo meets Sōsuke again and hugs him tightly.
While correcting the key animation for that scene, Miyazaki joked that Ponyo smelled of fish.
Sōsuke immediately recognizes her as the fish he rescued. Miyazaki and the staff laughed at the idea that, behind that romantic scene, there was a fishy smell. It is better treated as a joke at work than an official setting, but it gives us another amusing way to look at the scene.
Source: How Ponyo Was Born
7. Gran Mamare’s Anglerfish Form
Perhaps the most surprising piece of Ponyo trivia is the idea that Gran Mamare’s true form is a giant anglerfish. Miyazaki spoke of this himself.
I discuss my own thoughts about that idea in the following article:
Read the discussion: Gran Mamare and Sōsuke’s Future
Source: The Place Where the Wind Returns, Continued
8. Preparing the Film to “Ride of the Valkyries”
While preparing the film in his studio, Miyazaki repeatedly played Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.
He was drawing image boards but struggling to find one that felt right. With the music playing, he produced a board called “Ponyo Is Coming” (Ponyokuru).
It showed Ponyo standing on black waves: an early image of her running over the water to meet Sōsuke. I admire her determination every time I watch the film. But if I imagine Ride of the Valkyries playing over that scene, admiration gives way to something closer to horror.
Ponyo’s original name, Brunnhilde, is also the name of a Valkyrie in Norse mythology.
Source: How Ponyo Was Born
Your Take
What is your view? Choose the answer that comes closest to your own response.
Reader poll
The images used in this article are from the Studio Ghibli Still Images collection.
Can you name the movie before the scene comes into focus?
Put your visual memory to the test with a blurred Studio Ghibli scene.
Reader Comments
Have a thought or interpretation? Leave a comment