Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Character Development. Did I miss it in the movie? Where did it go? CD was a defining attribute of Miyazaki films. What happened?
    • Well, considering it's a movie about a five-year old boy and his basically equivalent aged friend... I think the best CD you're going to get is from Ponyo's dad going from hating all humans to letting Ponyo stay with her human friend. But, really, the kids are "five" - cut them some slack. XD
    • It's not too much to hope for some solid character development when this movie has an entire subplot about the continuously-strained relationship between Sosuke's parents.
  • Okay, I know everyone here is gonna hate me for this, but as you know, most of the time, long term relationships don't work out. So Ponyo and Soskue love each other now, whats keeping them together later in life?
    • Our hope, I guess. I know what you mean, I also think it's too much asking a five-year-old (IIRC) boy to keep such a promise, but, hey, it's a cute movie! Maybe the sea mage and goddess will lend a hand on the matter as well...
    • Wait, another question, if one of the kids ceased to love the other, would the world go out of balance again? IIRC Soskue telling Ponyo's mom he loves her apparently fixed everything.
    • This troper got the impression that the love thing between Sosuke and Ponyo was more of a sibling or friend-type of love, mainly because she found it hard to believe that two children of preschool age would think about each other in a romantic way.
    • Also, the concept of true love is a foundational premise in this kind of fantasy. You could ask the same question about the heroines in any Disney movie.
  • Also, how the hell did Lisa adapt to the fact that this girl just comes up, tackle hugs her son, then both claim that the girl is actually his pet goldfish turned human who now has to live with them so fast? You'd think she'd be more skeptical.
    • I think she was just going along with her son's story, but came up with a far more reasonable explanation in her head (for instance, she's a girl he met at the school).
    • Considering everything that was going on, I think Lisa had far more pressing things on her mind than worrying about where Ponyo had come from. A storm was going on, the children needed dried off and fed, and she didn't know whether her husband and the people at the senior center were safe or not. I actually found it refreshing that Lisa focused on what was important at the time, rather than cause unnecessary tension by going Agent Scully on Sosuke.
      • It could also be the same magic that means nobody notices that this little kid is running around with a fish with a human head...
    • Also, the entire movie runs on Little Kid Logic. When the first candle runs out in the boat during Sosuke's extended Crowning Sequence of Awesome, do they have another? Of course they do. Are any of the evacuating townspeople concerned about the safety of two five-year-olds heading towards the disaster zone? Is there any motivation to stop them? Of course not, because everything will turn out just fine. (Although, when Ponyo gets sleepy and starts fishifying, things do not look like they are going well, but that's to raise the dramatic tension.) Or, Ponyo is a Reality Warper.
      • The fact that townpeople are not quite "concerned" may relate to Japanese culture. In Japan, it is known that toddlers go to school by themselves (with cell phones and no-talking-to strangers rule).
    • It's kind of a Miyazaki thing. You'll notice that in some of his other movies, the adults there are also quick to accept the existence of magic and magical beings. Hell, in Ponyo, only ONE PERSON reacts strangely to the fact that the fish has a human face, and it's not "A fish with a human face? How weird! Must be a new species! Call an itchyologist!", it's "A fish with a human face? This is bad luck and the result of magic which totally exists!".
  • So what does this mean for the environment now that fish which were dead millions of years ago have returned?
    • I think they died again (or returned to their own time) when Ponyo's reality warp died down again.
      • Or if they didn't it may not matter. Some fish from long ago, for example the Coelacanth (of What Measure Is a Non-Cute? fame) are still around, and with the lack of depth with which humans have explored the oceans, some of the dino-fish could be out there RIGHT NOW.
  • All right, what was up with that scene where Ponyo "cures" the baby's cold by assaulting his/her face? It's a jarring moment no one mentions again in the film and for this troper, it takes something away from Ponyo's normally charming demeanor. Also, why didn't the baby's mom react? Had that been me, I would've gone ape-shit if I saw some strange girl doing whatever to my child.
    • They're treating the fact that their entire island is mostly underwater as something near a picnic. These people are either in a dream-state, or Ponyo's Glomp is the least of that childs problems.
    • The mother didn't react (other than to display her befuddlement) because she has no reason whatsoever to believe Ponyo would do anything harmful to the child. Ponyo, a five year-old girl (as far as she knows) just went and smooshed her face against the baby's, making it laugh and laugh happily. If that's "assault" then infants and preschoolers everywhere should be charged with assault and battery. (Also, from experience, some babies indeed love playing like that. YMMV, but it doesn't immediately make Ponyo's affection "assault.")
    • The whole "cold" thing was added into the English dub. The baby is just upset that Ponyo left in the Japanese version, which makes a bit more sense. She went back to comfort the kid, not to cure him.
      • Okay then, weird translation, Disney. Yet even so, that actually makes the scene more uncomfortable and without charm. I dunno, maybe it's because I value/need personal space because I have issues with certain forms of touch. So even if it was that the child was upset about her leaving, as a parent, I would find it unsettling that another child, regardless of age, decides to make my own child feel better by suddenly invading his personal space. So if that's the case, then I suppose it's my own values that makes this an issue that bugs me.
  • Why did Sosuke's mom want to get home SO badly that she braved a typhoon? She just left only a few hours later to go back too!
    • Because the house up on the hill, equipped with a signal light, serves as an auxiliary lighthouse for ships out at sea, so it's essential to have someone up there especially during a typhoon. Lisa says as much to Sosuke when she leaves him and Ponyo to go help the old ladies.
    • And because her child and another little kid were at home. She's a loving mom and loving moms tend to worry a lot about their children and want to protect them, even if their children are mature and can be left alone for short periods of time.
  • How did they keep the breast milk scene in and retain a G rating?
    • This is the MPAA we're talking about. Who knows why how or why they rate anything?
    • It was toned down a bit, even then. You can actually get away with quite a bit and still keep a G rating, which Disney has proven time and again over the decades.
    • Because breasts aren't being used in a remotely sexual context there, and not everyone has built in hangups that make the mention of them inherently dirty. A mother feeding a baby seems pretty darn G-Rated to me.
    • Also, the age of the children this movie is being targeted to—that is, under ten—would have a good chance of having infant siblings and be well aware how mommy feeds baby.
  • Remember Lisa criticizing Fujimoto for spraying what she didn't know was 'the purest ocean water'? Why is it in Japanese, they translate it to "insecticide", but in the English dub, they say "weed killer"? Do they think we can't wrap our minds around the word?
    • It's possibly to do with fitting the Mouth Flaps, and possibly simply due to slight differences in translation - remember, the film is aimed at children, and perhaps "insecticide" in Japanese is as simple an expression as "weedkiller" in English.
  • Those bubbles that appear around the characters when they are in water... what exactly are they? Air? Purest Ocean Water? LCL? Because all humans are surrounded by one under water, I thought it was air, but when Ponyo is trapped in one by Fujimoto when she attempts to transform, she breathes bubbles.
    • Just magic, likely. If the moon can fall, then our water can still be breathable.
  • So what now? Does Ponyo fall off the cliff into the sea? It reminds me of when I watched the teaser for The Princess and the Frog, and I made a joke about hoping that when the princess does kiss the frog, she's not still holding him over a balcony. Here, Ponyo's floating over the cliff. Are Sosuke and his mother going to have to rescue her as their first act after her becoming permanently human?
    • Fujimoto catches her or something?
  • Is Sosuke's mom just insanely irresponsible? Why on Earth would you leave two CHILDREN up in a house that's clearly flooded. I don't buy that "Sosuke's a pretty smart kid" excuse either. Having a good mind doesn't save you from DROWNING. Also, what is up with her driving?
    • Personally, I prefer the driving to the stopping the car for five minutes in the middle of a chase sequence against a raging flood, because her son thinks he saw a girl running atop a school of colossal fish made of water. (Which he did, and who wouldn't look out for endangered kids, but still.)
    • First, the house is on a cliff, and most likely one of the highest places in the area. Hence making it one of the SAFEST places in a flood. Second, the house has a light signal to communicate to ships at sea, so if they NEEDED help they would have an on-hand effective method to alert those passing by who would have the methods and training to help. Third, it's not unusual to leave children home alone for a couple hours if they have been demonstrated to handle it; and we can all assume not only that Sosuke is able to but that he could also help Ponyo handle it. And as to the driving...I recommend coming here for a day and then complain about her driving. Not to mention any possible need to rush when you are being chased by the ocean itself.
  • What kind of a five-year old can identify prehistoric fish from the "Devonian Age"?
    • It's not weird. North American kids who are into prehistoric life/dinosaurs know about things like the brachyosaurus and the velociraptor and the T. rex., and can talk about the "Jurassic age," because in the U.S., we have placed like Montana full of the prehistoric fossils of land animals and kids learn that stuff. The exact same kid in Japan would instead know about prehistoric sea creatures and the Devonian age because Japan was underwater during that time, so the fossils that are found are sea creatures, and THOSE kids know about THAT stuff. It's just a culturally different way of learning about "dinosaur times." It's not at all strange to think of an American boy saying "Look! A triceratops!", is it?
    • Kids knowing the names of dinosaurs at a young age is not at all unheard of. Heck, I was able to correctly pronoounce "Triceratops", "Tyrannosaurus", and "Apatosaurus" (To the point where I annoyed my teachers whenever I corrected them about the pronounciations) when I was in kindergarten, and I even gave a lecture on dinosaurs in the first grade. It's really not that different from a child gaining knowledge about anything he/she has a particular interest in. Would be any different from a kid who can correctly name the model and year of a particular car? Or a kid who can tell you the names of five different species of canine? Not at all.
  • I only wonder one thing, how did that conversation go between Lisa and her husband about Ponyo, after the fact? It kind of seemed like she was going to end up adopting the girl.
    • She probably told him the truth. He probably saw her transform, and if they needed to ask her birth parents to show up to prove it all, they likely would. Plus, he seems a bit like a Henpecked Husband and after being gone for so long, the last thing he'd want to do is get on Lisa's bad side.
  • After watching the Japanese version of the movie with subtitles. I've been scratching my head ever since trying to figure out this nagging question. Why Sosuke uses First-Name Basis with his own mother?
    • There are in fact parts of Japan where families refer to one another by first names as a sign of affection and familiarity. Like many cultural behaviours, it seems odd to outsiders who don't practice this, but perfectly normal to those who do.
  • While I enjoyed the movie thoroughly, I'll admit a few things did bug me. It does feel like there were elements missings, which could be a result of them making the movie largely more for kids this time around. For one, Fujimoto's plot seems to get booted out of the story once Ponyo mucks up the well, with not even something like him saying "Maybe I'll postpone the new sea age." Of course, it's understandable that they probably couldn't work in a conceivable climax that would work with Sosuke's young age and not suddenly have him pulling off unrealistic heroic moments. Only other little nitpicks would be that they don't quite explain why Ponyo falls asleep, as Fujimoto seems to imply he or his wife were the ones making her sleepy. Overall, it still works nicely for a kids movie, and the faults, if anything, should be easily ignored when considering it's just that, a kid's movie.
    • I thought Ponyo getting sleepy was from using so much magic. Also why when tired/ not trying she turns back into a fish (best example offhand is when she watches them drive away, sadly turns fishy, sees them come for her and while excited goes human again...but slowly because she is already exhausted.) Being her parents, they would know to expect it.
  • The mom is a crazy driver even when there's no emergency. It's even worse because she has a kid in the car with her. Why does no one acknowledge this?
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