One of my favorite animated films of all time is “Ponyo” by Studio Ghibli. This beautiful film was published in Japan on July 19th, 2008. Yet about a month later, an English version was released in theaters, on August 14th, 2008. According to Wikipedia, “Ponyo” became one of the highest-grossing anime films of all time. It earned over 204$ million USD worldwide; when “Ponyo” was released in the U.S, it had the largest opening for a Ghibli film ever.
Studio Ghibli was first founded on June 15th, 1985, by its directors Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshiro Suzuki. Miyazaki and Suzuki first started the studio due to the success of a film they worked on prior; however, they invited Takahata to join the company immediately after. The trio’s studio was soon invested in by Tokuma-Shoten, a publishing company that resides in Tokyo. This allowed Studio Ghibli to flourish and become the famous studio that everyone knows it as.
My first time ever watching “Ponyo” was at an AMC theater, when I was just a toddler. While I did not fully understand what was happening on the screen, I was still enthralled by it either way. When I rewatched the movie about 3-4 years ago, it reminded me why I loved it so much. “Ponyo” fluid hand-drawn animation and amazing artwork blew me away when I was younger, and still does now. The attention to detail in the film is mind blowing; seeing how much care was put into simple scenes of fish swimming and interacting with their environment was so breathtaking to me.
Over the years I have seen many movies yet, Studio Ghibli’s “Ponyo” still remains as one of my favorites due to its beautiful animation styles and immersive scenes. Studio Ghibli came from humble beginnings yet became an iconic force in the animation scene, I believe future generations would enjoy “Ponyo” just as much I had.
work cited:
Wikimedia Foundation. (2024, January 24). Ponyo. Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponyo , Tiernan, J. (2023, November 30). Studio Ghibli: The Japanese animation powerhouse that conquered the world. Linearity blog. https://www.linearity.io/blog/studio-ghibli/amp/
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