This film screened 25th April 2010.

IFI FAMILY
Our monthly screening, bringing you and your young film fans some of the best family films from around the world.

Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, so popular when previewed at our recent Open Day, returns for our family audience. Following Howl’s Moving Castle and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, Miyazaki draws on The Little Mermaid for this story of Ponyo, a cheeky red goldfish that turns into a girl and becomes a friend for five-year-old boy, Sosuke, who finds her in a jar on the beach.

Moving from sea world to human world, Ponyo brings magic into Sosuke’s world, but causes huge waves to crash against the shore flooding the town. They must negotiate a way through the flood in a magical toy boat and find Sosuke’s mother. Along the way they see fantastic sea creatures as well as the debris left by humans that threatens the balance of nature. But the ecological lesson doesn’t outweigh the charm of this dazzling addition to the Studio Ghibli canon.