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It is a work of great fantasy and charm that will delight children ages 3 to 100.
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100There is a word to describe Ponyo, and that word is magical. This poetic, visually breathtaking work by the greatest of all animators has such deep charm that adults and children will both be touched.
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100One of Miyazaki's most kid-accessible movies, but still an unnerving film.
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100Best of all, Ponyo never ceases to be a genuine odyssey in short pants.
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100Don't tell Walt Disney, but Hayao Miyazaki really holds the keys to the magic kingdom.
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100You'll be planning to see Ponyo twice before you've finished seeing it once. Five minutes into this magical film you'll be making lists of the individuals of every age you can expose to the very special mixture of fantasy and folklore, adventure and affection.
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100The latest masterwork from Hayao Miyazaki, places emphasis on the natural world, its tumults and fragility.
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100It’s essentially a stroll through a fantastically detailed pastel world, in which the plot is little more than an excuse for Miyazaki to dive into a world teeming with colorful (and sometimes prehistoric) life.
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100A marvel.
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90Imagination spills across the screen in a bold, undeniable presence.
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90Though targeted at tots, Ponyo may appeal most to jaded adults thirsty for wondrous beauty and unpackaged innocence
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If the plot of Ponyo is small as a minnow, its themes--the relationship between parent and child, between the young and the elderly, between friends, between man and nature--are large and fully realized.
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Ponyo isn't Hayao Miyazaki's greatest film -- that would be a tall order in a 30-year feature career that includes the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" -- but his beautiful, quirky fable has magic other children's movies can't touch.
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88Miyazaki works marvels. Sit back and behold.
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88This environmentally themed, very loose version of Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid" is never going to be mistaken for Disney's musical of the same name.
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88You watch a Miyazaki film with the pie-eyed, gape-mouthed awe of a child being read the most fantastic story and suddenly transported to places previously beyond the limits of imagination. It's quite a trip.
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88Miyazaki creates fascinating, fluid and whimsical scenarios.
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88Traditional in the best sense.
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83An entertaining and fascinating film.
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80Liam Neeson has gravely splendid pipes as Ponyo’s father, a once-human wizard who lives underwater and despises humankind for polluting the planet.
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It's a movie for anyone who, like Miyazaki himself, can still happily commune with his inner five-year-old.
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78Ponyo is another conceptually and thrilingly original masterstroke from an animator who long ago left Walt Disney in the dust.
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75Even by Miyazaki standards, Ponyo makes less narrative sense than it should, and the pat ending is a bit of a letdown.
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75A movie loaded with strange delights.
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75My sense is that adults will be more taken with Ponyo than their offspring.
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In short, it's very much a charming kids' film, created by a master of animation.
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70Compared to "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service," this is one of the anime master's weaker efforts.
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60Trippy in the right way, and wholly enchanting.
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50His (Miyazaki) stories, and often his character design, just leave me cold. I know I'm supposed to be magically transported by his fanciful tales and his whimsical grandiosity, but they make me listless.