FILM · 2008 · JAPAN
Gake no ue no Ponyo
25 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (25)
- #001
The twelve-second opening sequence, which features numerous fish and underwater creatures, required 1,613 pages of conceptual sketches to develop.
- #002
Toki, the stern elderly woman in the nursing home, is a loving tribute to Miyazaki's own mother (much like the mother in My Neighbor Totoro (1988)).
- #003
Sôsuke is based on Hayao Miyazaki's five-year-old son, Gorō Miyazaki.
- #004
Hayao Miyazaki drew most of the sea and wave imagery himself and tried to make it as expressive as possible. John Lasseter said he had never seen water animated so beautifully before.
- #005
The design of the ocean waves during the typhoon caused by Ponyo (at around 39 minutes) was inspired by the waves in the famous woodblock print The Wave Off Kanagawa by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.
- #006
This is the first feature-length animated film created and painted on traditional animation cels since Princess Mononoke (1997).
- #007
Sôsuke's father works on a ship called the Koganei maru. Koganei is the town in western Tokyo where Studio Ghibli is located.
- #008
Hayao Miyazaki was very surprised by the cold reaction children gave his film at test screenings.
- #009
The level of detail in the animation resulted in 170,000 separate images, the highest number ever seen in a Hayao Miyazaki film.
- #010
Until The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), this film had the widest release of any Studio Ghibli film in the United States when it opened in 927 theaters. Spirited Away (2001) opened in 26 theaters, Howl's Moving Castle (2004) in 36, and Princess Mononoke (1997) in 38.
- #011
At around 1 hour 3 minutes, the image of Granmamare floating on her back in the water was inspired by John Everett Millais's painting of Ophelia from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
- #012
The seaside village where the story takes place was inspired by the town of Tomonoura in Japan's Setonaikai National Park, where Hayao Miyazaki stayed in 2005.
- #013
Hayao Miyazaki wanted to make a sequel to the film, but producer Toshio Suzuki instead suggested that Miyazaki adapt The Wind Rises (2013).
- #014
At around 16 minutes, when Sôsuke goes to school, the mother and baby can be seen later in the film while Ponyo serves tea and sandwiches (they first appear when the teacher tells the mother not to worry about her baby catching cold).
- #015
In the Japanese version, Sosuke addresses his parents by their first names rather than simply Mother and Father.
- #016
This was the first animated film to be nominated for and win the Best Film Music award at the Japan Academy Prizes.
- #017
After Ponyo becomes human, she initially creates giant tsunami waves and constantly runs on top of them using her magic. However, when Ponyo enlarges Sosuke's boat, she goes outside with Sosuke to put the boat in the water. At first you can see her walking toward the water a few meters from the house. But after a few steps she sinks into the water. This shows that Ponyo's magic weakens later in the film.
- #018
In 2009 the film's US gross (fifteen million dollars) set a record for a Disney/Ghibli production. Only five animated films have grossed more in the US: three of them are Pokémon films, the fourth is Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie (2004), and the fifth is The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) (another Disney/Ghibli production).
- #019
Ponyo is the first Hayao Miyazaki film to be rated G by the MPAA since the 1998 re-release of Kiki's Delivery Service (1989).
- #020
Sôsuke is a reference to the works of the famous Japanese novelist Sōseki Natsume (1867-1916). In "The Gate," the main male character, Sôsuke, lives in a house standing on a hill called Gake no ue.
- #021
Melissa Mathison wrote the English script in only four days, but she also worked with the actors during the voice recording sessions to further improve the translations.
- #022
In the first episode of NHK World's documentary series 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019), filmed in 2006, Ponyo drawings on the wall catch the cameraman's attention, and the name "Ponyo" is written on the drawings. This reveals that the idea for Ponyo existed two years before the film's release.
- #023
(About 20 minutes) At the elderly care center where Lisa works, a toy resembling the duck spirit from Spirited Away (2001) is shown.
- #024
It was Matt Damon's first Disney film. He would go on to appear in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).
- #025
Lisa's license plate is 333.
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