Five-year-old Sosuke fishes a goldfish out of the harbor, names her Ponyo, and she decides she wants to be human. Her sorcerer father wants her back in the ocean. The result is a flood: the sea rises over the town, prehistoric fish swim through the streets, and the two children float across it in a toy boat. Miyazaki drew this one almost entirely by hand, no digital shortcuts, and the water shows it. The waves are alive, shaped like leaping fish, more like a child's crayon ocean than a realistic one. It is the loosest, most weightless thing in his filmography, aimed squarely at small children and unembarrassed about it.
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