Ponyo or the full english title Ponyo On The Cliff is a 2008 Japanese animated film by Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki is the film's writer and director who made famed movies such as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

Ponyo's story was inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid which I must admit that figuring it out took me way too long. Though honestly Ponyo and The Little Mermaid have more differences than similarity.
The coastal town Tomonoura located in Fukuyama city in Hiroshima prefecture was the inspiration for the setting of Ponyo. The Gate by Natsume Soseki main charater, Sosuke who reside at the bottom of a cliff supplied Miyazaki with ideas for characters.

Ponyo was released on July 19, 2008, with the English version released on August 14, 2009. The film grossed close to $205 million worldwide and currently is the eighth highest-grossing anime film. At the eighth Tokyo Anime Awards in 2009, Ponyo won five awards. Miyazaki was awarded Best Director and Best Original Story.

Summary

A large swarm of jellyfish swims under the surface of the ocean, an air bubble enclosing the tip of a strange-looking submarine with an abundance of sea life surrounding the bottom half of the bubble where a man pours magical liquid into the water. At one of the portholes on the ship, a goldfish sneaks out, followed by her much smaller sisters. Kissing one goodbye, she swims off to the group of jellyfish.

In the morning, this goldfish encounters a trawler. Whilst trying to escape the net, she gets caught inside a jar becoming trapped. A boy named Sosuke rushes towards the shore from his house with his toy boat.
He finds the goldfish stuck in a jar and he concludes to break the glass with a rock, cutting his thumb in the process. After freeing the fish, she licks his wound. Sosuke ecstatic, takes her back up the hill to his home unaware of the waves that chase after him. The waves return to Fujimoto the man seen at the beginning, he's alarmed that his daughter has been taken by a human.

Sosuke fills a bucket with water, placing the goldfish in it. Bring her with him to the car where his mother, Lisa is waiting. Lisa notices Fujimoto walking towards them, spraying what she thinks is a weed killer and scolds him.
He tells her that it's the purest of ocean water to keep him from drying out on land. Lisa then drives off, and Sosuke notices that his thumb has healed. He decides to name her Ponyo, proclaiming she is magical.

Lisa parks, leaving to go work at the nursing home which Sosuke school is right next to. Sosuke hides Ponyo in a bush before entering school, Sosuke quickly returns to Ponyo after greeting the teacher.
Kumiko one of Sosuke's classmates finds them in the bush. Soauke shows Ponyo to Kumiko to which Kumiko states that it's a boring fish resulting in her getting water squirted at her by Ponyo. Kumiko begins to cry causing Sosuke to run off.

Sosuke hides outside the nursing home where he greets three seniors. Toki, one of the seniors is frightened by Ponyo saying that Sosuke needs to put it back into the sea and that'll cause a tsunami due to Ponyo having a human face. Ponyo squirts water into Toki's face, Toki shrieks and Sosuke hurriedly escapes to the water's edge.
Hiding from his mother, Ponyo says his name and her name and announces that "Ponyo loves Sosuke". Fujimoto appears, creating waves and taking Ponyo away, Sosuke tries to find her but Ponyo is already gone. Lisa along with Sosuke drives back home, Sosuke puts the bucket on the fence in hopes that Ponyo can find her way home. We also learn of Sosuke's father, who works on a fishing boat.

Fujimoto tries feeding Ponyo, who has been placed inside a bubble and calls her by her birth name, Brunhilde. Ponyo rejects both, stating she wants ham and that her name is Ponyo, declaring to become human. With the power she gained from Sosuke's blood, she grows bird-like hands and feet. Fujimoto forces her to turn back. Fujimoto makes his way down into a room with a well. This well contains powerful magic, and once the well is full there will be an explosion of life, ending the era of man.

With the help of her sisters, Ponyo can escape the bubble. Ponyo grows feet, hands and teeth. She floods her father's study, trying to leave. Ponyo is swept into the now-flooded room with the well, where her appearance turns human. She and her sisters charge towards the surface of the ocean. Enormous fish launch out of the sea, crashing back down.

A powerful storm appears. Sosuke leaves school to meet his mother at the nursing home, and Lisa is encouraged to go home before it becomes too dangerous. Lisa is told to turn back and seek shelter despite that Lisa speeds through the water almost getting hit by a wave in the process.
The waves follow the car. Sosuke notices a little girl running on fish chasing after them. fish made out of water jump onto the road as Ponyo tries to get closer. Once their home, Ponyo emerges from a wave carrying the green bucket that was blown away by the wind. Upon seeing Sosuke, Ponyo hugs him tightly.

Lisa carries both inside there she dries Ponyo, noting that she isn't wet. After giving them some tea. They go to start the backup generator where Ponyo uses her magic to unclog the old fuel. Lisa puts out an antenna to contact Koichi, Sosuke's father, but gets no response.
After dinner, Ponyo grows tired and falls asleep on the couch, and with that, the ocean calms down. Lisa spots a light moving on one of the hills where the nursing home is, worried for the senior. She leaves Sosuke and Ponyo.

Koichi out at sea, sees what looks like a city with towering mountains but quickly realises that the city is ships and the mountains are a wall of water. Granmamare, a sea goddess and Ponyo's mother arrives at Fujimoto's submarine outside of Sosuke's house.
Fujimoto informs her that their daughter is human and begs her for help because the planet is doomed otherwise. Satellites begin to fall from the sky, a sign of nature's imbalance. Granmamare determines that Sosuke must pass a test to see if his love is true, but if not, Ponyo will turn into sea foam.

Sosuke and Ponyo awake the following morning to find that the house is surrounded by the ocean. Since there is no sight of Lisa, Sosuke decides that they have to go and find her. With Ponyo's magic, she turns Sosuke's toy boat into a small working boat.
During the journey, Ponyo becomes more tired when they reach a small portion of the road above water. Ponyo's magic wears off, turning the boat back into a toy. Sosuke finds Lisa's abandoned car, but Lisa is nowhere to be seen.

Underwater sits an enormous jellyfish creature, and inside is the nursing home. The seniors, breathing underwater, await excitedly for Ponyo and Sosuke to arrive. Ponyo and Sosuke head into a foreboding tunnel where Ponyo reverts back into a fish.
At the end of the tunnel they run into Fujimoto, he tells Sosuke that Lisa and the seniors are waiting for him and Ponyo. Toki interrupts him telling Sosuke everyone tricked but her. Ponyo wakes up and spirits water in Fujimoto, Sosuke makes a break towards Toki. Fujimoto waves capture Toki, Ponyo and Sosuke, taking them down to the nursing home.

Sosuke is reunited with Lisa. Granmamare asks if Sosuke can accept and love Ponyo, whether as a fish or a human. Sosuke answers that he'll "Always love Ponyo whether she's a fish, a human or in between". Granmamare informs Ponyo that to become a human she has to give up magic, and Ponyo agrees. Granmamare encases Ponyo in a bubble, handing her over to Sosuke.
Granmamare tells him to kiss the bubble when he returns to land so that Ponyo will transform into a human girl. With this, the balance of nature is restored. Everyone returns to the surface. Ponyo jumps into the air and kisses Sosuke, turning her into a human once and for all.

Themes

Ponyo is a simple tale about acceptance, love and nature. During the film, the ocean is a prevalent character that shows the uncontrollability and ever-changing sides of itself, similar to Ponyo the two are woven until the end.
Fujimoto is the only character who actively interacts with the world in concern and is the only character who comments on the pollution viva humans. Fujimoto is the main push to the story and to the child an antagonist but in reality, he is a man who hates the way humans harm the environment. The only reason why Sosuke and Ponyo meet is because Ponyo got stuck in litter.

(Look I may write more but it's giving me flashbacks to high school English)

My Personal Experience

In 2013, at a local Sanity store, I noticed a strange section, a section I never thought I'd seen in my country town, an anime section. I believe at this point in my life I knew what anime was so of course I looked through the small section and had my mum buy the movies Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo.
The opening scene of Ponyo mesmerised me I'd never seen anything like it, the animals, music, colours, art. I had never seen anything that beautiful. The whole movie is amazing but that opening changed me. I even recorded it on my 3DS.
As I stated, I grew up in a rural town, landlocked. The closest drive to the ocean would be a little over four hours. I've been to the beach about twice in my life and I can only remember one of the events.
This movie was like a gateway, I love marine life, and two out of three universities I applied to were to do marine biology. In my application, I even wrote about how Ponyo showed me a whole different world that I could never have dreamed of.

Fun Facts

• The waves in the typhon scene are inspired by the woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai.
• In the opening twelve seconds required 1,613 pages of conceptual sketches
• Ponyo was the last film to get a VHS release.
• Miyazaki wanted to do a sequal.
• Ponyo birth name, Brunhilde ia a reference to the the character from the germanic heroic legend, Bruhild.
• Ponyo and Sosuke are voiced by children.
• Ponyo was made via traditional animation.