From star-ecentral.com:

Hayao Miyazaki with actress Tomoko Yamaguchi, who voices Sosuke’s mother, Lisa, at the screening of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea at a Tokyo theatre on July 19

Not since his masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro has Hayao Miyazaki even attempted a film aimed almost entirely at young children. But now, with Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), the auteur brings us a fun, simple and lighthearted tale of love and family.

Very loosely based on The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Ponyo, which was released in Japan in July, tells the story of a young fish girl who is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sosuke (Hiroki Doi) after she is trapped inside an empty jar while sunning herself on a jellyfish. She and the boy, who promptly names her Ponyo (a Japanese onomatopoeic term meaning soft and plump), hit it off, and Ponyo (Yuria Nara) decides she loves him and wants to be human.

The feeling is mutual, leaving Sosuke in a funk when Ponyo’s father, a sorcerer named Fujimoto (George Tokoro) who gave up on humanity to live in the sea, takes her home and tries to convince her to give up on becoming one of those horrible humans.

But the young Ponyo is smitten, and thanks to a little magic she has picked up – and Sosuke’s DNA, which she got by licking a cut on his thumb – she sprouts two legs and two arms, and turns herself into a five-year-old girl.

But to return to land, she must get help from her hundreds of little sisters, who create a massive tsunami to lift her up to the cliff where Sosuke and his loveable but erratic mother Lisa (Tomoko Yamaguchi) live. As tsunamis do, the waves knock out the electricity and completely submerge the coastal town.
Over his long career, Miyazaki has developed an art style that is instantly recognisable as his own, though that leaves many of his characters looking like rehashes of previous ones. That said, the overall style of Ponyo is a new approach for Studio Ghibli, with much of the on-land scenery drawn in beautifully rendered pastel crayons, with the characters – particularly the ocean-bound ones – lacking in detail.

On the flip side, there is incredible attention to detail in the tiniest things, such as sudden changes in wind direction during a rain storm.

From the press literature and the atmosphere created around the “villain” of the film, Ponyo’s father, Fujimoto, I was thinking he would be scary, perhaps too much so for young children. But, he is clearly just a father concerned about his daughter and the future she thinks she wants. It’s just his methods that are a problem.

The story and pacing do get a bit intense, but never enough to be frightening, especially when compared to such classics as Disney’s Fantasia.

Though Ponyo may never match up to Totoro, it is certainly a film that will stand the test of time.

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