In my previous post I showed the Mecha Ike Japanese Comedy Egashira 2:50 version of the Ponyo on a Cliff song. The song is big and was featured on the Red and White Song Battle this year. It features a little girl singing a bit out of tune and later an older guy in a tuxedo. The backstory of the song is that the guy in the tuxedo is just a regular guy that works at Miyazaki’s Ghibli Studios. He was the guy that sang in the original demo version for the Joe Hisaishi song just because he was available at the time. Hayao Miyazaki and Joe Hisaishi both liked it and he stuck.
The new movie is another highly regarded movie by Miyazaki. The main character is a type of mermaid, or fish-child that longs to be human. The basic story is similar to Disney’s Little Mermaid, but the similarities end there. There’s magic and a “wonderful to be a live” feel to the movie. It touches on issues of friendship, life, love, adolescence, rebellion, and the strong female characters that are a staple of any Miyazaki movie.
Here’s the trailer for the movie.