Ponyo

Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, 2008) is a Studio Ghibli fantasy animation you can watch online on iFILM. Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed the film, which opened in Japan in July 2008 and earned over $200 million globally.

A fish-girl named Ponyo (voiced by Yuria Kozuki) escapes from her sorcerer father Fujimoto and washes ashore near a clifftop village. Five-year-old Sosuke (Hiroki Doi) finds her in a glass jar and decides to keep her. That decision sets off a chain of events: Ponyo begins changing into a human, and the sea — responding to the shift — surges up and floods the coast.

Miyazaki drew the waves by hand, frame by frame, avoiding computer animation entirely. The result looks like a watercolour painting that somehow learned to move. Rooted in Japanese coastal folklore and aimed squarely at children, the film works just as well for adults watching quietly beside them. Stream Ponyo online on iFILM.