Ponyo (2008) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

Sosuke and Ponyo in the 2008 film "Ponyo," directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
August 14, 2009
Forces of Nature, Including Children
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: August 14, 2009

To watch the image of a young girl burbling with laughter as she runs atop cresting waves in “Ponyo” is to be reminded of how infrequently the movies seem to express joy now, how rarely they sweep us up in ecstatic reverie. It’s a giddy, touchingly resonant image of freedom — the animated girl is as liberated from shoes as from the laws of nature — one that the director Hayao Miyazaki lingers on only as long as it takes your eyes and mind to hold it close, love it deeply and immediately regret its impermanence. More