Beat the Heat: Ponyo (2008)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki Run Time: 100 min. Rating: G Release Year: 2008 Language: Japanese
Starring: George Tokoro, Hiroki Doi, Tomoko Yamaguchi, Yuki Amami, Yuria Kozuki
Country: Japan
Language: This is a dubbed English presentation.
Presented as part of the free, “Beat the Heat” community screenings in partnership with Columbus City Council on Thursday, June 26 and Friday, June 27, 2025. Visit Gateway Film Center to pick up complimentary tickets. Doors open at 11:00am and admission includes a snack popcorn and bottled soda. Thank you for supporting local, nonprofit cinema!
About the film:
Perfect for audiences of all ages, Ponyo (2008) centers on the friendship between five-year-old Sosuke and a magical goldfish named Ponyo, the young daughter of a sorcerer father and a sea-goddess mother. After a chance encounter, Ponyo yearns to become a human so she can be with Sosuke.
As to be expected with Miyazaki, the film is awash in pure unbridled imagination and visual wonder — but it is the tender love, humor, and devotion exhibited by Ponyo and Sosuke that form the emotional heart of the film.
“This poetic, visually breathtaking work by the greatest of all animators has such deep charm that adults and children will both be touched. It’s wonderful…”
—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
About the filmmaker:
One of Japan’s most distinctive filmmakers, Hayao Miyazaki’s stories consider the conflict between human progress and nature with the existence of the spirit world alongside the mundane. Before founding Studio Ghibli, he worked for various animation studios and crafted his first feature films Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). With fellow animator and longtime collaborator, Takahata Isao, he launched Studio Ghibli in 1985 and began producing some of most iconic hand-drawn animated films of all time, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013). In 2015, Miyazaki received an honorary Academy Award for his impact on animation and cinema, and his most recent film The Boy and the Heron (2023) won Best International Feature.
Previously presented as part of Ghibli at GFC 2025 this spring.
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