Ponyo (Noah Cyrus) begins life as a little fish. Sôsuke (Frankie Jonas) takes Ponyo out of the ocean and wants to keep her. She takes his ham when he feeds her and his mom says “she thinks she’s human”. Based on this interaction, Lisa (Tina Fey), Sôsuke’s mother, thinks eating sandwich meat makes something human.
I think her saying Sôsuke’s name and her own is one of the major turning points because she can speak.
Then Ponyo gives herself hands and feet to look more like a human.
Her father tells her she “can’t be human and magic at the same time”. So in this world, those with magic are not humans any longer.
Although she looks like a human, Ponyo still has to learn to be human. She learns about eating, drinking, and sleeping all in just a few hours.
To become truly human, Sôsuke has to “accept and love her as she truly is”. That combined with human blood is apparently the key to being a real human. Therefore, some blood and love from another person makes us all human.
So in coming back to my thought on Frankenstein: based on the characteristics laid down in this movie, the creature is not human. He does have human blood flowing in his recycled veins, but no one loves him, not even his creator. Poor guy can’t seem to get a break.
I had not thought about the gap between people in this movie, but it is a major underlying theme.
I totally love when a whole website is dedicated to nerding out (surprise surprise), but the Studio Ghibli Culture website is fantastic!
Thanks for reading!! See you next Thursday!