San Francisco Frontiers - Oscars museum dives into world of Miyazaki's 'Ponyo'

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021 with a retrospective dedicated to the grand master of Japanese animation.

Nearly five years later, dozens of drawings, storyboards and other elements created for the film and gifted to the Los Angeles institution by Miyazaki's world-famous Studio Ghibli are going on display.

"It's such a treasure to have, we should share it with our visitors," the exhibit's curator, Jessica Niebel, told AFP.

The museum has dedicated over 350 square meters (nearly 3,800 square feet) to the magical 2008 movie.

Inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Little Mermaid," Miyazaki's story centers around a goldfish with a girl's face who is rescued by a five-year-old boy, Sosuke.

Despite the reluctance of her father, the underwater wizard Fujimoto, little Ponyo falls in love with her new friend and gives up her magical powers to become human.

Entirely hand drawn, the film was hailed as a visual masterpiece marking Miyazaki's return to the traditional animation of his early career, after incorporating computer generated images in "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle."

"What's really special about 'Ponyo' is he instructed his team right from the beginning that everything in this movie needs to move," said Niebel, recalling how the artists created a lush aquatic world, with swirling colors underwater and waves that shifted with the weather.

Animation enthusiasts will find sketches of some of the film's key sequences, drawn in pencil, and projections of its most majestic moments.

But the immersive exhibition is above all "geared towards children," the film's primary audience, Niebel said.

Younger kids can romp around on rolling blue installations that mimic waves, slide a 'Ponyo' figure across an ocean wall, or hide in a replica of Sosuke's green bucket which he used to collect goldfish.

Children and their parents are urged to sit at animation tables to position sharks, jellyfish and crabs, taking photos frame by frame to create their own animated sequence -- all under the benevolent eyes of the film's elders at a retirement home threatened by rising waters.

Niebel said she hopes the exhibit might "invite the younger generation to maybe think about becoming a filmmaker" or a creative artist.

The exhibit opens Saturday and runs until January 2027. Admission is free for children under 17.

Y.Harris--SFF