Created by celebrated director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Ponyo is clearly not one of their better efforts. In this story, an aquatic, human-headed blob that we’re told is supposed to be a goldfish escapes from her human-looking wizard/alchemist father. After riding on a jellyfish for a while, she has a dangerous encounter with a trawler, gets stuck in a jar, and washes up on shore, where she is found and rescued by Sôsuke, a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother while his sea captain father is mostly away. He names her Ponyo. In the process of breaking her out of the jar, Sôsuke cuts his finger. Ponyo licks it and instantly heals it. More importantly, the taste of human blood gives her magical powers. Ponyo and Sôsuke form a bond, and she decides she wants to become a human girl.
![Ponyo and Her Father](https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNzMxMjI3ODE4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTA5MDY3Mg@@._V1_.jpg)
Ponyo and Her Father. IMDb.com
Ponyo’s father is having none of it, however, so he sends his magical water spirits to reclaim her. During a heated quarrel, she starts to transform, but her father uses magic to force her back into her original state. He leaves to summon Ponyo’s mother, and while he’s gone, she completes her transformation, gets into the storehouse of magical elixir, and unleashes a watery apocalypse upon the unsuspecting humans.
![Ponyo Wreaks Havoc](https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTU2Mjk3NDYzNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTA5MDY3Mg@@._V1_.jpg)
Ponyo Wreaks Havoc. IMDb.com