Like most of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, Ponyo (known as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea to international audiences more tolerant of long titles) is an operatic fairy tale. It is a beautiful and touching story that eloquently addresses many adult themes (the environment, feminism, love, to name just a few) yet sustains enough whimsy and enchanted storytelling to make it the perfect children’s film.

This wonderfully adapted tale of the Little Mermaid (of Hans Christian Andersen fame) is ostensibly about 5-year-old Sosuke (Frankie Jonas), who lives with his mother (Tina Fey) in a picturesque house atop a cliff in a small seaside town. They live a traditional none-too-exciting life of school and work. Lisa works at the local retirement home where Sosuke has befriended several of the residents including, to varying degrees, Yoshie (Cloris Leachman), Toki (Lily Tomlin), and Noriko (Betty White). But, one day, when Sosuke rescues a goldfish – one “with a face” as observed by Toki – trapped in a bottle, the film shifts perspective. This goldfish, whom Sosuke names Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), is the magical daughter of a creepy wizard who lives underwater (Liam Neeson) and a beautiful sea goddess (Cate Blanchett). Ponyo falls in love with Sosuke and decides to become a “real” girl which creates an imbalance in nature and threatens to destroy the world. It then falls to Ponyo and Sosuke to restore order to nature and save the planet.

The plot moves along at a brisk pace that never really slow downs down all that much, so there’s not much chance for little ones to get distracted or bored. However, there is at least one scene near the end where Sosuke and Ponyo are in immediate danger that could upset some children. But, since this is a whimsical fairy tale, things don’t stay dark for too long. The actors providing voices for the English version do an admirable job delivering some rather banal dialogue (more on that later), but the standouts for me were Blanchett and Tomlin who were quite good in what were essentially supporting roles. Though the next generation of the Cyrus and Jonas clans play the lead roles (Frankie Jonas is Sosuke and Noah Cyrus is Ponyo), the performances are surprisingly good and you probably won’t feel like you’re being fed a prepackaged product of pre-adolescent marketing.

Like Myazaki’s many other films (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle for example) Ponyo is about strong children overcoming the shortcomings of the adult world to save the day. Although Lisa is often frustrated by her often absent fisherman husband (Matt Damon), it is Sosuke who grounds her and helps to keep things in perspective by offering sage advice beyond his young age (again, a Myazaki trademark). Ponyo herself is also typical of this and another Miyazaki theme, that of the strong feminist. In fact, there’s not only one strong feminine character in Ponyo herself, as she defies her father’s orders and falls in love with a human then decides to become one herself, but in her mother as well (she’s able to effectively control nature and similarly reduce Ponyo’s sinister father to a blubbering, obedient mess with a simple touch). These are two characters solidly in control of their world (as well as the men in them) and are certainly strong characters for young girls to be exposed to.

As wonderful and brilliant as Ponyo is, I couldn’t help but feel that something was getting lost in translation (a common problem with foreign films). It’s not that the voice work is bad or anything like that; it’s more that the English dialogue is often simplistic or just plain silly and doesn’t seem to belong in such a beautifully made film. In fact, the film works just fine (if not better) if you try and tune out the dialogue and absorb the story solely through visual and soundtrack cues. It’s that good of a film and Miyazaki is that good of a filmmaker. But since that’s the only nitpicky criticism I have, there really isn’t anything that should keep you from seeing this fantastic movie.

Rating: THREE BONES