Hurray! Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea will be released stateside August 14th. Miyazaki's latest "final" film, Ponyo tells the story of Sosuke, a human boy who rescues a strange-looking fish. He names her Ponyo, and the two fall in chaste, 5-year-old love; then Ponyo's sorcerer father comes & forces her to return to his underwater castle. Determined to see Sosuke again, Ponyo uses her father's magic to turn human, but unwittingly upsets the balance of the universe in the process.
Although Ponyo did not perform as well as other recent Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki films (you could taste the schadenfreude as reviewers noted unusually empty seats at screenings), the film still managed to infect Japanese pop culture. Ponyo's theme song hit number 3 on the Oricon (Japanese Billboard) charts, and Ponyo references pop up in the most unexpected places. Below is an example from Weekly Shonen Jump's Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro:
The U.S. dub will feature Tina Fey & Matt Damon as Sosuke's parents, Liam Neeson & Cate Blanchett as Ponyo's parents, and Cloris Leachman, Betty White, & Lily Tomlin as three residents in the nursing home where Sosuke's mother works. Even though I prefer subs, the cast sounds great, with no glaring miscasts (e.g., Billy Crystal as Calcifer). Finally, here's the Japanese trailer:
