Hayao Miyazaki describes to us the prehistoric marine creatures such as Bothriolepis and Dipnorhynchus. These ancient creatures which we only know as fossils to invent Devonynchus, a gigantic shark-whale with a strangely flat body. After having seen Fantasia 2000 Hayao Miyazaki declared: "It was almost perfect. If I had made this film, I would have made the pink flamingos dance on the sea with the village of Venice under water below them “So, recurring to his work, the image of the flooded village and the sea does not stop fascinating Hayao Miyazaki.

Influences

Having finished The Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki plunged into the complete works of the Japanese novelist Soseki Natsume. This interest had a surprising influence on Ponyo on the Cliff. The name of the central figure of Soseki Natsume's novel "The Gate” is Sosuke, the one who lives "in a house under a cliff".

One of the author's first novels, "Kusamakura" ("The Three-Cornered World "), was inspired by a picture which he contemplated in Tate Museum when he was a student in London, "Ophélie" by John Everett Millais, and contains numerous allusions to this work. Hayao Miyazaki was so interested in this captivating painting that he went to London to see it with his own eyes. Stunned by the beauty of the picture, he decided "to change course and to pass from a more mature style to a simpler and more natural style". In a way, we can say that Ponyo on the Cliff came to life thanks to Soseki Natsume.




A symbol of the Ghibli heritage

The presence of the moon is very strong in the film. It is gigantic, and becomes even bigger every time it appears. According to Hayao Miyazaki, this phenomenon is due to the fact that the world's balance was broken. By approaching the Earth, the moon weakens the gravity and provokes a rise in the water level which floods Sosuke and Lisa's village. The moon has been perceived for a long time as a symbol of femininity. We also say that the moon affects the human mind; that the phases of the moon and the tides which they provoke are supposed to have an influence on our moods and on the life and the death of people. For Miyazaki, man is thus a human subject to the moon and its changes.