Ponyo Was Miyazaki's Apology to His Son (2024)

Hayao Miyazaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli and one of the most beloved anime directors of all time. That being said, a number of people he's worked with over the years have come forward to confess that he was difficult to deal with and work with, including Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a fantastic artist, but he is also a very strong critic. Modern animators using CGI technology have met with Miyazaki's scorn, while the Academy at the 2003 Oscars was left cold when Miyazaki refused to attend the ceremony. That said, the director did accept the Academy Honorary Award in 2014.

As an animator with a long history, however, Miyazaki is entitled to his opinions, and his reasons for refusing the 2003 Oscars were political. The treatment of his son, however, has prompted a lot of people to feel less than forgiving. Goro found himself in an incredibly difficult situation when he was put in the director's seat for Ghibli's Tales From Earthsea after his father entered into another temporary retirement. The way Miyazaki treated his son was so terrible, in fact, that Miyazaki left retirement and inserted an apology to Goro in the film Ponyo. But what did Miyazaki do that was so terrible?

Updated on June 20, 2024, by Ajay Aravind: There have been numerous father-son collaborations in cinematic history, but crafting a movie requires both of them to be in sync with each other. Although the specifics of Hayao & Goro Miyazaki's relationship remain unknown, it's clear that Hayao has said some rather hurtful things about his son. That said, Miyazaki clearly wants to establish a stronger bond, perhaps because he once looked at his own father in a negative light. As such, we've updated this article with some more relevant information.

Goro Miyazaki's Work On Tales From Earthsea Strained His Relationship With His Father

• Tales from Earthsea is based on Ursula K. Le Guin's Tales fromEarthsea short story collection and a graphic novel written by Hayao Miyazaki titled Shuna's Journey.
• The film was released in the U.S. by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Although the original stories were written by one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century, Tales from Earthsea is often regarded as the weakest film in the Studio Ghibli library. While the film does have its fans, most regard it as being something of a noble failure; something that fell far too short of its massive potential. Over the years, fans have come to expect a certain level of story and animation quality from Studio Ghibli.

Hayao Miyazaki had approached author Ursula K. Le Guin for the rights to Earthsea years prior, but it wasn't until Le Guin familiarized herself with his work that she accepted Studio Ghibli's offer to adapt her Earthsea novels. However, by that time, Miyazaki was preoccupied with producing Howl's Moving Castle and intended on retiring after the completion of that film. Studio Ghibli head Toshio Suzuki needed someone else to take on directing duties for the adaptation. Suzuki pressured Goro Miyazaki, who had previously worked as a landscaper and never directed an animated film before, to start on the project.

Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Goro was forced to produce the entire film within a constrained timeline, with it coming to theaters roughly two years after Le Guin signed the contract. At a time like this, Goro really could've used some assistance or advice from his father -- the experienced animator who spent years in the industry before being given the same opportunity. Instead, Hayao Miyazaki refused to even talk to his son, seemingly infuriated that someone with so little know-how even agreed to take on responsibilities for the project. Without the assistance of his father, Goro was left to work entirely on his own. And when the film failed to meet expectations, Goro received the brunt of the criticism.

After watching the film, Hayao Miyazaki told his son, "It was made honestly, so it was good." While Goro presented his father's faint praise as a measure of pride, there are other accounts that indicate Tales from Earthsea left him frustrated and bored; complaints that he blamed his son for. Meanwhile, Ursula Le Guin informed Goro Miyazaki that she enjoyed his adaptation, although she also said: "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie."

Tales from Earthsea

PG-13

Animation

Adventure

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange... What's even more strange is that people are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating the cause.

Director

Goro Miyazaki

Release Date

July 29, 2006

Cast

Junichi Okada , Aoi Teshima , Bunta Sugawara , Yûko Tanaka , Teruyuki Kagawa , Jun Fubuki , Timothy Dalton , Willem Dafoe , Mariska Hargitay

Writers

Ursula K. Le Guin , Goro Miyazaki , Keiko Niwa , Hayao Miyazaki

Runtime

115 minutes

Hayao Miyazaki and His Son Continue Working Together

Goro Miyazaki's Filmography

The entire affair took a great toll on the relationship between Goro and his father. In Goro's own words:

"Shortly after I started making my first film, I had a huge fight with my father. For a long time we didn’t talk. He was opposed to the idea of me directing a film. He felt that it would be ridiculous for somebody with no experience to, all of a sudden, go into directing. He would tell me about how much he had to struggle in his days to get to that place where he could have the opportunity... Having my (now four-year old) son -- his grandson -- allowed us to start talking again."

Hayao Miyazaki intended on retiring after finishing Howl's Moving Castle in 2004 — but that didn't happen. Instead, he returned to make another film, this time based on the classic story of The Little Mermaid: Ponyo. Miyazaki drew heavily from his own family for the film's story. One of the older female characters is based on his own mother, while the main character, a young boy named Sosuke, was inspired by Goro when he was the same age.

While the film is mostly a story of puppy love and magic, it also clearly serves as a reconciliatory effort for his behavior during the making of Tales from Earthsea. In Ponyo, Sosuke's father is a sailor out at sea who often ends up unable to contact or really connect with his son. While his family is justifiably upset by this — in particular his wife — the father still loves his son dearly, even though he can't help him when the sea starts drowning out civilization. Sosuke has to essentially save the world — a metaphor perhaps for Goro having to bail out his father's project despite lacking the experience to do so.

To add to the parallel, Goro Miyazaki also worked on Ponyo as an animator, working and studying by his father's side to better hone his animation skills. After Ponyo's release in 2008, Goro's sophom*ore film, From Up on Poppy Hill, was released. This was yet another collaboration between Hayao Miyazaki and his son, and this time around, he gave Goro a lot of helpful advice that allowed him to grow as both an animator and director.

While Goro was still deeply hurt by the way his father treated him, he still accepted Miyazaki's often very helpful advice. This led him to independently create Ronja, the Robber's Daughter, an animated series created entirely in CGI, using technology his father had, in previous years, decried. Was this an act of flippant rebellion? Maybe, though there has never been an official statement to confirm that. Ronja has gotten mixed reviews since its 2014 debut, with some praising the beauty of the artwork, while noting that the animation was just ok. Others have claimed it to be a worthy addition to Studio Ghibli's legacy.

Goro Miyazaki's 2020 film, Earwig and the Witch, signaled similar feedback from fans, with one Rotten Tomatoes reviewer calling the story as uninspired as the animation. That does make one wonder if maybe Hayao Miyazaki was onto something with his stand against CGI animation. As the industry continues to grow and evolve with the ever-changing times, CGI technology will continue to play a role in the future of filmmaking. Perhaps Goro Miyazaki's experiments will lead him to his own magic formula that combines the future with the past in a successful byproduct.

Ponyo

G

Adventure

Comedy

A five-year-old boy develops a relationship with Ponyo, a young goldfish princess who longs to become a human after falling in love with him.

Director

Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date

July 19, 2008

Cast

Tomoko Yamaguchi , Kazushige Nagashima , Yûki Amami , Yuria Nara , Matt Damon , Cate Blanchett , Liam Neeson , Hiroki Doi

Writers

Hayao Miyazaki

Runtime

101 minutes

Main Genre

Anime

Studio

Studio Ghibli

Where to watch

HBO Max

Awards Won

Tokyo Anime Awards

Distributor(s)

Toho

The Boy And The Heron Could Also Be About Miyazaki's Family

Hayao Miyazaki has announced his retirement on multiple occasions, but has returned each time to make yet another film. Fans aren't complaining, though, because then they wouldn't have had gems like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. In fact, now it seems like the multi-award-winning The Boy and the Heron is going to be Miyazaki's last movie. Given that the fabled director is already 83 years old, it wouldn't be surprising if it turned out to be his swansong.

That said, The Boy and the Heron revolves around Mahito, a young boy who loses his mother during the Pacific Theater of World War II. Many critics and fans have come to the conclusion that the titular boy is based on Hayao Miyazaki, who also went through the same series of battles as a small child. Although Miyazaki didn't lose his mother until 1983, he has based several Ghibli characters on her. Given the sheer density of subtext and metaphorical layers in his movies, it's not surprising to imagine that Goro Miyazaki might be hidden somewhere in The Boy and the Heron.

The Boy and the Heron

PG-13

A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.

Director

Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date

December 8, 2023

Cast

Soma Santoki , Masaki Suda , Takuya Kimura , Aimyon

Writers

Hayao Miyazaki

Runtime

2 hours 4 minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Production Company

Studio Ghibli, Toho Company