Famed animator Hayao Miyazaki wanted to make a sequel to the 2008 film Ponyo. It never happened. There’s a simple reason for that. Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki did not want to see Ponyo 2.
[Image via Walt Disney]
Miyazaki, who has retired from feature films, is currently working on a short-form CG anime called Kemushi no Boro (Boro the Caterpillar). It will take another year or two before the anime is shown at the Ghibli Museum.
Speaking with Nippon.com, Suzuki talked about Miyazaki’s last feature film The Wind Rises and how it could’ve been another movie entirely.
“He [Miyazaki] wanted to do Ponyo 2, but I didn’t want to watch that,” Suzuki told Nippon.com. “It was no more than that.”
Instead of making Ponyo 2, Suzuki proposed making a movie about Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter. Initially, Miyazaki wasn’t keen, but eventually got behind the idea.
And that’s why Miyazaki’s last feature film is The Wind Rises and not Ponyo 2.
Comments
7 responses to “Why Studio Ghibli Didn’t Make Ponyo 2”
Oh! Ohhhh… I have strong mixed feelings about this. That’s so sad Ponyo 2 wasn’t done, since the first is one of my all time faves! But, but then… Wind Rises is one of my all time faves. So… hmm…
I know they were so cute together and it makes it so happy and special to me, I love ponyo and sosuke so much! It’s my favourite movie, and when I found out it was done I was sad there was not a ponyo 2 but I can imagine it and maybe draw it but I think it’s fine i don’t like the older versions when they’re five it’s adorable and beautiful together but I was so sad to find out the movie wasn’t real.
I meant so sad it’s not real, and maybe I want to be them I love it adorable love the best movie ponyo! ????????????????????????????????????
I thought it might be because of how bad Ponyo was…
srsly?
Ponyo is gorgeous to look at but the plot is ridiculous and contrived, the characters go from shallow to absurdly complex in a heartbeat then back to shallow and it includes a romantic story between two 5-year olds played out in all seriousness. Definitely Miyazaki’s worst film.
yeah, nah. a love story, yes. romantic, no. This is how 5 year olds make friends. Ponyo is no more ridiculous than Spirited Away or Totoro.
I disagree. In neither Spirited Away or Totoro bumbling tots go from bumbling and totting to discussing pre-Cambrian fauna and evolution and then get faux-married.
It’s not bad at all you must live a sad life! PONYO IS BEAUTIFUL NOT BAD huhihihyfrdgihhiuh AND ALSO SOSUKE AMAZING! I don’t understand you…..
Well they’ve never done a sequel before (no, The Cat Returns is not a sequel) and if they were going to you’d think it’d be the oft-rumored sequels to Nausicaa or Porco Rosso, not Ponyo.