Legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has directed five films since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences started giving out Oscars for Best Animated Feature in 2001. Of those five films, four were nominated for the award. Of those four, two won. That means one film in the group, somehow, didn’t even get a nomination. It’s almost fitting, then, that that film, the one Academy outlier, is the first of the filmmaker’s to get its very own exhibit at the Academy’s own museum.
The film is Ponyo, Miyazaki’s wondrous 2008 film about a young fish who becomes human thanks to the love of a young boy. A new, multiroom exhibit based on the film opened this weekend at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and it feels like a fitting tribute to the one Miyazaki that got away from the Oscars. In fact, it was Studio Ghibli itself that suggested the Ponyo exhibit and donated all the materials to the museum. Curious, don’t you think?
“[Ponyo] is an important film in [Studio Ghibli’s] filmography because, previous to this, they had begun to incorporate some computer imagery,” Emily Rauber Rodriguez, an assistant curator at the museum, told io9. “But this one was back to 100% hand-drawn animation. So I think that’s part of what makes it really special in their timeline and also makes it really great for us to display as art objects. Every frame is hand-drawn.”
Located on the second floor of the museum, the exhibit drops your jaw immediately with a massive, three-screen display playing clips from the film. From there, an interactive photo op with Ponyo herself, running on the waves, is set across from a few stunning art boards.
An adorable video featuring both the young Japanese and American actors who voiced the leads of Ponyo and Sōsuke then leads into the exhibit’s main area, which houses three full walls of original animation sketches from multiple Ghibli animations, including some by Miyazaki himself. Each is also accompanied by a behind-the-scenes video you can watch detailing the process, and all of them center around an actual animation desk from Studio Ghibli.
“I think a lot of animated films, sometimes you get caught up, especially for Ponyo, I get caught up in how beautiful it looks as the final film,” Rauber Rodriguez said. “But when you look at these animation drawings, especially the revisions by Miyazaki, the minute changes that he makes to a line, or a dot, or a smudge, completely changes the whole character, the whole moment.”
That second room also has a very fun interactive space where you can make your own underwater stop-motion video. Download an app, and let your imagination run wild. Here’s the one I made of a crab minding his own business until he runs into a shark.
A new PONYO exhibit opens Saturday at the @AcademyMuseum, and one of the fun bits is that you can make your own underwater animation.
Here’s mine. Full report soon. pic.twitter.com/mpeTKqyofS
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) February 13, 2026
Finally, the third room greets you with a massive replica of Sōsuke’s green bucket—perfect for photo ops—as well as another video to watch and a beautiful display of original movie posters from most of Studio Ghibli’s history. It’s a small exhibit (maybe a third of the size of the Jaws exhibit that’s still on display), but with its gorgeous decorations throughout, including a few teases for fans of the film, like boats and side characters, it very much feels like an immersive window into the mind of Miyazaki, the master.
“[Ponyo] was a movie designed for kids, and then, as a secondary group, adults,” Rauber Rodriguez said. “So that was the spirit we wanted to take into this exhibition as well. So we wanted to have some moments for kids to let loose a little bit, if they want to run in place or crawl on things, giving them a little bit of opportunity [to do that]. Because, we know, museums sometimes aren’t really that friendly. You have to be quiet and still and not touch things. So we wanted to give them a little bit of space to do that. And then also for adults to be kids themselves as well.”
The Ponyo exhibit is now on display at the Academy Museum through January 10, 2027. Admission is included with a ticket to the museum. Information on the exhibit, including tickets and reservations, can be found here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Read the full article here
