Ponyo and Breastfeeding

Last night, I went to see Ponyo, a film from the Academy Award-winning director and world-renowned Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki.

Hayao Miyazaki's other films include Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke.

Ponyo is a visually stunning fairy tale with elements from The Little Mermaid (she is a goldfish that wishes to become human) and The Beauty and the Beast (the little boy, Sosuke, who must "love her in any form").

I took Madelyn, age 8, with me to see this fantastic film! One of our 100 Fun, Frugal Things to Do for this summer included, "Watch an Anime film". She left the theater starry-eyed and said Ponyo was, "Amazing!"

One scene struck me as particularly impressive with dialogue between the little girl, Ponyo and a nursing mother.

Ponyo accompanies Sosuke in his boat on an adventure to find his stranded mother. They cross paths with a mother, father and their young baby. Ponyo opens up a container of soup and pours some to offer the baby.

The mother explains to Ponyo that the baby is too young to eat soup; he only drinks milk. She states that she will drink the warm soup so that she can make milk for her baby to drink!

Sosuke chimes in that when he was a baby his mother made milk for him, also!

I wanted to applaud in the middle of the movie for that scene! I found it wonderful that a clear discussion of breastfeeding was included in a movie intended for young audiences.

"Thank you, Miyazaki!"

Check out a film clip from Ponyo *here* and visit the official movie site for trailers, desktop downloads, a game and much more!