Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – A fun corner simulating waves, an animation table to create your own sequences, dozens of original sketches: with its new exhibition, the Oscars museum offers an immersive dive into the world of “Ponyo on the Cliff”, the aquatic masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki.

Published on: 02/13/2026 - 10:59

The Los Angeles institution opened its doors in 2021 with a retrospective dedicated to the great master of Japanese animation. After this successful premiere, his Studio Ghibli gave the American museum dozens of drawings made for this cartoon.

“It’s such a treasure to have that we had to share it with our visitors,” Jessica Niebel, curator of the exhibition which opens on Saturday for almost a year, explains to AFP.

The museum dedicates a little over 350m2 to this film released in 2008.

Inspired by Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", Miyazaki tells the story of a goldfish with the face of a little girl, taken in by a five-year-old boy, Sousuke. Despite the reluctance of her father, the underwater wizard Fujimoto, little Ponyo will fall in love with her new friend and will give up her magical powers to become human.

Entirely hand-drawn, the film was hailed as a visual feat, as it marked Miyazaki's return to the traditional animation of his early days, after incorporating computer-generated images in "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle."

“What's really special about + Ponyo + is that he told his team from the beginning that everything in this film had to move,” emphasizes Jessica Niebel, recalling how the teams created a lush aquatic world, with changing colors underwater and waves moving differently depending on the weather.

Animation enthusiasts will therefore find sketches of certain key sequences of the film, sketched in pencil, and projections of its most majestic moments.

But this immersive exhibition is above all “designed for children”, the primary audience for “Ponyo”, according to the curator. Access is free for under 17s.

Little ones can frolic on blue bumps that mimic the curve of the waves, slide a Ponyo figure along an ocean wall, or even hide in a reproduction of Sosuke's green bucket, with which he collects the goldfish.

Their parents can also play with them, thanks to luminous animation tables where they make sharks, jellyfish and other multicolored crabs move, taking photos frame by frame, in order to create their own animated sequence.

© 2026 AFP

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