There are moments of personal magic (the boy «talks» with his sailor father as he passes their Cliffside home using signal lamps), natural magic (schools of fish become literal waves curling upon the shore in the search for the missing Ponyo) and imaginative magic (Ponyo turns a toy boat into a watercraft
sized just
right for a couple of kids), but the film's real magic is in the
generosity and love on display from humans and spirits alike.