Studio Ghibli Costumes: Ponyo

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Ponyo, Ponyo, little fishy in the sea...

My kids love this movie and they love to sing the song. 

Ponyo is my next simple Studio Ghibli inspired costume and it's probably the easiest! 

Are you familiar with Ponyo? It's such a cute movie. The story is about a young boy named Sosuke who catches a fish and keeps it temporarily in a bucket - except it isn't really a fish, it's a magical little girl called Ponyo who comes from the ocean. After returning to the ocean Ponyo becomes determined to live on the land with Sosuke, and magically sprouts arms and legs. As a large storm hits the area Ponyo runs along the waves until she find Sosuke and his mother Lisa, just like in the picture above. Ponyo and Sasuke become the best of friends. I don't want to give away what happens to you'll just have to watch it!

Ponyo's outfit is very simple. She wears a short red dress and white bloomers. She has scruffy hair (no problem there for Mathilde!) and becomes attached to the green bucket that Sosuke originally caught her in. 

What you'll need:

Red short sleeved dress or tunic

White shorts

Green bucket

Blue tissue paper

Optional: Mini plush Ponyo

For this costume I reused the red dress that Mathilde wore as Mei from My Neighbor Totoro (you can see it here). I paired it with a pair of white bike pants, although puffy bloomers would be great too. As the dress was a little long, I tucked the ends into the waist band of the shorts and bloused it out a little. To make the bucket look as though it was filled with water I scrunched up a few sheets of blue tissue paper and placed the inside. The tissue paper partly fell out a few times during our photos and I love how this created the impression of splashing water!

Speaking of the bucket, I purchased a small plush Ponyo fishy to place inside the bucket with the blue tissue paper around it. Ponyo never actually carries a mini version of herself around in the movie, but I thought it was a cute touch anyway.

Wasn't that an easy costume? 

Next up: Kiki's Delivery Service!