Everything Is Final Fantasy

We begin our conversation on one of our favorite movies from childhood, Don Bluth's animated classic, The Secret of Nimh.

We love Doctor Tot! Gargan Roo creeps us out. We evolve our feelings on Zorn & Thorn. We get thrown in jail. And we get to Cleyra which opens up all kinds of interesting political parallels to the real world.

We wrap up our series on the Studio Ghibli film, Ponyo, with an examination of the power of a child's imagination. The ending reminds us that there are all different kinds of love, and the music gives us a tiny bit of tonal whiplash. What are the best lessons we can learn from Sosuke and Ponyo?

Lisa makes the highly controversial decision to leave her young kids alone. And they end up in peril. I relate this part of the story to the first time I lost track of my own child and the fear that entailed. Plus, do the hard magic rules introduced by Ponyo's mom undercut the magical realism the story has been building?

On this episode Ponyo becomes human and we dive into a concept popularized by Mr. Rogers and Ms. Rachel, "there's no such thing as other people's kids."