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Happy Mayday! Originally, the Maypole was a living tree brought in from the woods with much merrymaking. Ancient Celts danced around the tree, praying for good crops and fertility. For youth, there was the possibility of courtship.
(illustration by Edith Alice Cubitt)
The real seed of the series Hilda came from me wanting to do something that drew on Scandinavian folklore. I wanted a character who was very positive & who would get caught up in adventures as a result of her own curiosity, empathy or sense of responsibility.
- Luke Pearson
There was so much attention to detail in Ponyo that the animation resulted in 170,000 separate images, which was the most of any Hayao Miyazaki film.
The design of the ocean waves during the typhoon caused by Ponyo were inspired by the waves in the famous woodblock print The Wave Off Kanagawa by Japanese artist Hokusai.