Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

Possibly the most irresistibly joyful thing Hisaishi ever committed to orchestra. Written to Miyazaki's specific instruction that it should capture a small child's version of the world — boundless, immediate, slightly chaotic — this main theme from Ponyo gallops forward on a melody so earnest it almost hurts. The orchestration is deliberately oversized and slightly cartoonish: brass announcing things with the confidence of a five-year-old, strings swirling in the harmonic equivalent of a running child, the whole thing breathless and forward-leaning. Hisaishi plants an unforgettable hook that loops back on itself with the logic of a round, designed to be sung by children and stuck in adult heads for decades. It is also, beneath its apparent simplicity, a sophisticated piece of film scoring — the energy fluctuates in ways that mirror Ponyo's own mercurial nature, surging and dipping, never quite landing where you expect.