It’s been several years since it was announced, but it’s finally here. Hayao Miyazaki’s latest, and possibly final, feature film, The Boy and the Heron, has finally been released.
The Boy and the Heron is a lot of things and represents quite a lot for Studio Ghibli. It’s a return to 2D animation after the misstep that was Earwig and the Witch. It’s a film that was kept in such secrecy that in the lead-up to its Japanese release, the only promotional material for the film was a poster. It’s potentially the final film by Hayao Miyazaki, though he has indicated recently that he may make more films. It’s a reflection of Miyazaki’s life in many ways and is the culmination of a lot of concepts and ideas that Studio Ghibli has been playing around with ever since its inception. But most importantly, The Boy and the Heron is good. It may not be a masterpiece like some are saying it is, but even then, it’s still arguably the best animated movie of the year.
With respect to the original marketing of the film and how most of the Japanese audiences went into this film completely blind, I approached The Boy and the Heron knowing absolutely nothing about it. No plot synopsis, no character descriptions – I didn’t even see the trailer. All I had were a few screenshots that crept up my feed, and that was it. In a way, I kind of wish I had known more going into the film since I had no idea what to expect from it. Was it going to be an adventure like Castle in the Sky? Was the film going to be a reflective piece like The Wind Rises? Or was The Boy and the Heron going to try something completely different from any other Ghibli film? The answer is a little bit of all three of these, though it’s unequivocally Ghibli’s most adult film.
The Boy and the Heron is a film about grief, where most of the film is centered around coming to terms with the fragility of life. The world – and life itself – won’t last forever, and we need to come to accept that. Whether that be the human element where we see young people grow old, old people become young, and the balance between life and death. The world of The Boy and the Heron is one of conflict, whether it be due to its World War II setting or how the fantasy elements also show that life is precariously perched at the edge of oblivion. Death and life are intertwined, and the film’s protagonist, Mahito, has to come to terms with that. It’s easy to tell that, at times, Mahito is a stand-in for Miyazaki, with the two of them sharing a relatively similar childhood. Unlike Miyazaki and his colorful thoughts on the state of anime, Mahito isn’t very interesting.
For as much as I may love the beautiful imagery of The Boy and the Heron and everything the film attempts, if you’re going into the film expecting a well-told story with compelling characters, you’re not going to find that here. Most of the cast are relatively understated and don’t interact with each other all that much outside of the eponymous boy and heron. There is a plot, but it feels like a secondary element that was included because there needed to be one. It’s not as concise and well executed as earlier Miyazaki movies like Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, which will probably make this film difficult for some to get into. It’s murky and wanders from scene to scene, which can work depending on who you are. Most of the film is quiet and contemplative, where scenes are presented, and it’s really up to the viewer to interpret the meaning of them and how they all relate to each other. When an entire film consists of these scenes, then it’s hard to really connect with them as so much of the time, you’re left asking what the point of it all is. Think of if the train scene from Spirited Away went on for about an hour, and you’ll understand what I’m getting at.
Yet the emotions of the scenes do come through. Even if you don’t understand the how and why some scenes are unfolding, the emotions that are presented are genuine and easy to grasp. The film lingers on these feelings and lets them wash over you, and I found myself just quietly thinking to myself how peaceful this movie can be. It takes some time for the film to reach that point since it spends a lot of its time establishing itself, but after an hour or so, you’re more or less invested in what the film is getting at. While I’ve seen the film being compared to The Wizard of Oz, I find that The Boy and the Heron has more in common with Alice in Wonderland. Mahito is placed into this world where characters openly ignore his questions, and you’re just meant to go along for the ride, becoming a viewer of the outlandish rules and situations of this plane of existence. There’s a logic to this world that everyone seems privy to except for us, which does have the side-effect of preventing the viewer from becoming fully engaged with the film but perfectly encapsulates the ambiance that Miyazaki was most assuredly aiming for.
What isn’t impossible to understand, though, is that The Boy and the Heron is gorgeous. I’m always thrilled to see a hand-drawn 2D animated film, and nobody does them quite like Studio Ghibli. It’s fully apparent now why this film took seven years to make since there is a frankly absurd amount of detail in a handful of scenes. When massive crowds are gathering around, it’s mindboggling thinking how each of these characters was individually animated and that human hands made something that looks this polished. From the very first scene, I was impressed with what I was watching, and my opinion of the animation grew more and more as the film progressed. In an industry that seems hell-bent on pushing out content at a quick pace and screwing over the animators who made them, Studio Ghibli proves that time and effort can produce beautiful results.
If I’m being perfectly honest, I wanted to love The Boy and The Heron more than I did, but I still enjoyed the film a lot. I saw this with a group of fellow weebs, and outside of joking about how this is a perfect fantasy film because, as we all know, birds aren’t real, we had a great time with it. But as we left the theater, we all could admit that we didn’t like it as much as we thought it would. I guess a part of it has to do with the lofty expectations that are now associated with Hayao Miyazaki as well as the minimalist advertising, but I think another reason is that, once again, this is a film more interested in conveying feelings and atmosphere above all else. The film ends without any fanfare, just leaving the audience out to dry and having them draw their own conclusions about what they witnessed.
And for what it’s worth, I don’t think that watching the dub of the film would have mattered all that much in the grand scheme of things. I saw the sub, and outside of some questionable translations, the performances were all solid and did a good job of conveying the emotions associated with them. While I’m sure that Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, and the legendary Willem Dafoe will all do their roles justice, I don’t think that it would change the core of the film. I will go see the dub just to see which version is better, but the differences between the two will almost certainly be negligible. If not, then I’ll be sure to let you all know and firmly weigh in on which is the definitive version of the film.
If you’re going into The Boy and the Heron blind, I don’t think that you’ll have any idea what you’re getting yourself into, even if you have seen the trailer and all of the publicity. It’ll be great a great watch, but unlike anything that Miyazaki has ever done. It’s clear that he’s become reflective on his life and his career, and The Boy and the Heron is the end product of that contemplation. It’s the embodiment of everything that Miyazaki is and should be recognized as an achievement for that alone, even if that film doesn’t fully come together as well as it could have. The film ignores any and all questions in favor of letting the atmosphere overcome the viewers. If you can get behind the film being more of an emotional think piece than anything else, then you’ll probably love this film. If you want something more akin to his earlier work, then you’ll probably be disappointed but still satisfied to an extent with what you’re given.
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