The Boy and the Heron (2023) GKIDS/Fantasy-Adventure-Drama RT: 124 minutes Rated PG-13 (some violent content and bloody images) Director: Hayao Miyazaki Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki Music: Joe Hisaishi Cinematography: Atsushi Okui Release date: July 14, 2023 (Japan)/December 8, 2023 (US) Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Shohei Hino, Ko Shibasaki, Jun Kunimura, Keiko Takeshita, Jun Fubuki, Sawako Agawa, Shinobu Otake, Karen Takizawa. Spoken in Japanese w/English subtitles Box Office: $46.8M (US)/$173.3M (World)
Rating: ***
In the second time in as many weeks, a Japanese-made film is among the new offerings at multiplexes. Last week, it was Godzilla Minus One, surprisingly one of the season’s most acclaimed films. This week it’s The Boy and the Heron, the new film from animator-writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, the man who has graced cinema with exquisite animated masterpieces like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises. That last title was supposed to be the 82YO artist’s final film, but he came out of retirement to make another final film. I guess he had more to say about life. Maybe we ought to sit up and listen.
The story, a blend of drama and fantasy, centers on 12YO Mahito (Santoki) who loses his mother to a hospital fire in the film’s prologue. The boy and his father Shoichi (Takuya Kimura) leave Tokyo to start over in the countryside with his new wife Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), the younger sister of his late first wife. Mahito isn’t happy about any of it. In fact, he isn’t happy period. He doesn’t much care for his new mother and his father is always busy with his munitions factory. The kids at his new school take an instant dislike to him. When combined with his grief, it’s a heavy burden to bear.
Things take a weird turn when a big gray heron starts to taunt and pester Mahito. It leads him to an old ruined tower in the woods, the same place where his granduncle mysteriously disappeared many years before. The boy initially wants to be left alone. That changes when a pregnant Natsuko goes missing after Mahito sees her heading towards the tower. The heron urges him to enter by claiming his dead mother is waiting for him inside. Accompanied by elderly housemaid Kiriko (Shibasaki), he follows the heron into the tower which leads directly to a magical alternate world. He then proceeds to look for Natsuko and his mother.
It hasn’t been a great year for animated films. Too many of them- e.g. Elemental, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken and (to an extent) Wish- are soulless exercises that exist only to make $$$. Up until this point, the only one that went above and beyond was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. While I wouldn’t count The Boy and the Heron among Miyazaki’s best, it’s still much more than some dumb cartoon for kids. It’s not even for kids, smaller ones anyway. While there’s nothing inappropriate in it per se, the little ones won’t understand its deeper themes. On the surface, it’s about a boy having an adventure in a fantasy world that isn’t always pretty. Underneath it, you’ll find a drama about a boy learning a valuable life lesson, that emotional pain is an unavoidable part of life. You can’t just avert it by choosing to live in a fantasy rather than reality. In that sense, The Boy and the Heron is a coming-of-age drama. Little kids won’t get that part meaning they won’t fully appreciate what Miyazaki is doing here.
There’s a lot to be said for traditional hand-drawn animation as opposed to the computer-generated style favored by American studios these days. It’s become too commonplace since Pixar introduced it to the moviegoing public with Toy Story in ’95. That’s why it’s an event to some when Studio Ghibli, mainly through GKIDS in the US, releases a new movie. In addition to Miyazaki’s films, they also put out The Secret World of Arrietty, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There and The Red Turtle. Each one is beautiful to look at. The same can be said of The Boy and the Heron. The animation is positively flawless. Miyazaki is a true, honest-to-God artist in addition to being a master-class storyteller. His illustrations are absolutely enthralling.
As much as I like The Boy and the Heron, it’s not perfect. It has pacing issues. The first hour feels a bit dragged out. The mix of drama and fantasy feels slightly off this time. Also, the heron character tends to be annoying. Without giving too much away, he undergoes a transformation that’s actually kind of creepy. It lessened my overall enjoyment of the film.
Cinemas are offering customers the option of seeing The Boy and the Heron spoken in its original language or dubbed into English. I saw the subtitled version and was quite pleased with the voice talents despite Mahito sounding older than 12. The dubbed version features the voice talents of known actors like Robert Pattinson (the Heron), Gemma Chan (Natsuko), Christian Bale (Shoichi) and Florence Pugh (Kiriko) as well as Mark Hammill, Willem Dafoe and Dave Bautista. My multiplex of choice alternates between the two. Check your theater show times to see which version is playing at what time.
In general, I really like The Boy and the Heron, but I don’t love it. It’s good not great. That, of course, is only my opinion. Others have been raving about it. I think it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of Miyazaki and animation. He says this will be his final film, but you never know. He might just have one more in him. We shall see.
