The Boy and the Heron

Some Mild Spoilers Within

In the early days of World War II, twelve-year old Mahito Maki loses his mother in a hospital fire. Leaving his home in Tokyo to move across Japan with his father and pregnant stepmother, Mahito discovers all may not be as it seems on the grounds of his new home when a grey heron crosses his path.

Having entered what he claimed to be full-time retirement after his previous eleven feature films, it seemed impossible to most people when, at the age of 80, Hayao Miyazaki announced he would be returning to Studio Ghibli to make one more film. It’s being marketed as his final film, but at this point who knows if that statement will hold true. The man is clearly set on working until his dying day. And with those eleven films, it could have been argued that Miyazaki would have little left to say, when his films have stated, so perfectly, his ideals, his work ethic, his dreams, his anxieties, and everything else that makes up this master filmmaker, especially when he came out of his first retirement in 2013 to gift us his magnum opus, The Wind Rises. This film is, without ever feeling cheaply derivative, a spiritual successor to two of his most personal (and best) works, the magic-full Spirited Away and magicless The Wind Rises. I am still in awe of this spectacular film, and while I did not really have any doubts that he could give us something truly special once again, I am shocked that I loved it as much as I did, feeling that it is definitely towards the top, if I had to rank his films.

Struggling to become accustomed to this new home, school, and ever-changing life, Mahito comes across a talking grey heron that tells him his mother is still alive in another realm, but he must enter an abandoned and dangerous tower to search for her. Miyazaki still has a lot to say and for some of it, I discovered fairly quickly what he was looking to revisit, and what of that he is still reconciling with, even in his eighties. Though set during the war, the only thing tied directly to the war is the fact that Mahito’s father, Shoichi, runs a mechanical manufacturing factory and we get a glimpse at airplane parts, as well as few bits of dialogue about creating jobs, war volunteers, and the like. Like The Wind Rises, Miyazaki is still coming to terms with his family’s business of helping to design and build aircraft parts during WWII, and the spiderweb of thoughts, feelings, and repercussions spun out from losing the war and coming from a wealthy family due to their war aircraft manufacturing, which would certainly give a young boy some conflicting feelings.

While there is little of that within The Boy and the Heron, those fingerprints are left throughout the entirety of the feature. Although only present in a few scenes, Shoichi is clearly a powerful, affluent, and, at times, overbearing. Putting Hayao into the shoes of Mahito, the parallels are clear, and the loss of Mahito’s mother in such a terrible accident builds an even bigger rift between he and his father. So while there is no real animosity between the two, but definitely some misunderstanding, that need for acceptance and connection is heavy on Mahito from the first scene to the last. It’s a fascinating dynamic when you take the movie at its most simplest idea, a boy searching for his mother, when in reality he should be searching to reconnect with his father, and the new family that is being built around him. So much of the story is centered around family and lineage, it’s no wonder that Miyazaki still felt like had a lot to say on the matter.

For about the first third of the film I was struggling, like Mahito, to truly understand and figure out what the point of all this was. It is a uniquely rare and special gift to be as lost and confounded as a story’s protagonist, without it coming off as poor writing. With most modern storytelling, we are so used to being, at best, omniscient, and at worst, spoonfed exactly what we need to know at any given moment. But it comes with little surprise that Miyazaki would slap that spoon away. At no point did I ever consider there to be poor writing here, but I was absolutely caught up in a similar whirlwind as Mahito, scratching my head with no inkling of where this was all headed.

While certain story aspects take some time to completely unfold and show their true nature, at no point is the story a slog, as there is always something new happening, and taking Mahito and his eventual companions in new directions. We even see the titular heron and its unique ways immediately after Mahito arrives at his new home. There were so many ideas and themes being thrust towards the audience that it almost, and I must emphasize almost felt muddied and lost under the weight of its own ideas. A unique blending of the familiar, to Miyazaki fans, and inventiveness began to leave me spellbound and unsure if what he was trying to say was going to come across as clearly as he had hoped. I was wrong, of course, and like blocks on a table, Miyazaki knows just how to stack them to make this fantasy mystery work from beginning to end.

The Boy and the Heron is one of Miyazaki’s darker and more mature films, which is almost odd to say when it is so bright and beautiful for the majority of its runtime. Like most of his filmography, we hit a full 2 hour runtime and the darker themes will be OK for most older kids, but if you’re planning a family outing to the theater for this one, I’d recommend leaving anyone under 10 with a sitter. Opening with the hospital fire, Mahito’s mother’s death, and the immediate move out of Tokyo, the story leaves very little joy to be seen in the beginning. Of course, there is plenty of Miyazaki’s signature beauty and magic right from the start, so there is a feeling of, if not hope, then at least a small return to normalcy. It also features some of the most of uncomfortable and disturbing imagery in any of his films. Nothing overtly horrifying, but definitely creepy and weird in the best way to suit this story.

The loss of Mahito’s mother weighs heavy on the film in the best way it can. It is never melodramatic, but rather gives the right amount of pain that a solemn 12-year old would feel about the loss of the most important woman in his life. He gets his private moments of grief before setting out on his adventure and it all feels right. Emotional weight has never been lost on me, when done right, and hell sometimes done cheaply, but this really felt true, like pretty much everything else Miyazaki has written. That said, I lost my own mother suddenly, less than three months ago, so to say that this story element didn’t hit me hard would be a lie. But for those who haven’t experienced that loss, it should come at you at a reasonable level. It is not overbearing and works as a perfect catalyst for this journey. Like the rest of his top works, this movie worked as a perfect fairy tale for me and I was emotionally overwhelmed by the time the film ended. And even without that personal emotional/grief connection, this movie would have worked exactly the same way on me. Which is to say, in a way that absolutely shatters me, but I will never be able to put my finger on the exact reason why.

Each step that Mahito takes from our world to the next is as perplexing as the last. At first no answers are given when the call to adventure is made, but Mahito is willing to do things on his own to get to his supposedly still living mother. It is this build-up actually setting out to the other world, in which the film may become confusing and incoherent to some, but this one really isn’t about handing out every little detail. We get the closure we seek by the time the credits roll, but revelations and realizations must come at the right time as the story progresses, even if all you’re left with are partial answers.

The animation is once again stunning and perfect from Studio Ghibli. Character designs are more or less what fans have come to expect from the last 38 years, and along with the truly incredible background paintings that makes for a flawless visual marriage. There are backgrounds and settings in this film that are so beautiful, and so perfect, I was nearly brought to tears in the theater just seeing them. This is one of the most emotionally overwhelming experiences I have had at the theater this year. And as for the animation itself, there isn’t a single frame that isn’t perfectly brought to life with some truly standout moments. Between the genius of Miyazaki and everyone at Studio Ghibli, paired with the skill of classic animation and today’s technology, The Boy and the Heron may be one of the most perfectly designed, crafted, and executed animated films ever produced.

As I stated, most of it is classic Ghibli through and through, but there are some spectacular moments that break away from that mold, and whether or not that takes you out of the film will be personal preference, but the talent on display is undeniable. The most notable change in style is during the opening sequence regarding the hospital fire. Knowing that his mother and father are there, Mahito races through the panicked streets of Tokyo to try to reach them. It is during this scene that the animation changes to reflect the flames, ash, and smoke swirling around the city block and Mahito himself and the art and animation changes to become very similar to the amorphous and loose style that Shinichirō Watanabe used in the short “Animatrix” film, Kid’s Story. (I looked to see if he worked on this film, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.) As someone who is so in love with the Miyazaki and Ghibli style, I was thrown for a moment, but the style fits the scene and 99% of the movie is in the classic style.

I had hoped to see both the Japanese and English language versions before writing my review, and while the early access IMAX screening I went to was listed as the Japanese cast, I did get the English version, so I can only speak to that one at the time I am writing this. The English language cast is filled with major movie stars, like all previous Miyazaki English dubs. Some have been featured in past Ghibli/Miyazaki dubs, and some are hot names right now. That said, they all give stellar performances, even if they get minimal screen time. The true stand-outs are Luca Padovan as Mahito, Mark Hamill as Grand Uncle, Florence Pugh as Kiriko, and the absolutely unrecognizable and unbelievable Robert Pattinson as the Gray Heron, more proof that Pattinson is willing to put in the work and be something completely new, different, and anything but himself when the role calls for it. Every actor is great in the film, but these do something really special with their characters. Christian Bale returns to Miyazaki’s world as Shoichi, and he is putting on enough of a character voice that it isn’t obviously him right away, but it is similar to stuff he’s done in recent live-action roles, so it wasn’t too much of a vocal stretch for him, but he is of course doing way more than his time on Howl’s Moving Castle.

Also returning for his twelfth Miyazaki feature is composer Joe Hisaishi. Hisaishi’s work is immediately identifiable with his use of strings and piano, and a Hayao Miyazaki film simply would not work in the same way without his genius. Like the film itself, his score weaves and soars through heartache, whimsy, terror, and the fantastic. As the animation tells the story, you can sense Hisaishi truly creating magic as you feel the music breathe life into this 2D space. There are few pairings in film like Miyazaki and Hisaishi. And as if the score was not enough of an audible feast, the sound design and mix on this film are expertly executed. It is probably one of the most perfectly designed Ghibli films, in terms of sound, from the simplest things like a car door shutting, to a cluster of sounds and things working in a plane of existence very much unlike our own. The magic comes from all around us in the sound scape created by Mika Yamaguchi and Koji Kasamatsu. It is incredible.

Another heart-bursting masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki, and whether it is his last, or if he has another one or a few left in him, I have no doubt in my mind they will all be, at the very least, wonderful.

The Boy and the Heron had some Early Access IMAX screenings on Monday, December 4, and opens wide today.