“The Boy and the Heron” Review
Determined to rescue his stepmother, a young boy named Mahito (Soma Santoki) allies himself with a talking grey heron (Masaki Soda) to explore a strange world in “The Boy and the Heron”, Hayao Miyazaki’s return to animation following his “retirement” in 2013.
Hayao Miyazaki is a filmmaker who really needs no buildup. His animated films are some of the greatest films of all time and he has done for Japanese animation what Akira Kurosawa did for live-action Japanese cinema: he created something so grand and so beautiful that it had to be screened in theaters all over the world. In America, films like “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Princess Mononoke” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” have become as beloved as the works of Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney with “Spirited Away” winning Miyazaki an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. After seemingly retiring from film following the completion of his 2013 film “The Wind Rises”, Miyazaki has returned with “The Boy and the Heron” and, as to be expected, it’s a beautiful and thought provoking film which is capable of captivating the young and old alike. If there’s anything to take away from this film, it’s that you can’t keep a good filmmaker like Miyazaki down nor can you keep him from making such beautiful work.
During the Pacific Theater of WWII, a Japanese boy named Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) loses his mother Hisako in a 1943 firebombing in Tokyo and feels constant guilt of not being able to save her. A year later, as the Japanese defeat looms closer and closer, Mahito and his father Shoichi (Tayuka Kimura) move to the countryside to be with Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura): Hisako’s younger sister who is to marry Shoichi and who is carrying his child. When Natsuko disappears, Mahito suspects that a talking grey heron (Masaki Suda) has something to do with it and follows the bird into a magical realm where there seems to be as much conflict and destruction as there is in Mahito’s world. With several allies, including the birdman that the heron transforms into, Mahito must traverse this strange place, find Natsuko and bring her back home.
While the plot summary of this film feels familiar enough, its execution is why Miyazaki is still one of the best storytellers. Instead of moving at a brisk speed, “The Boy and the Heron” is meticulous with its pacing but is never boring. The film devotes much of its time to setting up its protagonist and the pain that he hides. Mahito is a child that has been scarred by war and has closed himself off emotionally, treating everyone with a coldness that doesn’t come from malice but it also has little love to show. It’s as if, despite being too young to fight in this war, he has adopted the persona of a soldier as a means of survival.
So much of what this story is trying to say is conveyed with visuals and I love how Miyazaki doesn’t just spoon feed you what’s going on. He forces you to pay attention and to become active with this beautiful story. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what was truly happening for the first 30 minutes of the film but I didn’t care. I was just so invested with Mahito and the beauty of Japan that I forgot I was even watching a movie.
But, as the film goes on and you realize what it’s saying, it’s quite impactful. All of the characters Mahito befriends, the witty banter with the heron and the obstacles they must overcome all mean something and the film is a profound exploration of grief and emotional healing that is well-balanced with an exciting adventure.
The film’s animation is stunning and, when studios like Disney have all but abandoned hand drawn animation, it’s so refreshing to see that the old ways aren’t dead. Being able to see this 2D, hand drawn film being released in 2023 was surprising enough but getting to watch it on a gigantic IMAX screen is one of the great pleasures I’ve had at the movies this year. Not only does Japan look gorgeous in this film but the world that Mahito explores is so imaginative with the dominant life being anthropomorphic birds with many beautiful colors and fun voice acting performances.
With the amount of movies I watch, it’s a true testament to a film's power when seeing it in a theater can make my jaw drop in wonder and make me forget that I’m in a cinema. This year I’ve had quite a few moments that I’ll never forget including the detonation of the Trinity bomb in “Oppenheimer”, the heartbreaking ending of “Past Lives”, the existential bench scene of “Barbie” and the heart pounding action of “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One”. “The Boy and the Heron” is one of those films that inspires that same level of awe and I can’t praise it enough for that. In a culture where some still see animation as “kids stuff” and try to dumb it down for the sake of easy money, it’s encouraging to see an animated film that not only appeals to all ages but treats the children who see it like they are smart and deserve much more than condescension and an endless stream of noise.
