The Boy and the Heron, like every Miyazaki movie, holds such a promise at the start. Mahito is struggling with immense grief after losing his mother in a bombing of Tokyo. The world around him, including his father, has moved on, but as you can imagine, the boy finds it hard to do so.
He and his father relocate to a village outside Tokyo, where they live with Mahito's new mother-in-law, which happens to be his mother's sister. His father is continuously more busy, which is understandable, as he works in a military factory during a war. Mahito also can't adjust to a new school, where he quickly gets in a fight, and even beats himself afterward to stay at home.
With his world turned upside down, it's all but surprising that Mahito isn't dealing well with mental health, his traumas and emotions. Like many kids, he escapes to the world of imagination with the help of a new yet surprising friend, the Heron. After befriending the mystical creature, Mahito is drained into the world of dreams and fantasies, that is somehow strongly tied to the real one.
The Boy and the Heron is one of Miyazaki's most-anticipated movies, and likely his last film. As such, it makes perfect sense for the director to put in many more personal nuisances than we would have expected from him. The Boy and the Heron is a story about grief, coming to terms with certain things in life, and the fact that everything will, eventually, pass.
Despite the wonderful premise, the narration sets up an impossible to keep at pace, and the amount of new characters, symbols, and ideas is just overwhelming. Its bizarre world is interesting enough to keep you intrigued about what comes next, but what follows rarely meets your expectations and makes much sense. Ultimately, the movie fails to deliver the emotional punch it intended, and leaves you wanting more, but simultaneously, exhausted after its two-hour runtime.
He and his father relocate to a village outside Tokyo, where they live with Mahito's new mother-in-law, which happens to be his mother's sister. His father is continuously more busy, which is understandable, as he works in a military factory during a war. Mahito also can't adjust to a new school, where he quickly gets in a fight, and even beats himself afterward to stay at home.
With his world turned upside down, it's all but surprising that Mahito isn't dealing well with mental health, his traumas and emotions. Like many kids, he escapes to the world of imagination with the help of a new yet surprising friend, the Heron. After befriending the mystical creature, Mahito is drained into the world of dreams and fantasies, that is somehow strongly tied to the real one.
The Boy and the Heron is one of Miyazaki's most-anticipated movies, and likely his last film. As such, it makes perfect sense for the director to put in many more personal nuisances than we would have expected from him. The Boy and the Heron is a story about grief, coming to terms with certain things in life, and the fact that everything will, eventually, pass.
Despite the wonderful premise, the narration sets up an impossible to keep at pace, and the amount of new characters, symbols, and ideas is just overwhelming. Its bizarre world is interesting enough to keep you intrigued about what comes next, but what follows rarely meets your expectations and makes much sense. Ultimately, the movie fails to deliver the emotional punch it intended, and leaves you wanting more, but simultaneously, exhausted after its two-hour runtime.