The Boy and the Heron Review: Lacks the Ghibli Charm!

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most prominent filmmakers of his and our generation, creating masterpieces such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and a personal favorite, Kiki’s Delivery Service. His ability to envision and create magical worlds that suck us in to experience love and pain is one of his greatest strengths as a filmmaker.

It was announced earlier this year that The Boy and the Heron would be Miyazaki’s last film, which was later changed citing that Miyazaki was ready to plan his next film. It is fantastic news that we will continue to get Miyazaki films since this movie unfortunately did not live up to his other works of art.

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Mahito is a twelve year old boy grieving the death of his mother who was killed in a fire during the Pacific War in 1943. On top of that he must come to terms with his father remarrying his mother’s younger sister Natsuko in a new town where it feels anything but home. On the grounds of his new home, he discovers a gray heron who leads him into a world that becomes more of a personal journey than he ever imagined.

Unlike most of his other submissions, The Boy and the Heron struggles to balance whimsical and hard hitting undertones as a cohesive whole. The fantastical elements feel placed together in a generic way to create a world of magical creatures without them playing a significant role in Mahito’s personal journey.

Where the film Howl’s Moving Castle, for example, is fantasy of the highest degree, this film would have benefitted from swaying to one of these sides instead of not fully committing to either. Thus, creating a story that never fully succeeds in its thematic endeavors, Miyazaki’s film, The Wind Rises, opts for a more realistic story that mirrors history.

The Boy and the Heron feels scattered in its vision. It is true that fiction and magical tales often display our most realistic struggles as humans and what is most important in the real world. However, as Mahito enters this alternate world, the mystical creatures and happenings do not seem to have a clear correlation to the real world which would typically allow Mahito the ability to come to terms with how pain gives us the opportunity to create beauty in a destructive world.

It seems that Mahito comes to the realization that a world free of struggle doesn’t allow one to grow on his own and because of human figures in this alternate world rather than anything “magical.” The film feels as if it needed to incorporate “Ghibli elements” to exist when it could have just been created on its own terms.

On a more subjective note, The Boy and the Heron sadly does not possess the spirit of Miyazaki’s earlier films that usually transport the audience to places that one never wants to escape from even when they leave the theater. The film relies so much on incorporating elements from so many of Miyazaki’s previous work that it does not feel as if it can stand on its own as a film.

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It feels like an encapsulation of his career when it would have been better off being a new take on his more common themes, but in a way that makes The Boy and the Heron feel solid in its own right. Fans of Miyazaki’s films will likely find beauty in his new film but audiences looking for a journey into new territory may feel disappointed.

‘The Boy and the Heron’ Rating – 2.5/5