The Boy and the Heron (2023)

(Note: All actors regarded to are in the English version of the film).

I’m not sure if I was too late in joining the Studio Ghibli band wagon when I discovered Spirited Away (which, after two decades, is still the best animated film of the century), but I have yet to jump off of it.

Having seen most of their films, they are one of the very few studios that succeed even with their films that are of lesser quality when compared to the whole library. Afterall, what other studios can lay claim to films like the aforementioned Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), Princess Mononoke (1997), The Tale of the Princess Kayuga (2013), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Castle in the Sky (1986), and Grave of the Fireflies (1988)?

While The Boy and the Heron (the original title, How do you live?, is far more superior), the first film by the “Godfather of anime” Hayao Miyasaki after his said he would retire a decade ago, is not quite in the realm of most of the films mentioned above, it is still a worthy addition to the Studio Ghibli canon.

Like many of those films, The Boy and the Heron centers on a young person facing the world with some form of strong, central stoicism, embarking on a coming of age tale. In this case, that character is  a 12 year old boy named Mahito (Luca Padovan). Set during the second world war, Mahito is still grieving the loss of his mother. His father (Christian Bale), is set to marry his late wife’s younger sister Natsuko (Gemma Chan), who is pregnant. 

At the new house, Mojito is pestered not only by various old maids (many who long for tobacco), but a even more pesky blue heron. One day, when Natsuko goes out to the woods (near the old, mysterious tower), he encounters the heron, and the Ghibli imagination bomb goes off. In the mix of that are characters played by the likes of Dave Bautista, Willem Dafoe, Florence Pugh, Mark Hamill, and (a truly unrecognizable) Robert Pattinson.

To describe what happens plot wise in the second half of the film would make me seem too tedious and stupid. That is not entirely a bad thing. After all, only in a Miyazaki film could you find the likes of killer parakeets and floating marshmallow blob creatures (called warawara). My issue is that, while the tones of the first half and second half are done well, they don’t entirely match up (it also does have moments where certain minor plot points seem missing at times.)

Parents, the PG-13 rating makes this film indeed one of the darker entries in the canon of Studio Ghibl, thought not as dark as Princess Mononoke and especially Grave of the Fireflies. While there is no sexuality, there is a couple scenes of blood and scary images. Oh, and a scene of gutting a big fish creature. Make of that what you will.

Do I really need to have to convince anyone about the beauty of this film? Well, I guess there are people who have never seen a Studio Ghibli film (for shame on them). There are references of sorts indeed made to earlier Ghibli films in The Boy and the Heron, which are sure to be missed by anyone seeing this as their first Ghibli film.

Whether it is The Boy and the Heron or any other film of Studio Ghibli, I rarely feel more envy for anyone than when they are discovering these movies for the first time.  

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