Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother's death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.
The Boy and the Heron is directed by Hayao Miyazaki a director who absolutely does not need any sort of introduction, he's a fantastic director with so many films that went on to be a huge impact on the animation genre such as Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and many many others. With each new film he introduces new ideas or takes ideas from one of his previous films and makes it fresh. The Boy and the Heron is a prime example of just how creative, powerful and emotional Miyazaki's storytelling really is.
For starters the cast absolutely knocks it out of the park, everyone here does such an incredible job and matches the imaginative and emotional tone the film is going for. But the couple that really standout are Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista. Bautista plays the Parakeet King who doesn't show up until the later half of the film, but when he does show up he truly captures the wackiness of the character. It's a performance that should not work at all, but Bautista's performance is genuinely hilarious it's probably due to the Parakeet species in this film's world being genuinely funny while a very emotional and serious plot is going on. It works strangely well and even if Bautista doesn't stay for very long he remains as a very memorable part of the film.
Florence Pugh plays Kiriko both the young and old version, her performance is truly incredible and actually unbelievable when it comes to her voicing the old Kiriko. Her character is a huge highlight of the film, a character that we are introduced to at the very beginning who might seem like a comedic relief character at first but later becomes important. The young version of Kiriko helps Mahito Maki and points him into the right direction of his journey to rescue Natsuko, she's a classic mentor type character that you can't help but love. Pugh's performance really sells the character well and almost immediately makes the character quite lovable.
Robert Pattinson as The Grey Heron is my absolute favorite performance from an animated film this year and I don't think it's even close, when the trailer for this film dropped I instantly thought the Heron was Willem Dafoe which while yes Dafoe is in this film he's not in it for very long but still gives a haunting performance. I don't know how Pattinson did it but this performance is truly unbelievable and truly effective right from the Heron's first appearance, Pattinson completely matches the tone the film is going for and mixes it with a bit of humor and the Heron himself as a character has fantastic character development. It's a classic case of not getting along with someone at first in this case not getting along with Mahito, but slowly but surely their bond builds and it's truly delightful to see. The Grey Heron is such a fun character that balances humor and the more serious moments and Pattinson's performance only adds on to that.
The writing much like other Miyazaki films is truly incredible, there's a large theme here of grief and mourning the loss of someone very close to you. In this case Mahito losing his mother. There's a lot of moments in this film that really tie it together, the world building of the world we are introduced to can be a bit confusing at first. But as the film goes on it starts to piece itself together and tell the viewer the full story about this world, it's visually some of the absolute best Miyazaki has ever done, that's something that consistently gets better and better with each film and this felt like a natural build up all of these films later.
Something that really stands out with this film is the masterful balance between humor, wackiness and the dramatic moments of the film. A film that's about loss and dealing with grief has scenes where funny looking Parakeets want to eat people and their leader the Parakeet King is a presented as a serious but goofy boss voiced by Dave Bautista…yet it all strangely works. It comes down to just how beautiful the storytelling really is, it combines so many anime elements and genres we have seen throughout the years and presents it so well. From the classic adventure genre to the goofy villains who actually have a quite serious side to them it's all here and delivered in such a fascinating, emotional and hilarious way that puts a smile on your face.
Overall The Boy and the Heron is yet another homerun for Hayao Miyazaki and one of the absolute best films of the year. It's such a creative film with so much to say that it will surely go on to be a classic.
The Boy and the Heron is in theaters.
10/10 A+
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