Because it would be too difficult for me to review this movie without giving away spoilers, I’d advise that you read this at your own risk. I saw this movie in theaters about a month ago and highly enjoyed it, but there’s a lot that I want to discuss about how the movie was structured, as well as some of the characters and their interactions with each other.
The pacing of this film is done well in my opinion. It’s only been in my own experiences that I’ve never found Hayao Miyazaki’s films to have too many dead moments between each scene. With this movie in particular (The Boy and the Heron), I found that Mahito’s journey provides many purposeful actions, while others help him to understand that not everything is within his control. Having lost his mother at a young age during a time of war- or at least, that’s what is depicted until later in the film- he has to deal with having to move to a new home with his father, who’s now married to Natsuko.
Early on into the movie, Mahito runs into a talking heron not too long after moving into his new house. I think that what Miyazaki does well with his films is that he incorporates many different layers not just to the story and its characters, but also with different art forms and textures when building each world. Other works like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle or Castle in the Sky have a very similar feel to them when it comes to the art and illustration of the characters and the world they live in. It’s simplistic, but also colorful, rich and vibrant. This is a classic animation style, but upon seeing that same style in The Boy and the Heron, it made me feel nostalgic in a way, but also comforted and excited.
Mahito’s interactions with the elderly housekeepers was something that initially made me laugh a little as most elderly women can be very doting on younger people. In other light-hearted moments throughout the movie, you can see that the Grey Heron or even Kiriko share these kinds of interactions through wit or sarcasm. If there’s any connection that becomes the most intense, but also notable for Mahito’s growth, it’s Himi. It’s through her that he’s able to achieve his goal of finding his first mother, but in the same instance, he realizes that what he really needed is to recognize the love she had for him so that he could move forward and accept the love that his step-mother wanted or struggled to give him.
Without getting too philosophical here, I do want to briefly touch on the themes represented in this film. Sometimes, losses, change and/or moving forward can be extremely difficult if you don’t have a strong enough support system. Mahito’s father, at times, could be seen as supportive or even protective- though, it’s perhaps to the point of coming across as aggressive- of his well-being when he fell ill and passed out, but other times, he could be seen as absent or distant. Mahito’s circumstances in terms of moving to a new environment obviously played a part in his growth, but I’d say that the impact was more of a slow build with some ups and downs. It wasn’t until the very end of the movie where you see him leaving the estate with his father and Natsuko that the three of them finally seem happy with each other.
For movies of this nature, I’d say it’s important to recognize that not every character needs to be labeled as “good”, “bad” or “evil”. Natsuko was pregnant for most of the movie. Mahito was struggling to adapt to various changes in his environment, and his father Shoichi has a very demanding job as a factory CEO. Even the other secondary characters like the Grey Heron and Kiriko could be seen as catalysts for Mahito’s growth and journey, even if their personalities differed from his. Realism and fantasy are blended well within Miyazaki’s films, and I believe this is one reason why so many people are drawn to them in the first place. Would I recommend this movie for young, school-age children? Probably not. It would be more ideal for teenagers or middle-school aged kids to watch as they may have a better grasp of what’s going on. Having said all of this however, I can say that I highly enjoyed the movie and would rate it at a full 5 stars on a 5-star rating scale.
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