“The Boy and The Heron,” the rumored last film in the famous Studio Ghibli franchise, won awards and soared to popularity over the winter months.
Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese filmmaker, has a reputation for producing strikingly beautiful and profoundly deep animated films. This reputation holds for “The Boy and The Heron,” which won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.
I grew up watching Miyazaki’s movies. “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Ponyo” and “Spirited Away” are some of my favorite movies I’ve seen. The beautiful scenery and supernatural, spiritual beings in each satisfied my childlike wonder, and lent me to searching my attic for soot sprites. Spoilers ahead!
“The Boy and The Heron” follows the adventures of Mahito, a 12-year-old boy who is distraught after the death of his mother, Himi. He and his father move in with Himi’s sister, Natsuko, who his father intends to marry and raise Mahito and a new baby with. Mahito is reluctant to accept any love from Natsuko, while still grieving and upset over his mother’s death.
They move into Himi’s beautiful childhood home, and its grounds are patrolled by a large heron that seems to take a liking to Mahito.
From here on out, the film was a bit difficult to follow. The Heron taunts Mahito, telling him that his mother is still alive. Mahito races after the Heron and finds himself in an old abandoned tower in the woods behind his home. The tower is rumored to have spiritual powers by the old ladies who live on and take care of the estate.
After finding nothing he returns home. Later his Aunt Natsuko, pregnant with Mahito’s brother, wanders off into the woods. Mahito and one of the old ladies, Kiriko, attempt to rescue her, and find themselves back in the tower.
In the tower, we find out that the heron is a man – wearing a heron skin. He uses this to fly. Mahito and the Heron embark on their journey to find out what this world is, save Natsuko and find out if his mother is truly still alive.
In the tower they become trapped in a world that exists independently of time, and holds doors between it, the past and present. It is held in balance by Mahito’s great uncle who apparently went mad in the tower years ago and was never seen again.
In this world Mahito is reunited with his mother, but a young version of her. They join forces with the Heron, to rescue Natsuko from a civilization of giant parakeets who aim to take her baby and hold it hostage to take control of this mystical world from Mahito’s great uncle.
After retrieving her and fighting off the parakeets, the trio visits the great uncle, where he asks Mahito to take over for him, and dedicate his days to keeping the world in balance. He declines, and the world slowly begins to collapse – They begin their escape.
Mahito returns home with Natsuko, bidding farewell to his mother, as she must return to her own time. The movie ends here, as Mahito receives closure after getting the chance to say goodbye to his mother and finally welcomes Natsuko to be his new mother.
Overall I found this movie to be somewhat hard to follow, however incredibly enjoyable. The visuals were absolutely beautiful. The magical dream world to the estate was filled with unique imagery: Giant man-eating parakeets, a heron with a big-nosed old man inside and adorable marshmallow-looking creatures called warawara who eventually fly out of the dream world to be born as humans.
This movie is one you may want to watch twice to fully understand who is who, but the main message is evident after one viewing – Life is temporary and death is inevitable, we all must say goodbye to those we love and what we have.
Miyazaki did it once again, portraying a life lesson through the experiences of a small child in an Alice in Wonderland-type of adventure.