The Boy And The Heron Review

The Boy And The Heron! To be completely honest with ourselves, we were not “happy” happy after watching the movie. Amidst the overwhelming positivity surrounding this supposed animated masterpiece, one had to wonder if they were missing some deeper profundity.

The Boy And The Heron Or Spirited Away 2.0?

Many critics lauded the film for reflecting Miyazaki‘s life and career, cleverly weaving in elements from his body of work. However, upon viewing it, some of these self-themes were lacking. Instead, what unfolded seemed like a rehash of plot elements from the maestro’s films. Particularly echoing his 2001 masterpiece, Spirited Away:

• It follows a child on a transformative journey through chaos and magic under the guidance of a parental figure into an enchanted world within an abandoned structure.
• The protagonist gathers a group of characters including foes, like the strange bird man.
• Encountering another child companion tied to their past who helps them on their quest.
• Navigating through structures inhabited by bizarre creatures.
• Ultimately facing a decision that shapes the hero’s future.

Even the visual flourishes – the cheeky boatmen spirits, those bouncing pale orbs(Warawara) – felt ripped directly from the Spirited Away playbook. By the end, the experience left one emotionally unmoved, a first for any Miyazaki opus.

Distancing, Murky Metaphor

Our young hero Mahito understandably struggles with intense emotional distance from his new stepmother Natsuko, and is still reeling from the tragic loss of his beloved birth mother. Yet the film offers a little window into Mahito’s inner world and struggles, preventing the viewer from forging any real connection or insight into his characterization.

The overarching metaphors – the purgatorial nature of the “other realm,” the themes of rebirth and choosing to live for oneself – become muddled in execution. Character motivations remain largely unelaborated and key imagery strikes one as opaque (what do the diverse bird species symbolize? The falling meteor’s significance?), despite multiple diverging interpretations being posited.

For every gorgeous creative flourish, there emerges a sense that the individual pieces don’t quite cohere into a cohesive, decipherable whole.

Miyazaki’s Ultimate Poignant Message

Seen through this prism, the movie emerges as Miyazaki’s poignant clarion call for letting go of the artistic life he knew, of his very sense of self.

In watching Mahito venture ever deeper into the spirit realm, bearing witness first to its cruel hierarchies and anthropomorphized tyrannies before their inevitable unwinding back into something simpler, more elemental…we were left with gutting metaphors about life’s own churning cycles.

We all emerge on the other side carrying one singular “building block” shard – the sole immutable constant from that which we shed and evolve away from. If Miyazaki’s sublime final cinematic testament couldn’t be fully grasped on an intellectual level due to its formidable density of allusion and metaphor, its deeper emotional truths about enduring mourning’s agonizing process firmly embedded themselves beneath one’s skin.

Perhaps that is precisely why the master chose to speak in this universal yet deeply intimate language more lucidly than ever before as his last resounding utterance.

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The Boy and the Heron anime movie is available to watch on Netflix.