Spoiler warning: The following article contains major spoilers for The Boy and the Heron. If you haven’t seen the Studio Ghibli film yet, check back after you do.
Ever since I first heard about The Boy and the Heron a few years ago, I knew it was going to be an instant addition to Studio Ghibli’s roster of iconic films. And although it has become one of the most productive anime videos of 2023, for reasons, I was not able to see Hayao Miyazaki’s newest film on the big screen.
That all changed a few months later, when I was able to buy a copy of the Oscar-winning animated film, and I finally noticed what I thought was a heartwarming story about a boy who travels to a fantasy world after his mother’s death. What followed was a captivating and transformative experience with incredible animation, moving performances from its stellar cast, and a hard-hitting story about loss, grief, and rebirth.
Some time has passed and some minds have met, and I have to tell you how The Boy and the Heron has addressed its main themes.
Many of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful films deal with loss, death, and grief in some way, and The Boy and the Heron is no different. In fact, pain is not only at the center of the film, but it is also the driving force. Strength and motivation behind the movements of many characters in his narrative.
Before we know what is happening in the film, we are like young Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan) who wakes up and realizes that the hospital where his mother is being treated was bombed during World War II, killing her in an instant. massive fire. Although heartbreaking and heartbreaking, the death of his mother marks the beginning of Mahito’s hero’s adventure and becomes the catalyst for the first changes he undergoes along the way. Sure, the pain is strong and blinding at first, leading you to make unsettling but understandable decisions, but it eventually leads to wonderful things.
Throughout the film, we feel like we are accompanying Mahito through other stages of grief as he tries to make sense of his mother’s death, come to terms with his father’s remarriage, and then move on. Then enter a mysterious and mysterious world. Visits along the Gray Heron (Robert Pattinson). The way Miyazaki is able to illustrate Mahito’s adventure is nothing short of remarkable and the beloved filmmaker’s ability to create complex and emotionally rich stories is fully demonstrated here.
What’s so appealing about Mahito’s journey, aside from the wild and hard-to-explain creatures and places he visits along the way, is how his story is heartbreaking and endearing. Sad, lost, and confused, navigating a world in which his mother is gone, the young man resorts to excessive acts of animosity, even hitting his head on a rock after fighting with some other student. Even if you don’t fully perceive your reasons at the time, it’s not to feel empathy for what’s going on.
Fortunately, I never experienced the death of a parent as a child, but I guess that’s what it can feel like.
One character in The Boy and the Heron that I’m still looking to discover is the great-uncle (Mark Hamill), Mahito’s ancestor and the architect who created the truth of the fantasy exchange and spent years maintaining it as a kind of Equilibrium. Throughout the film, Grandoncle attempts to position himself to take over and keep the global fantasy alive by balancing a pile of small stone blocks that will collapse into the kingdom if they collapse.
Although I still don’t fully understand the character and his story, I can’t help but think about how The Boy and the Heron tries to balance a world of instability and the great efforts that will go into finding that balance. Mahito struggles to find a way to counteract his pain, whether it’s a distraction or a new course, and Heron, who was later revealed to be Birdman, tries to find his footing in flight after being hit by Mahito’s arrow. And I’m sure there are countless more examples. which will be revealed in subsequent viewings.
As mentioned above, Mahito undergoes a transformation when The Boy and the Heron ends, and the frightened young man, full of animosity and malice from the beginning of his journey, is replaced by someone willing to settle for his fate and it. . of his deceased mother. One scene I like occurs when Mahito rejects Grandonkle’s offer to build a larger edition of the fantasy world with a new set of blocks, acknowledging his own evil by showing the wound he inflicted on himself earlier in the film.
Mahito necessarily goes through the five stages of grief, and the other encounters and occasions of the overall fantasy replace those other stages. He emerges profoundly reshaped through this experience that critics adored before the film’s release.
Throughout The Boy and the Heron, Mahito travels through the dream world with Himi (Karen Fukuhara), who is later revealed to be his mother. Before leaving and Mahito returns to his world, he warns his mother that he will one day die in the hospital. Although she knows when and how she will die, Himi returns to her past life in a moment of hesitation.
This incredibly difficult moment, which I was able to enjoy with my daughter like so many other Studio Ghibli films, was made even more poignant by the fact that Himi was willing to live her life knowing that she would suffer an unbearable death because one day she would die. I have to bring Mahito into this world.
Overall, The Boy and the Heron was a captivating experience that will stay with me for some time. And while I don’t know when we’ll get another Studio Ghibli movie, there are a few movies coming in 2024 that will hold me back while I wait.
Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. John’s. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. When he’s not writing about movies or TV, Philip can be seen being chased among his 3 children, telling his dogs to avoid barking at the mailman or talking about professional wrestling with his spouse. Writing contracts with school newspapers, various diaries, and other professional reports has brought him to the point where he can write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars align correctly, he’ll say that For Love Of The Game is the most productive baseball movie of all time.
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