Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Is a Gorgeous Work of Fantasy and Emotion 

Alci Rengifo

Some great masters like to tease the world with the idea that they will retire. A few actually do it. Others can’t resist the pull to create once more. Audiences will no doubt be grateful that Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki, one of the greatest of all animation filmmakers, is back with “The Boy and the Heron.” This is a sweeping summation of every element that has made Miyazaki beloved around the world. Is it his last? It certainly doesn’t feel like it and only time will tell. But if this were his ride into the sunset at the age of 82, then it’s a rich testament to the breadth of Miyazaki’s imagination. Fantasy collides with the personal, swirling with melancholy and joy all at once.

Fans of this genre will feel a tinge of anticipation when the Studio Ghibli logo appears on screen. What follows is a parable about a 12-year-old boy named Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki in the original Japanese, Luca Padovan in the English dub), who lives in 1930s Japan. His mother dies tragically in a Tokyo fire, leaving Mahito to move in with his father, Shoichi (Takuya Kimura in Japanese, Christian Bale in English) and Shoichi’s new pregnant wife, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura in Japanese, Gemma Chan in English). Frustrated and lonely, Mahito loses himself in daydreams and memories of the horrible moment when he couldn’t save his mother. A grey heron (Masaki Suda in Japanese, Robert Pattinson in English) soon appears that speaks and mocks Mahito, claiming his presence is requested in some unknown location. Then Natsuko goes missing and Mahito follows the heron to a tower, which happens to be where Mahito’s great-granduncle was last seen. Here he falls into an alternate reality of fantastical sights, creatures and stirring emotions.

To continue describing “The Boy and the Heron” risks failing to capture the film’s emotional impact. As with his best-known works, from “Kiki’s Delivery Service” to 2013’s “The Wind Rises,” the stunning images Miyazaki creates, and still by hand no less, are first meant to channel pure feelings. This accounts for much of his films’ dreamlike power and their lasting influence over anime. “The Boy and the Heron” first begins with the elegiac feel of a coming-of-age story, where the haunted child struggles to adjust to a new home. There is a refreshing maturity to the child vantage point used in the story. Mahito feels the unease of watching his father kissing the new woman while hiding in a stairway. He hits himself with a rock, creating a gash in his scalp out of rage. Miyazaki carefully constructs the countryside world of Mahito’s father, with shimmering brooks, picturesque mountains and a home where a group of elderly women cheerfully grab any rare food Natsuko brings with her. All these characters are so full of life and yet it’s just the beginning. 

Mahito’s descent into a fantasyland of where he might be able to find the missing Natsuko is absorbing in its gorgeous details, with small tinges of nightmare. Think of it as a high-octane “The Wizard of Oz,” where the creatures and visions Mahito encounters are reflections of his life. In some ways, they are also reflections of the director’s own memories. The creations that sprawl around the film shame most commercial U.S. animated films. Never does Miyazaki feel the need to explain everything or even apply iron logic to this otherworld Mahito has entered. The experience is what counts. For two hours we’re part of a travelogue of imagination. Sea adventurers who gut giant catches mingle with cute little creatures called warawara, who are devoured by pelicans. Mahito and the grey heron also find a civilization of parakeets who like to dine on humans while following their flamboyant king. One of the film’s funniest and yet effective moments sees his majesty cheered on by a crowd of parakeets brandishing swords. Old women tell stories of fiery asteroids that crashed from heaven. Other sequences are simply striking for their lushness, like an armada of ships under a blazing sunset. 

These creations will be instantly familiar to longtime Miyazaki fans familiar with the animator’s love for animals as conduits for tears and laughter. “The Boy and the Heron” is far from autobiographical, but it still features a few touches that seem to shadow Miyazaki’s own life. Like Mahito, the director’s father was part of the industrial sector during World War II and helped build fighter planes. Miyazaki’s family also moved to the countryside around this period and his memory was colored by war. But this is also the mark of a notable artist, when the work has flourishes that feel personal because they are. This is a director who never tells a story he does not genuinely want to express. “The Boy and the Heron” is more than just a great animated film. It is imaginative cinema of the best kind. Walk in cleansing yourself of the popcorn speediness and shallowness of movies that think animation is just to distract the little ones. Let this film carry you away.

“The Boy and the Heron” releases Dec. 8 in theaters nationwide.