@thearmag3ddon here with an admittedly overdue Movie Review that you didn’t ask for
My love of Hayao Miyazaki goes back much farther than my knowledge of who Hayao Miyazaki even was. The first work of his I ever saw that I knew of and and would become obsessed with also happened to be his directorial debut, The Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin III’s second feature film or as us gatekeeping OG’s call him, Rupan. The next thing of Miyazaki’s I saw was Nausicaä, and I was aware of Castle in the Sky from my video store working days. But still I didn’t know what a Miyazaki was.And then came Totoro which still is probably my favorite, and Porco Rosso. I don’t think I really understood that there was a mastermind behind all of those movies until I saw Princess Mononoke and for sure just like the rest of the American World anyway, Spirited Away. I just say all of that to say that the work of Miyazaki is something I am very familiar with since at least the 80s and for the most part I’ve loved all of it to varying degrees. And…
I wish that I could say that, fully, completely, about this.
Now, that’s not to say that there is nothing worthwhile to experience with this movie, and I’ll get to that in just a little bit, but overall, there’s the usual theme that most of his movies have, which is sort of a wistful fantasy, that Disneyesque orphan seeking to understand their place in the world by accessing this other fantastical place that they do not understand but have become a part of it. It’s a classic feature of a large part of literature in fact so nothing new, odd or strange there. Remove the fantasy, and that’s what you get in stories like Heart of Darkness, or Last of the Mohicans, and even Platoon. But in those movies a feature of the story is that the characters from the Real World view it as their base and the they view and experience the fantastic world as upside down and definitely are not at home or familiar with it. And well, none of that is going on here. It’s nuanced by mostly yeah. I’ll get into it a little bit.
I don’t want to go too into the weeds about it so I’ll just say this. Imagine The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which our protagonists leave their wartorn home to live in the countryside to avoid said war. And while there Lucy stumbles into a magical world. And upon Lucy first seeing Mr. Tumnuss, she immediately acts as though, “of course this is happening.” As though she inherently knows as a part of her worldview that fauns and magical wardrobes leading into a different world are already real. And THEN the most random everything shows up along story beat guideposts but nothing really has anything to do with anything even five minutes before and then well…it’s over. Now to those of you who hate that book and series, you’re saying, yeah, duh, so we’re going to ignore you, but anyway, mostly, yes. This is how The Boy and the Heron felt to me. A few times I did doze off and woke up, and I thought I had fallen asleep for like 5 or ten minutes because now there’s a giant bird headed man talking, or a pirate person, but I was informed in that moment, “no, you only closed your eyes for like a few seconds.” And yeah.
There was just a lack of coherence of any semblance of a story and what’s more, it didn’t feel intentional.
So there’s that.
But on the good part. I mentioned this a bit in my Blue Eye Samurai review but this movie really did honestly truly make me miss hand drawn 2-D animation. While watching it, even as I was saying “WTF” I was also saying “My gods, this is beautiful.” It makes me really sad realizing that now, feature quality hand drawn animation is a bit of a lost art. The turn was quick, but the very company that built its reputation on hand drawn animation doesn’t even engage in it anymore. And well…I’m not saying that computer animation is without its appeal. I just wish we hadn’t slid into the basically all or nothing landscape we’re in now. To me, there’s really been no substitute to the kinetic movements, deliberate and interpretive that you can achieve through 2D. When looking at anything from a painting to a comic book panel, you are basically seeing the world interpreted through the eyes and hand of the artist. And even from say in a comic book, panel to panel there are variations and perspectives that might not be accurate but done to maximize the dramatic. Even in a still frame during The Boy and the Heron the picture seems to move. It’s the light, it’s the dust, it’s the lines. There is an energy that so far, not even the most interpretive of 3D animated affairs like The Spiderverse films (which are very well done) have managed to synthesize.
And so, for all the things I didn’t like about it, I did truly love watching the visual side. It was a feast if you’re a fan of the art style associated with Miyazaki’s films. ANd so yeah I guess in that regard it deserved the award it got,(and will continue to get) but I just don’t think it has the chops of some of his other work and didn’t even need an all-star voice acting cast. I’m aware that there are real world reasons why the story and movie rolled out as it did so, but I’m just here to call em as I see em and not make excuses for the finished product when you’ve got the money to execute on the vision that you have. My recommendation is to wait for it to stream at home, and maybe if you’re into shrooms or acid…yeah. I’ll leave it at that.
I’ll always have Rupan and Fujiko, and Goemon and Jigan trying to make their way out of the Castle, and I think I’m in the mood to see some giant wolves running through the forest. So I think I’m just gonna go do that next.
I give the Boy and the Heron 2 Adipose Aliens like in that episode of Doctor Who in Series 4 with the return of Donna Noble out of 5.
Until the next review you didn’t ask for @thearmag3ddon, signing off.