The Boy and the Heron and Miyazaki and Us

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Marianne and Sean and I went to see Hiyao Miyazaki's newest anime, The Boy and the Heron yesterday and were glad we did. It's a good movie.

But it's not one of Miyazaki's best. It's not up there with Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.  

The Boy and the Heron has been receiving rave reviews and it's easy to see  why. Miyazaki is old and has announced his retirement more than once before this, so we're very, very grateful for another touch of the maestro's magic. And the movie is chockablock with familiar elements from older, beloved movies: strangely aggressive shreds of paper, dwarfish but benign old women, intriguing ruins, World War Two fighter plane engineering... the list goes on and on. And even I, knowing nothing of Miyazaki's life, could see that there were strong autobiographical elements here. No wonder so many critics are acclaiming  The Boy and the Heron as a summation of his entire career.

Oh, yeah. The movie never goes where you expect it to. That's brilliant.

But while The Boy and the Heron is filled, from start to finish with striking and extraordinary imagery, the story itself is...

Oh, it's okay. But as a long-time working fantasist, I know when a plot is not fully under control of its creator. The rules change in order to keep the action moving along. You've got a fire witch, so why can't she use her powers to get you out of this fix you're in? Well, her powers are diminished while in this particular location. (Why? Don't ask.) The carnivorous budgerigars close in on our unconscious heroes with vocalized intentions to eat them and then leave one where he lies and take the other to their (previously unmentioned) king. (Why? It advances the plot.)

There's a great deal of running back and forth with things collapsing behind or under our hero. The animation is great. The fact they're running back and forth with things collapsing behind or under them, not so much.

And yet...  and yet...

Hiyao Miyazaki's universe is so beautiful, so evocative, so surprising, that you want to spend a year or three simply wandering about it. Two hours and four minutes only whetted my appetite for it.

If you have the chance to see it in a movie theater, I recommend that you do. If not... Keep Watching the Screens. 

Meanwhile, Miyazaki has once again announced that he has not quite retired. There's another movie in the works.

I can hardly wait.

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