Going into Boy in the Heron, I had a lot of high expectations. I had never seen a Studio Ghibli Film before because I had always thought they were some sort of anime-type film. Of course, I know now that the notion was wrong. But watching the trailer and seeing the cast for the movie on top of the Oscar buzz made me think this movie was going to be the best animated movie I had seen in a long time. However, all of my expectations were let down. This movie was good. Rather, this movie was supposed to be one of the best things I had ever seen but instead was kind of a mid-animated movie which makes me hate it even more. In reality, I think this is a mid-movie but my anger for the amount of hype this movie gets kinda supersedes my opinion. Overall, this movie was beautiful with a great voice cast and a complex plot. However, what was lacking for me was that the movie itself was kind of too complicated and also did not make sense in terms of basic logic. I first want to talk about how beautiful this movie was. The way each still of this movie could be used to create a piece of artwork is astounding to me. The way movement is drawn in this movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before. What I mean by that is how water, fire, and air are drawn to show the movement of the characters through these elements. Now, usually what an animator or artist does is have the character move along with the elements moving against it, however, in this film, it was drawn differently. Now I did not pick this up until I watched the trailers after watching the movie. For example, when Mahito was running through the fire or surrounded by water, the elements themselves were the only things that were animated in movement. This causes a cool effect and illusion of having the character move while also emphasizing the character's struggles. Overall, the animation was top-tier and unique. It was the thing that made this movie stand out to me. Now we could spend hours going into each animation detail and how he uses different art elements along with new techniques, however, most of these don't have to do with the opinion of the film. So if you want to talk to me about it just comment or ask me. Now I want to talk about the plot. Going into this movie I knew it was going to be confusing. After my friends told me that this movie wouldn't make any sense until the end, I knew this movie would be good because I think a good movie needs a confusing plot with a beautiful conclusion where the director can weave all of the ideas together. However, this movie in my opinion was not able to do that. I am not sure if it was because the plot was too confusing or if it was the sudden ending where all of the magic just vanished forever, but the conclusion did not work. I liked the metaphors and ideas that were taking place in the movie about Studio Ghibli coming to an end as well as the character being a reflection of Miyazaki. Specifically, the idea of the world and magic being a dream that reflected the end of Studio Ghibli is just a chef's kiss. However, I think these messages get lost because there is just too much symbolism and comparison that causes the audience to not find the intended meaning or no meaning at all. In the attempt to do all of this comparison, the movie lost its connection with an audience and became a cohesive film but rather a piece of art. I like comparing this movie to a piece of art, especially because when you look at a piece of art, you look at it for five seconds to 2 minutes and think “Man, that's beautiful” and move on. Now the painter probably intended there to be certain emotions and comparisons to be made but most of the time you don't understand them because art is meant to be subjective. This Miyazaki film is just that, something that is so confusing that the audience just doesn't understand the message but instead looks at it and thinks that it is cool. The boy in the heron I think was a great idea on paper. I mean if you watch the trailer this film just looks like not the best animated but the best movie of the year. However, it just does not match all of the Oscar buzz. The one thing that got me excited for this movie was the cast. I mean Robert Pattison’s accent was so random and so perfect, it made the character. Voices from Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista also made the movie so much better. However, the plot and conclusion were just not there for me. This movie in my opinion was mid and should not beat out Across the Spider Verse. This movie had such great potential but I think it just left me disappointed. 6.3/10
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February 2024
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