The Boy and the Heron: A Review

THE BOY AND THE HERON

There were some who were surprised if not shocked when The Boy and the Heron was announced as the winner for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award. It was a surprise because traditional, hand-drawn animation had usually been shut out. It was a surprise because most prognosticators had tapped the highly praised Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to be the almost inevitable winner. When you call Across the Spider-Verse "one of the greatest films ever made in the history of cinema", it suggests that it is a hard act to compete with. Those who have seen both Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron, I think, will come to the conclusion that the Academy made the right choice. Visually stunning, with an incredibly imaginative story, The Boy and the Heron (originally titled How Do You Live?) is perhaps long but well worth the time.

Near the end of the Second World War, young Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) survives the firebombing of Tokyo, but he cannot save his mother Hisako, who is at a hospital hit during the bombing. His father, Soichi (Takuya Kimura), who runs an aircraft company, decides to spirit Mahito to the relative safety of the countryside. He also introduces Mahito to his new, pregnant wife Natsuko, who happens to be Hisako's sister. 

Mahito does not adjust well to his new surroundings. He is civil towards his aunt/stepmother, but he still struggles with school and the grief of his mother's death. He is also being pestered by a large grey heron, who eventually begins speaking and taunting him. Mahito gives chase, and finds a mysterious, dilapidated castle once built by his great-uncle. This is a place filled with mystery and magic, which Mahito is warned away from.

However, when Natsuko wanders into the forest where the castle is, Mahito defies those around him to search for her. From there, Mahito and the heron, revealed to have a humanoid being inside, must navigate a strange world made up of cannibal parakeets, fire goddesses and the spirits of those yet to be born, known here as the warawara. Going with them is Kiriko (Ko Shibasaki), one of the old women who serve at the Maki home but who in this world becomes young and forces Mahito and the heron-man to work together. Will Mahito find Natsuko? What of Himi (Aimyon), the fire goddess and warawara protector who has a connection to all of them? Who will live and who will die as they work their way back to Mahito's world?

The Boy and the Heron runs a little over two hours, which might drain the viewer. That is probably the film's only major flaw, for everything else is breathtaking. The animation is astonishing, with moments of visual splendor that leave the viewer mesmerized. Even in the beginning, when Tokyo is being firebombed, somehow the destruction going on is very impressive. Seeing Mahito see his idea of his mother engulfed in flamed is not horrifying but surprisingly moving. Things as large as the march of the villainous parakeet army to as small as the warawara rising to the heavens are beautiful images.

The Boy and the Heron is a showcase for how animation can create these fantastical worlds not bound by logic. Where else but in animation can giant cannibal parakeets or images of women melting into water be seen as possible? One looks at The Boy and the Heron, purely on a visual level, and be swept away by its inventiveness and creativity?   

Story wise, The Boy and the Heron is also wildly impressive. The film is about a young man, traumatized, who at one point in the story harms himself, coming to terms with his grief. The original Japanese title, How Do You Live? comes from a book that his late mother left him to write on. In this, we see how Mahito still carries, metaphorically and perhaps literally, this great grief which his new situation does not help. Could his long journey be, if not a literal dream, a way for him to work through his grief, his loss and confusion to find peace? When he learns who Miri really is, he attempts to warn her of the future. She, however, cheerfully dismisses it, perhaps signaling that we cannot escape our fate for good or ill.

"Forgetting is normal," Mahito is told near the end of the film. The Boy and the Heron is more than just filled with beautiful animation. It is a moving story of loss and resilience. While again perhaps a bit longer than it should be, the viewer will find The Boy and the Heron to be a beautiful piece of work.

DECISION: A-