The Boy and the Heron Review

4 star beautiful and disturbing Ghibli anime.

The Boy and the Heron is a 2024 Japanese animated fantasy film, released by Studio Ghibli and marking the triumphant return of the master Hayao Miyazaki (Never Ending Man, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro), in the wake of his premature retirement in 2013.

It is presented here on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD, with both the original Japanese track and English dub, courtesy of Elysian.

Elysian have also partnered with HMV for a limited edition 4k UHD + Blu-ray with 5 exclusive artcards, pictured below.

“Oh, Salmon! I want the bones.”

The second world war is in full swing and during the Pacific War in Tokyo, young boy Mahiko (Luca Padovan – No Hard Feelings) loses his beloved mother Hisako (Gemma Chan – The Creator, Eternals) to a hospital fire. His father Shoichi (Christian Bale – American Hustle, The Dark Knight Rises),  remarries to the sister of his late wife, Natsuko (Gemma Chan) and moves the family to her rural estate, where there is a fighter plane factory for him to run.

Shoichi is too busy to spend much time at home and Mahiko struggles to bond with the pregnant Natsuko and still suffers from nightmares about the fire. He seemingly finds a friend in the local Grey Heron (Robert Pattinson – The Lighthouse, The Batman), who shows an unnatural interest in him. He is also doted on by a gaggle of estate maids, determined to help keep him safe.

After an incident at school leads him to self harm, the Heron leads him to a tower in the grounds, believed to have belonged to his Granduncle (Mark Hamill – Star Wars, Batman: The Killing Joke). He lures him there with the promise of seeing his mother, who claims is not really dead. Mahiko also believes that Natsuko has gone inside and along with one of the grannies Kiriko (Florence Pugh – Black Widow, Oppenheimer) he heads inside.

But nothing can prepare him for the strange and uncompromising world that awaits within this mysterious tower.

“We did not choose this war.”

The Boy and the Heron is as always a visually stunning piece of animation, pushing the boundaries at every opportunity and bombarding the senses with unlikely and seemingly impossible images at every turn.  Any fans of Ghibli will be well aware of the dream-like and deeply symbolic nature of the films of Hayao Miyazaki and this one feels more autobiographical than most, drawing heavily from his own experiences as a child. All the usual themes are covered here, love, loss and self acceptance and done so with the usual flair for the dramatic. The imagery of the fire at the start of the film is among the darkest and most disturbing we have seen so far from Studio Ghibli.

While it is without question a magnificent film, the story feels somewhat muddled, there are several places where just a little change of pace to allow you to catch your breath and assimilate what you are seeing would have made all the difference. It lacks the moments of quiet contemplation offered by some of his other works. The characters are pretty unlikable and that makes it a little difficult to empathise on occasion. It also finishes extremely abruptly, as though he suddenly got bored and decided to roll the credits.

The soundtrack is available in both Japanese and English and in this case I would recommend the English dub. The voice acting is brilliant and it allows you to focus all of your attention on the lush and extravagantly realized animation. While this is not one of my personal favourites, it is of course still a must own for any fans of Ghibli and the great Hayao Miyazaki.

“Mahito has turned into a parakeet?!”

The Boy and The Heron will be available to rent and buy on digital from 16th September, on 4K UHD,  Blu-ray, and DVD from 23rd September, and with a limited edition Steelbook available from 7th October.

Additional Special Features on the Blu-ray and DVD include:

Blu Ray:

• Feature-Length Storyboards
• Interview with Composer Joe Hisaishi
• Interview with Producer Toshio Suzuki
• Interview with Supervising Animator Takeshi Honda
• Drawing with Takeshi Honda
• “Spinning Globe” Music Video
• Teasers & Trailers

 

DVD:

• Interview with Producer Toshio Suzuki
• “Spinning Globe” Music Video
• Teasers & Trailers