As War Rages On, a Boy Goes Between Uncertain Worlds

Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan) and The Grey 
Heron (Robert Pattinson) in 
"The Boy and the Heron"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

For a while, the only movies that I had seen from world-renown animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki were “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Princess Mononoke.”  When his latest film, “The Boy and the Heron,” was announced that it would be released at the end of the year, I figured that was as good of a time as any to marathon through some of his films that I had missed.  Having now seen “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ponyo,” and “The Wind Rises,” I finally see what I’ve been missing all of these years, with Miyazaki’s films taking me on many journeys that unfolded with boundless imagination.  These are emotional and spiritual adventures that kept me enthralled in their remarkable stories and characters.

After 10 years, we now have his latest and twelfth feature, with his most recent being “The Wind Rises.”  Not only is “The Boy and the Heron” one of the best films of 2023, but the best animated film of the year, and it was worth having this be my first Miyazaki film on a big screen.

In 1943, during the Pacific War, 12-year-old Mahito Maki (Luca Padovan), loses his mother during a hospital fire.  Afterwards, he evacuates Tokyo with his father, Shoichi (Christian Bale, reuniting with Miyazaki after “Howl’s Moving Castle”) and stepmother, Natsuko (Gemma Chan) to live in the countryside.  One day, a grey heron (Robert Pattinson) leads Mahito to an abandoned tower, which brings him through a portal into a world beyond his wildest imagination.

Padovan delivers poignant work as a young boy who must find his way both through wartime Japan and a mystical world where anything is possible.  When voicing Mahito, Padovan brings across his character’s unwavering bravery as he ventures further and further into a beautiful, yet dangerous place to save his stepmother.  Interwoven with this strength is a strong sense of emotion as Mahito remembers the death of his mother, and Padovan brings across Mahito’s sense of loss, with his character using that as a source of strength to take on further hardships that he faces.  Miyazaki excels in building protagonists who are trying to understand and find their way in the world, be it our world or another, and Mahito is the next great addition to a superb lineup of such characters.

With this being Pattinson’s first role in an animated film, he shows a whole new path for his career.  Here, we have a stunning example of what he’s able to do with his voice, seeing as what he does with his vocals makes him sound unrecognizable.  He employs a mischievous and somewhat threatening tone of voice throughout that has this character keep you not just intrigued, but also unsure as to whether or not you can trust this heron.  Pattinson draws us in with this enigmatic air to his character and brings across a deep sense of mysticism to the heron, eliciting a deep sense of a creature who’s been around for a long time and knows his way through the intricacies of the extraordinary places in which he inhabits.

It wouldn’t be a Miyazaki film without a strong roster of supporting characters.  For this section of his cast, there’s Karen Fukuhara as the spirited and helpful Lady Himi, who acts as Mahito’s guide later in the film; Gemma Chan as Natsuko, Mahito’s loving stepmother; Christian Bale as Mahito’s protective father; Mark Hamill as the mysterious Granduncle; Florence Pugh as the tough seafarer, Kiriko; Willem Dafoe as the forbidding Noble Pelican; and Dave Bautista as the intimidating and majestic warrior known as The Parakeet King.  Miyazaki always gives his films distinctive characters that stand out from one other in each story, and those whom he introduces add to the fascination that you’ll feel when moving among the worlds of this movie.

Miyazaki’s screenplay is loaded with fantastical and human elements, combining them in such a way that shows how much of a master he is at giving us fulfilling and challenging stories.  Although the movie is just barely two hours, it feels longer, but that’s not a bad thing.  Instead, Miyazaki uses this languid pace to flesh out his settings little by little, just as he’s done with his other films.  His narrative allows us to get to know the characters of Mahito’s world very well in the first third of the film before he goes on his life-changing adventure.  We’re given a view into Tokyo during the war and in the countryside to which Mahito and his family move, providing enough details for us to care for these individuals.  Miyazaki then unfolds his strange, richly-textured environments with a comprehensive mythology that absorbs you in every scene.  Between the magnetic characters and epic-scale settings, Miyazaki’s story carries an unpredictability that whisks the viewer into a viewing experience that only he can provide.  This is a narrative that’s breathtaking in size and intimate in its poignancy, showing how Miyazaki continues to be one of cinema’s most thought-provoking and heartfelt storytellers.

Miyazaki is an animator whose work begs to be seen in a theater.  His movies are absolute treasures of the medium, and “The Boy and the Heron” isn’t any different.  The animation that he’s provided throughout his career is unparalleled, and while watching this movie, you see and feel the amount of work that went into the long wait for this movie.  Even for Miyazaki, this is a new height for him.  Besides the awe-inspiring visuals, he provides stunning amounts of emotion, while also injecting bits of humor here and there, all of which solidifies the connections that you experience with his characters.  Heightening the magical feeling that’s felt throughout the film is a typically gorgeous musical score from Miyazaki’s frequent collaborator, Joe Hisaishi, as well as the beautiful end-credits song, “Spinning Globe.”

Over the summer, we had a couple of wonderful animated films with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” and this year in animation is ending on an astounding note with “The Boy and the Heron.”  All three of these films have shown how much animation has evolved over the years, and Miyazaki’s latest couldn’t be a better film on which to end this memorable streak in 2023.  This movie is a testament to how Miyazaki is a filmmaker of endless invention who has a tremendous love for bringing his grand ideas to realization, and we’re lucky to have a filmmaker of his caliber working today.  With each movie he makes, we can never guess where he will take us, and that’s the beauty of his adventures.

Grade: A