Eeeeyup, I'm calling a Miyazaki movie boring. Oh boy, I really must have a deathwish...
Basically, The Boy And The Heron is a beautiful story of Mahito, a kid who lost his mother to a fire, and suddenly has to deal with a lot, like the fact that his father married his aunt, his aunt is pregnant, and there is a freaky Heron that tries to lure him into an even freakier tower in the backyard.
Art-Wise, this movie is a visual bombastic treat. Calling it gorgeous wouldn't make it proper justice. There are dozens of absolutely beautiful moments, backgrounds designs that only the Ghibli studio can pull off and everything is so smoothly animated that if it was an object, it would be the first frictionless surface in the universe. I also caught several references to real life paintings and painters. The soundtrack is also beautiful with several kinds of tones that follow the action accordingly.
Its also insanely long, dull with a crashed pacing.
First and foremost, this is a movie chock-full of symbolism about creation of a gorgeous world, influences, the necessity of passing the torch and family bonds. How someone needs to accept the tragedy of one's life to move on and the inherent cycle of death and rebirth, not only physical but also metaphorical, ideas that live, die and are reborn. Influences that end up infecting and corrupting, even if by accident. I saw it, crystal clear. I actually enjoyed several of the poignant moments (like the dying pelican) and connected the dots. The problem is that this story is delivered in a really, really slow paced way that suddenly rushes at the end because it burned most of the time. Ghibli movies are by nature slow burners, but this goes way too long. Shots are absolutely beautiful, but take three times longer than necessary, and it gives the impression that the narrative is far more interested its own art and the messages about Miyazaki's life to properly flesh out the characters. I didn't feel particularly engaged with Mahito, I didn't care much for the Heron and so on.
The pacing is also a serious problem, the start where Mahito discovers the Heron and trying to deal with it takes nearly half of the movie, before suddenly shifting to a world full of wonders... that also takes far too long with its first part, so the second half feels insanely rushed. We go from concept to concept, piece to piece extremely fast because there is people to find, more concepts to deliver. Characters are suddenly tossed into the fray as if they had a bigger relevance, the person responsible for everyone's plight only has three shallow scenes and then its over. Hell, the main gist between Mahito and his stepmom takes, what, four lines in a beautiful scene of three minutes?
So in the end, while I do understand that this is Miyazaki's farewell, this ended up an overly long movie with a convoluted rushed end that only takes two hours to see, but it felt like four. So far, my favorites are still Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, watch those instead.
Anime Gorgeous, Meaningful, Boring.
Eeeeyup, I'm calling a Miyazaki movie boring. Oh boy, I really must have a deathwish...
Basically, The Boy And The Heron is a beautiful story of Mahito, a kid who lost his mother to a fire, and suddenly has to deal with a lot, like the fact that his father married his aunt, his aunt is pregnant, and there is a freaky Heron that tries to lure him into an even freakier tower in the backyard.
Art-Wise, this movie is a visual bombastic treat. Calling it gorgeous wouldn't make it proper justice. There are dozens of absolutely beautiful moments, backgrounds designs that only the Ghibli studio can pull off and everything is so smoothly animated that if it was an object, it would be the first frictionless surface in the universe. I also caught several references to real life paintings and painters. The soundtrack is also beautiful with several kinds of tones that follow the action accordingly.
Its also insanely long, dull with a crashed pacing.
First and foremost, this is a movie chock-full of symbolism about creation of a gorgeous world, influences, the necessity of passing the torch and family bonds. How someone needs to accept the tragedy of one's life to move on and the inherent cycle of death and rebirth, not only physical but also metaphorical, ideas that live, die and are reborn. Influences that end up infecting and corrupting, even if by accident. I saw it, crystal clear. I actually enjoyed several of the poignant moments (like the dying pelican) and connected the dots. The problem is that this story is delivered in a really, really slow paced way that suddenly rushes at the end because it burned most of the time. Ghibli movies are by nature slow burners, but this goes way too long. Shots are absolutely beautiful, but take three times longer than necessary, and it gives the impression that the narrative is far more interested its own art and the messages about Miyazaki's life to properly flesh out the characters. I didn't feel particularly engaged with Mahito, I didn't care much for the Heron and so on.
The pacing is also a serious problem, the start where Mahito discovers the Heron and trying to deal with it takes nearly half of the movie, before suddenly shifting to a world full of wonders... that also takes far too long with its first part, so the second half feels insanely rushed. We go from concept to concept, piece to piece extremely fast because there is people to find, more concepts to deliver. Characters are suddenly tossed into the fray as if they had a bigger relevance, the person responsible for everyone's plight only has three shallow scenes and then its over. Hell, the main gist between Mahito and his stepmom takes, what, four lines in a beautiful scene of three minutes?
So in the end, while I do understand that this is Miyazaki's farewell, this ended up an overly long movie with a convoluted rushed end that only takes two hours to see, but it felt like four. So far, my favorites are still Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, watch those instead.