Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, his first feature film in 10 years since announcing his retirement after The Wind Rises, The Boy and the Heron sees the animation legend return to form by way of a wondrous story, inspired by details from his own life, about a young boy drawn into a fantasy world for an adventure that may help him better understand his own world, presuming he returns to it.
Buy The Boy and the Heron Blu-rayAfter his mother Hisako dies in a fire during wartime, Mahito and his father Shoichi leave Tokyo to live with his Aunt Natsuko on her country estate. Shoichi is going to marry his sister-in-law and she is already pregnant with their child. Mahito, still mourning the loss of his mother, is slow to assimilate to his new setting and lashes out. A heron, which is a costume for the Birdman, claims Mahito’s mother is still alive. When Natsuko goes missing in the forest, Mahito and the maid Kiriko go look for her. The Birdman leads them into a mysterious tower.
Once inside, Mahito is magically transported, to another place or another time, through the floor where he encounters a younger version of the maid Kiriko, who is an adventurer and fisherwoman. She feeds the warawara, little creatures like the susuwatari (soot sprites) in Spirited Away. Once satiated and mature, they fly away upward to another world. When pelicans attack the helpless, hovering warawara, the birds are driven off by Lady Himi, who emits fireworks. Mahito learns from a dying pelican that his kind aren’t being malicious feasting on the warawara. They have no other food options. Lady Himi reappears and Mahito asks about Natsuko, who Lady Himi states is her sister. Given the chance to return home from the tower, Mahito chooses to stay and find Natsuko.
Back at home, Shoichi (and the audience) learns that the tower fell from the sky. Thirty-odd years later, Granduncle built a facade to hide it and then he disappeared. While unconscious, Mahito encounters his great-granduncle, who asks Mahito to take over his work as custodian of this dream world. Mahito is left with many choices in the tower: does he return to his father alone, does he keep searching for the woman replacing his mother, or does he stay inside the tower forever and take over for his great-granduncle. Each choice has major implications for him and his family and that’s before mentioning the Parrot King whose parrot forces are after Mahito and Lady Himi.
Even though Miyazaki uses some themes and motifs that will be familiar to his fans, he and his team have created a marvelous fairy tale that explores living with grief and accepting the state of one’s life and that of others. Although a child is at the story’s center, The Boy and the Heron has lessons for viewers for all ages. The glorious animation should enrapture anyone who gives their attention to it
The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer at its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The colors appear in bold hues, from rich earth tones to strong primaries. Blacks are inky and whites, as seen in the warawara, look accurate. The depth and texture details created by the animators gives an authenticity to the settings.
The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 for both English and Japanese. The dialogue is clear. The effects fill the surrounds, moving about channels and enveloping the viewer with loud sounds of action that never overpower the speakers and quiet sounds of scene ambiance, demonstrating the track’s wide dynamic range. The subwoofer delivers consistent bass support. Composer Joe Hisaishi’s piano-centric score sounds exquisite and is worth listening to on its own.
The bonus features are:
- Feature-Length Storyboards – See the early stages of the film in pencil and water color accompanied by English dialogue audio track
- Interview with Composer Joe Hisaishi (10 min) – He has been working with Miyazaki for 40 years. Didn’t see storyboards or script, just the movie. Hisaishi also spoke about his approach.
- Interview with Producer Toshio Suzuki (5 min) – Topices include reuniting with Miyazaki, how he sees himself in the heron, and the global reaction.
- Interview with Supervising Animator Takeshi Honda (20 min) – First worked with Miyazaki on Ponyo. On Boy, his “job was to match drawings to Miyazaki’s storyboards and…take the key frames drawn by the animators, and adjust them using the instruction from Miyazaki.”
- Drawing with Takeshi Honda (27 min) – Viewers get to see different characters appear from Honda’s pencil.
- “Spinning Globe” Music Video (5 min)
- Teasers & Trailers
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is an outstanding endeavor. It stands equally alongside the other classics in his filmography and sets a high bar for all animated films that follow it. The GKIDS/Shout Studios Blu-ray impresses because both the high-definition video and audio presentations are top notch, and the bonus material allows viewers to explore the film’s origins, especially the Feature-Length Storyboards. The Boy and the Heron is also available on 4K UHD.
