The Boy & The Heron; A Dream I'm Glad to be Free From
The Boy and The Heron. All I can say, is that it definitely was like an insane dream that you just can't understand once you wake up. To start, this is my first actual film review, so this will probably be coming off as more of an opinion piece if anything else. When I first watched the film, I didn't google anything about the plot or what I was going to get myself into, so when I was first greeted with the opening scene, I figured that I was probably going to end up crying in the end... Instead, I was mostly just glad that I finished the film and I wouldn't have to ever watch it again.
I must say that I do genuinely love the studio Ghibli films that I have seen before. To me, all of them are practically a living piece of art, This film included. int the beginning of the film, the way the main character, Mahito's shirt contrasted with the flames and the chaos instantly impressed me. Then the way that he called out to his mother, and seeing all of the war Imagery, I couldn't help but feel I was in for an emotional ride. And then the backgrounds were all something that were truly magical. It was just something about all the little details that show just how much love and care went into the film. For example after Mahito went through the gate and entered the room where his fake mother was, I couldn't help but admire the details of the floor. Then there was the way that Mahito was sucked into said floor that was just amazing. While just a bit uncomfortable for me to watch, seeing as the the way the characters were sucked into the floor hit a negative part of my brain, it didn't change the fact that it was still just as beautiful to me as well. Then there were the unique character designs. I personally, loved the Warawara, honestly they were the best characters in the entire film. They were absolutely way too cute to be eaten in my opinion. Then there was the Kiriko. I loved the little detail of the ship steering wheel on her clothing despite the fact that she didn't use one to man her ship. I thought that it was a fun little detail.
Of course, I have many praises for the art direction the film took, but unfortunately, I have many grievances as well. I'm sorry but I HATED the Heroin's design. I was horrified when I saw the bird suddenly develop teeth. It made me feel sick. Then when the talking fish came out and when the frogs started covering Mahito, I just couldn't take it. I genuinely got so upset it's not even funny. And I have no idea if this was one of the film's intentions, but after watching it, I ended up developing a distaste for birds, especially since in some frames the bird characters were animated in a way that just came off as disturbing to me. There were so many uncomfortable scenes that I just couldn't fully immerse myself into the film at all.
While watching it, I also was at a loss most of the time, and because I just couldn't get into it, I couldn't help but think of other things instead of the film. For example, When Mahito hit himself with the rock, I was just like "Please someone get this kid a therapist or something". Other than thinking that, I just didn't care. Then when I saw the old women instead of paying attention to whatever they were saying, I couldn't help but reminded of the three wives of Wenlock, the main antagonist of the film Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, who got turned into these little troll women. Again, I know for a fact me suddenly thinking about a completely different movie wasn't the point of the characters.
Then I just didn't enjoy how some of the scenes were cut. For example, the way a scene suddenly changed from Mahito talking to his great uncle to him suddenly being cooked by some demonic bird was absolutely jarring. To add to all this, I mostly just felt like I was missing some cultural context in order to understand what I was watching. Again, I did not do any research on the film prior or after, so maybe certain things would have been more clear if I had done so, but I personally don't want to have to google things to try to understand the film I'm watching. I guess I'm just trying to say that despite the setting and the art, I couldn't fully immerse myself into the film. In the end, I probably just wasn't the target audience of the film to begin with.
I must again restate that the film wasn't horrible to me at all. I did understand that it was just a creative and beautiful way to talk about life, death, and loss. I could understand that the Warawara were meant to be new life where as the shadow people were clearly meant to represent death. Then the way that the character, Lady Himi suddenly became snow white and the way that Mahito's step mother was pregnant. There were many things in this film that I could tell were talking about the cycle of life and how to try to process it, granted I could be horribly wrong by stating this as well. I just didn't understand why exactly everything that I was seeing in the film was in it in the first place. For example the great uncle wanted Mahito to become his successor, then as he was telling him that he could make the world whatever he wanted, I couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to make the world filed with freaky birds that eat people. The whole film over all just kind of upset me at the most random times.
In the end, while this film was not my cup of tea at all, I do believe that it would be a good movie for someone who is suffering from some sort of loss to watch. I also believe that if you are just a fan of Ghibli movies as a whole, then you'll probably enjoy the film. Unfortunately, From the the uncomfortable character designs and animation. Then the the fact that I just couldn't fully get into the film or fully understand what was going on, for me, it really was just a wild dream. One of the ones that isn't exactly a nightmare, but an insane one where you feel incredibly relived that you woke up from. Hopefully for anyone that could be considering to watch it, it will be something that you will be able to truly be able to fully admire and appreciate.
- ♡⋆˚࿔ ˚₊‧꒰ა Lovelie Tsukino ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆ᡣ𐭩
