The Boy and the Heron

This was a truly beautiful, affecting, and breathtaking film. That said, parts are very intense and sometimes quite violent and rather grotesque. It's a lovely film in the tradition of Miyazaki, but as with certain other Miyazaki films (e.g., Princess Mononoke), it's better suited to more mature children and adults. It was a bit much for my younger two children, and I regret having ignored the MPAA rating in favour of the Common Sense Media suggestion. I think the MPAA had this one right.

It’s a really good movie. It’s has some very heavy but necessary themes. The animation is amazing. The plot can be hard to follow and almost seems like two different movies which is understandable because the director Miyazaki changed some things last minute due to personal trauma with loss of a friend and co-worker. The film goes really hard with the concept of mortality, life, death, truth, lies, and lots of things. Worth it to see it in theaters but rewatches are necessary to understand everything going on.

Japanese master animation studio Studio Ghibli presents a fabulous fantasy with grand visuals and a complex story about the personal growth of a spoiled boy. The protagonist, a 10 year old boy named Mahito is moved to the countryside during WW2 by his wealthy father who has relocated a factory making airplane parts to avoid bombing and upon arrival meets his new stepmother. His wealth sets him apart for the other children and he ends up journeying to an alternative universe and sets out on a journey of personal growth where he learns to accept others needs while not having his own choices dictated by adults. Parents should be aware the movie is made for a Japanese audience who digest media in a different way to most Hollywood audiences and contains some intense fantasy scenes and scary monsters that are typical in Studio Ghibli movies. As its set in the 1940s, almost all the adult characters will smoke. The plot resolution isn't spelt out, so children (and some adults) might not have a full grasp of the meaning of the ending.

a powerful look at childhood and loss.

Okay, in all fairness, this movie starts out airtight. Mahito loses his mom in a fire, so he lives with a bunch of old ladies until he finds this heron who brings him to the world of the dead. Everything was lined up for this to be a great, emotional movie.... But it kinda missed the mark. (Unlike Mahito! AYO!). The Heron, cigar-addicted grandma and other characters are all funny and interesting in their own right, and there are still some very emotional scenes, but none of these things really mesh all that well with each other. We're given a bunch of lore about this world that sounds interesting on paper, but ultimately just makes said world (And the movie's message, or lack thereof) feel incredibly muddled. And near the end, the movie turns incredibly self-congratulatory and annoyingly meta, feeling like the director is just using this movie to celebrate himself. Despite all these criticisms, I'd hesitate to call this a bad movie by any means. Even aside from my aforementioned praises, the animation is really something to behold (Even if the food looked terrible, don't @ me.) and it makes me wish the whole movie was dialogueless, as The Red Turtle had no dialogue and ended up a slightly better movie. This movie is also noticeably not for kids, which I kinda like. There are scenes of death, self-harm, a weird fish gutting, drug addiction and even almost murder. But still, this definitely isn't best animated feature material, at least to me.

It is very much an anime story. There is so much that makes zero sense. There are some disturbing elements that I do not think kids would like.

This animated film is not for young children. It’s too slow and scary for kids under age 13. Many descriptions of this movie call it a film about a boy who befriends a heron. This is (probably unintentionally) misleading. The boy’s movie dies in a fire in the first few minutes of the movie, and he is moved to the countryside to live with his new stepmother. A scary heron takes interest in him, and he eventually explores a forbidden tower which is a gateway to the underworld. It’s a very intense journey with lots of scary parts that will overwhelm young or sensitive children. It’s a beautiful film, but not for kids. I rated it for 13+ but I think even 13 year olds might lose interest or be overwhelmed.

Great story and beautiful animation. My boys 10 and 13 loved it. There are some intense parts that may be scary to younger kids but overall a great family movie.

The main character's mother dies in the first 30 seconds, and he spends the rest of the movie missing her and looking for her in the underworld. The death-focused movie takes a break for unexplained self-harm when the main character purposefully bludgeons himself in the head with a rock. My daughter is 9 and loves Ghibli movies. Neither of us enjoyed this one.