The Boy and the Heron                  4 ½ stars

A lot of movie goers were surprised at the release of The Boy and the Heron, by Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s master animator. Ten years ago, he released The Wind Rises saying it would be his final feature film. Fans of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fondly remember his earlier classics My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. His style typically involves a fantasy world with strange creatures having human qualities, drawn in a way that evokes many emotions in the viewer. In his new final film, he bases the story on his own childhood growing up during World War II in Japan. The main character is Mahito, a 12-year-old boy recalling how his mother was killed in a hospital fire caused by a bombing attack. His father moves the boy to the country near the factory his father operates. Also in the new home are his father’s new wife, Natsuko, who is Mahito’s aunt and is already pregnant, as well as seven old grannies who tend to their needs in the house. Mahito is consumed by grief from the loss of his mother and spends time exploring the environs around the house. Only, he is routinely harassed by a persistent large gray heron wherever he goes. One day he follows the heron to a great decaying stone tower and tries to enter it to investigate but finds he can’t get inside the structure. Mahito is warned by the grannies not to go there and is told the tower was built by his mother’s uncle many years ago. Then one day Natsuko goes missing and the gray heron reveals that he is really an old, ugly gnome with a voice, telling Mahito that his mother is not dead, and she can be found in the tower. Mahito follows the heron into the tower entering a new fantasy world that is inhabited by the living and the dead. There are many strange beings there including a large flock of angry talking pelicans, a young pirate, thousands of balloon like creatures called the Warawara that float through the air, a girl named Lady Himi who protects the Warawara with fire, and a kingdom of giant parakeets led by the Parakeet king. Also, present is a version of Mahito’s great uncle who is striving to build a perfect structure out of stone blocks. He is seeking a successor to his job and wants Mahito to take his place. Some of the scenes may seem confusing and there is a lot going on here, but the point seems to be that Mahito is working through his grief and is struggling to do the right thing in his life. Like his earlier films Miyazaki uses many familiar techniques in The Boy and the Heron to illustrate certain life lessons. Here the lesson is how one is to carry on with living when weighed down by extreme sadness. This film is somewhat autobiographical and is different from most in that the main character is a boy where he usually has female lead characters. (Like in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.) As in many of his other films it has a variety of odd characters, some likable and many with undesirable traits and questionable motives. I recommend it for animation fans, but perhaps not for the youngest of viewers because of some frightening images.