'The Boy and The Heron' is to be the last film from Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, who came out of retirement to make it and turns 83 in January. Mahoto Maski is an adolescent boy whose mother dies in a Tokyo fire about mid way through World War II. A year later and Mahoto's father Shoichi has married his late wifes younger sister (who is now pregnant), as well as relocated the family and his aircraft factory to his wives ancestral estate.
There a large gray heron takes an unusual interest in Mahoto, who finds this threatening and tries to kill the bird. When Mahoto's pregnant step-mother / aunt goes missing the heron revels its self to be a kind of anthropromorphizing spirit guide tasked with helping him find lost family.
The heron takes Mahoto on an 'Alice in Wonderland'/'Wizard of Oz' type journey into another world populated by the dead, unborn spirits, versions of people he knew in life, soul eating pelicans, fascistic parakeets and a mysterious wizard. There is a lot going on in this movie.
Imaginative and with moments of real beauty, this took a while to get going and I found that I had a harder time connecting with it then is usually case for me with Miyazaki movies. However even lower tear Miyazaki is of greater quality then most anything else out their in terms of contemporary animated film making. This one just wasn't one of my favorites of his. ***
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