The Boy and the Heron - A beautiful film, but...

As I mentioned before, I'm trying to immerse myself as much as possible in the world of anime, and well, considering the huge amount of content out there it becomes difficult to find where to start, so, faced with such a dilemma, I think the best thing to do is to start by watching some of the most iconic movies of Japanese animation. I have already watched Hotaru no Haka, Kimi no Na wa and Nakitai Watashi wa Neko o Kaburu and so far I have been satisfied with the stories I have seen, definitely the reputation that these movies have has been more than deserved, yes there is an interesting and vast world in anime.

The Boy and the Heron is a film from the mythical studio Ghibli and is directed by Hayao Miyazaki whom you surely know from films like Mononoke Hime, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi and Howl's Moving Castle, by the way, all those films are on my list as I understand they had a good impact both for story and animation. One thing we can't ignore about The Boy and the Heron is that it won an Oscar award for best animated film of the year 2024 and that's a difficult feat to accomplish considering Pixar is always there to figure in such a category.

So, I will try not to give you so many spoilers, but I see necessary to mention some of them to give you some context about this movie. The story takes us to the time of the second world war, Mahito, desperately runs to the hospital where his mother is because it is involved in flames, although they do everything possible, his mother dies. Soon after, Mahito goes with his father and aunt to a rural area, where they will spend as much time as necessary until the war is over.

But Mahito goes through many stressful moments, he doesn't fit in at school, he has problems with his aunt and he misses his mother very much. Things start to get weird when a particular heron talks to Mahito, she bothers him as if trying to get his attention and tells him that his mother is alive. At first, Mahito feels hostility from the heron and tries to hit it or hunt it with different weapons, but he never succeeds.

This is how fantasy begins to be more present in the film, his aunt forbids him to enter an abandoned mansion that is close to home, but Mahito feels attracted to that place and the heron also attracts him there. At a certain moment Mahito's aunt gets lost and he tries to find her, which takes him to another world full of fantasy and mysteries.

The first thing I'm going to highlight about the movie is its animation, and well, that's something that I'm sure won't surprise you since it's to be expected from studio Ghibli. I loved the way the scenes flow, the facial expressions of the characters, the way the liquids are squeezed, I think it has a very particular and unique style. However, I must admit that I didn't feel trapped by the story, I'm not saying that I disliked it, but I expected a little more considering how much of an award winner this movie was.

At times I felt that the film was heavy, I understand perfectly well that it is the type in which fantasy has the leading role, but I think it went beyond what was necessary. I must clarify that this is just my opinion, I do not intend to detract at any time this work of art that has been so much talked about.

Now, what I mentioned above is just a negative factor from my perspective, but on the other hand I think it's an ideal movie to let our imagination run wild. The type of fantasy that The Boy and the Heron presents us with is not exactly what I'm used to, but it helped me a lot to refresh that genre.