Understanding The Boy and the Heron

[@radmanstan413]

It was a great movie that I say is up there with their best movies. The more I think about it the more I love it.

[@MahouKat]

I weirdly had an easier time 'understanding' this movie (in terms of its themes on legacy, grief and retirement) than I did Spirited Away on my first watch. This is not saying either is better or worse than the other, but that's why I find people's takes on this so interesting! :D Lovely essay! You're really underrated!

[@sefoschannel]

Now that is a bit of an uncommon take that I do share with you actually, but I attribute it to the difference in expectations for the two movies. I went into The Boy and the Heron knowing most of its themes and level of abstraction so it wasn't particularly confusing, while for Spirited Away I went in blind and didn't know what to expect since it was my first Miyazaki film. Thank you for your comment 💚

[@superfriendlyalpaca]

Just rewatched the movie and I find it so amazing that it can be understood through multiple interpretations like you mentioned! I appreciate the openness of this analysis and I do think that if anything, the mystery of the film is Miyazaki’s final gift to us since we can continue rewatching and reinterpreting the movie forever ☺️ also can’t believe your channel has so few follows for such great content!! Keep up the good work 🙏

[@sefoschannel]

I totally agree with the mystery being a true gift. Nothing is better than a final work that continues to live for long through rewatches that come with new analysis and theories! Thanks for your comment 💚

[@trentjohnson5713]

I'm scouring youtube for a straightforward explanation of the literal events of the movie and there's nothing but dozens of philosophical essays

[@joshuatewolde1837]

Yeah to give this movie a lot more respect now on the counter, it’s been officially deemed winner of best feature at 2024 Oscars.

[@gerheartthefirst5195]

People who say "This movie was confusing! Therefore its bad!" you are a hypocrite. If you are a big Ghibli fan you would know that his movies are supposed to be confusing, they are not in this world, of course you will be confused, and thats a good thing. Not every little detail should be hand fed into the audences ear, the most popular criticism of modern movies is that "Oh that movie was good but they told instead of showed too much" aka not following "Show don't tell" and yet the largest criticism of this film I see is that the movie should have just told you whats happening every other second.

[@gerheartthefirst5195]

Also, there seem to be only two camps from what ive seen the "Its his best work" camp and the "Its his worst work" camp. And while this may be a discovery of the participation of radicals being higher then the moderate, why cant this movie be one in the middle, maybe not the best, but still really really good. I mean everyone has a diffrent #1 ghibli film.

[@gerheartthefirst5195]

I mean hell two of the best anime Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion both leave off at times (In Cowboy this is less so) with a similar feeling to the end of this movie, yet they are some of the highest rated anime of all time.

[@rurouni_xyz]

nice video. watched it recently again & trying to get in depth on this

[@MIRZA.H-b6l]

I wisht to be longer it needet more it was too fast

[@georgyunlimited6980]

Great video thank you!

[@felipe1031]

The fact that you need to find help to understand this movie or at least start to get a grasp of what it is about, says a lot about this movie. Does it really need to be that confusing?

[@DaoSeeker]

This movie was just bad. Simple and not very complex at all, just bad, random nonsense, non-cohesive story flow, no emotional weight for the supposed "themes", things just happen with no meaning or explanation that never get touched on again or contribute to the story. For example (spoilers): - What was the motivation of the heron? Why was it luring the boy? It's place in the story was never explained. (The heron could easily be replaced with any other kind of guide or plot device) - What was the point of the golden gate, didn't contribute to the story and wasn't touched on again (scenes could be removed entirely) - What's the point of the world building of fishing to feed the spirits, or the white spirit things, or the pelicans... None of this had any relevance or effect on the story, other than to point out that the creatures in the world are hungry, (it's mostly just more padding of the bloated boring story with random details) - What's the deal with the parakeets? Why are they there, why are they anthropomorphized and civilized but not the pelicans? At first what seems like just a few strange parakeets causing trouble later randomly turns out to be a whole parakeet civilisation that act as the obstacles/antagonists for the boy. This, and the parakeet king, popped up so late in the story that it once again just felt like random nonsense happening. - The boy meets the younger version of his mother, but there was no emotional weight to it, no interesting conversions. (It could have just been some random ancestor of his and the story wouldn't have been affected much) - Why was going into the step-mother's room taboo? - Why did the step-mother say she hated the boy? This was actually the only interesting interaction in the whole movie that had any kind of emotional weight and potential behind it... But it was just a throw away line that is never touched on again, never explained, never resolved, never shown to have any effect on the story or the boy. - The boy suddenly calling her "mother" and accepting her just felt like unearned character development. - Why did the parakeet king, after remarking in shock that the world depended on some random building block pieces, then proceed to quickly and randomly stack the blocks without any care, and then when that failed just destroy them? Why do this? So random. - The boy's original "call to adventure" was to save his step-mother, but that eventually got forgotten about in order to save the fire-girl. And then the story switched to being about the tower itself and passing down the control of it to him. So by the end, if I remember correctly, when the tower was falling apart the step-mother had to save herself by making her way to the portal doors herself because she was essentially forgotten about. - Why did the old lady exist in the world as a younger version of herself and as the wooden figure? The old lady returned to the real world from the wooden figure, please explain? The boy took the wooden figure on a whim, does that mean she wouldn't have made it back if he didn't do that. And what about the wooden figures of the other maids, were they just normal wooden figures? (I guess it's just trying to be magical, deep, and introspective, when really it's just more random nonsense) - Then the story pretty much just abruptly ended and left me feeling "meh". The movie had no touching scenes that would make one teary-eyed, no cathartic scenes or emotional releases, it didn't make want to think deeply about the events, or leave me wanting more. It was just the biggest "meh" movie I've seen all year. Also, the first half is just plain old boring and the movie was too long. The only thing it has going for it is the beautiful art and animation. For the people that say this movie is great, stop trying to attribute deep themes and extra meaning to the movie just because it was a Miyazaki movie. You can pretty much attribute amazing deep themes to absolutely any bad/boring movie if you do enough mental gymnastics. I am of the firm belief that if a story isn't enjoyable or triggers impactful emotions, then it's simply not worth analysing for deeper meaning. The whole point of a story having deeper meaning is for that deeper meaning to seep into forefront to actually affect people in some meaningful way. If this movie did do that for you then great, this movie was for you. If it didn't actually do that, then stop trying to prop it up as some deep meaningful movie.

[@inazuma3gou]

I realize that the comment is 2 months old but what the hell. Your are misunderstanding the difference between Art and Product. Art is a form of self expression and a means for self exloration. Products come with specifications. Specifications may include logic, cohesive story flow, readily identifiable themes, etc... If you are looking for these specifications, The Boy in Heron is a terrible product because even Miyazaki himself says "there are parts that even I don't understand." The movie was Miyazaki was trying to make sense of his life through making a semi-autobiography. If you want great Products from Miyazaki, I recommend watching his earlier movies like Laputa and Nausicaä. He was younger then and was more accommodating to making products for his company to make money. I personally like love these movies a lot better. The Boy and The Heron reflects the kind of movies Miyazaki wants to make if he didn't have to worry about money making.

[@stephanieshedd5188]

Agree with pretty much all of your points. Maybe this was a surrealist movie, and wasn't meant to have a clear meaning? The surrealist art work was the strongest aspect of the movie, to me. I think he had too much time and money to put into the film. Sometimes time and budget constraints help to focus art.

[@crabstix4430]

Overrated garbage compared to his older work

[@BlackCheezit]

very boring and confusing movie. no hate on u doe my brotha

[@dksun]

Real and succinct review, can't say the same for the movie ;)

[@A1d3n788]

DOG WHAT BRO THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ANIME MOVIES IN MY OPINION

[@mguvron6604]

Nah, your'e western i understand u don't have a feeling with this movie 😅