Studio Ghibli's The Boy And The Heron Screened At TIFF – Here's What People Are Saying
It's hard to believe that yesterday somehow wasn't a national holiday, given that a new Hayao Miyazaki film screened at the Toronto Film Festival last night. The director's widely-praised collaboration with Studio Ghibli definitely counts as a reason to celebrate, particularly when so much of the hype around "The Boy and the Heron" has focused on the possibility that it would be the esteemed filmmaker's last movie ever. Thankfully, those reports have been debunked and it appears Miyazaki is once again pulling his patented "unretired" routine that anime fans know all too well. But even with that extra layer of context now removed, critics have already begun to weigh in on their emotional experience watching this latest project.
Nobody would be surprised to hear that the man behind such classics as "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind," "Castle in the Sky," "My Neighbor Totoro," and "The Wind Rises" — the last of which was once considered to be Miyazaki's swan song, too — would return after nearly a decade to blow the socks off audiences once again. Who knows — perhaps such a reception is exactly what helped convince him to put off sailing into the sunset for another few years. But in any case, it sure doesn't hurt to confirm that the moviemaking legend's still got it.
Reactions and reviews have continued to stream in following the film festival premiere of "The Boy and the Heron" and, wouldn't you know it, audiences are once again going wild over a Hayao Miyazaki movie. For those who've been anticipating this latest film and wondering how it measures up to the director's best, look no further. We've compiled a number of varied opinions, ranging from measured to euphoric, that you can check out below.
The Boy and the Heron first reactions
Even without the extra pressure of being considered Hayao Miyazaki's final film ever, "The Boy and the Heron" had a lot to live up to. Animation obsessive and acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro made a surprise appearance at the TIFF screening, introducing the film on behalf of the man he called "the greatest director of animation ever" and whom he compared to Mozart himself. Well, early reviews and tweet reactions out of the premiere have backed those claims up, ensuring that Miyazaki's legacy remains untarnished.
Critic David Ehrlich of IndieWire got the party started by calling the film a "masterpiece." Praising the film's ruminations on mortality, he called it a "perfect swan song" (posted before word broke that Miyazaki had reversed course on that, naturally) ... more so than even "The Wind Rises," despite not quite reaching the rarified air of being considered the director's best work. Still, fans can expect to count it "among the most beautiful movies ever drawn" and should prepare themselves for an utterly emotional final shot.
The Wrap's Tomris Laffly similarly focused on how "The Boy and the Heron" reflects an 82-year-old master filmmaker seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, praising the film as an "enigmatic rumination on death and creation" and, fittingly enough, even compares the story to del Toro's brilliant "Pan's Labyrinth." Over at The Guardian, Radheyan Simonpillai echoed those thoughts in his exceedingly positive review, describing it as "an uncommonly mature and joyous meditation on death and legacy."
In his review for IGN, /Film's own Rafael Motomayor also heaps praise on the existential themes of the picture, calling it "a farewell from a man contemplating his own mortality, his legacy, and what awaits those who come after him."
'Unpredictable,' 'fantastical,' and 'a maximalist cosmic concoction'
As much as these reactions peg "The Boy and the Heron" as a comforting, warm hug of a movie, however, a number of critics caution that audiences ought not to expect the most straightforward narrative. As former /Film editor Hoai-Tran Bui tweeted, "How do you live knowing the world you built for your children is worse than before? After the subdued craftsmanship of THE WIND RISES, Miyazaki's final masterpiece is a maximalist cosmic concoction, his strangest, most confounding movie in a long, long time."
A pivotal turn in the second half of the film takes a much more abstract and fantastic approach than viewers may have been lulled into expecting, according to David Rooney in his review for The Hollywood Reporter, but that's not entirely a bad thing. As he put it, "If some of the film's more fantastical narrative tangents can at times become perplexing, the images wash over you, a constant reminder of the descriptive power of Miyazaki's visual language." Meanwhile, Peter Debruge of Variety takes a much more measured tone, cautioning viewers "not to set your expectations too high." Still, he makes sure to clarify that there's nothing unworthy about adding this film to Miyazaki's oeuvre, describing it as, "unpredictable, but it's also within the realm of Miyazaki's earlier work, which is both comforting and slightly disappointing."
Finally, for those hoping to end on a high note, Carlos Aguilar of The Playlist emphasizes the intimate nature of the story for Miyazaki, comparing the director to both the film's main character Mahito and another more enigmatic, older figure. In the end, he says, "animation's greatest alchemist has gifted us his most personal spell yet."
"The Boy and the Heron" comes to US theaters on December 8, 2023.