A “QUICK!” Review of “The Boy and the Heron (2023)“

The Boy and the Heron is wonderful! The animation is gorgeous and visually stunning! The colours are vibrant and the movement is energetic! Every scene feels like a painting. Hayao also returns to the magical and fantastical, which is awesome. The design of the supernatural creatures and the world itself is mesmerizing. It even has some dark visuals and themes which was icing on the cake.

It does have some problems. It does take a while for it to start exploring the more whimsical, supernatural stuff. The world-building itself is a little convoluted and can be very confusing on first watch. The ending is also very sudden. He doesn’t let the movie slowly flow into the ending or let the audience breathe. It just ends with minimal fanfare.

Nevertheless, it is great to see another beautiful 2D hand-drawn Ghibli movie. If this is his last one, then it was a great way to end his career.

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