“The Boy and the Heron” is glorious, Hayao Miyazaki animation

Coming out of retirement for one more film for his iconic Studio Ghibli,  Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki has created the magnificent “The Boy and the Heron.” Admired and celebrated in Japan and worldwide for his exquisite, hand-drawn animation, Miyazaki is best known here for ”Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “The Wind Rises.”

 “The Boy and the Heron” is his most personal story, inspired by his WWII experience. In real life, in 1944 three-year-old Hayao and his family evacuated to a rural are. For his brother’s airplane company, his father built fighter plane rudders, details also found in “The Wind Rises.” Hayao’s ill mother factors into the fanciful events here, but all this merely sets the stage for two hours of imaginative, glorious animation.    

The central character is twelve-year-old Mahito who survives a catastrophic fire from which, tragically and unbearably, he can not save his mother. His journey to confront and heal himself begins after moving from Tokyo to the country. There, fleeing several semi-grotesque grannies and aunt/stepmother Natsuko, he will be enticed to follow a shape shifting gray heron to an ancient, sinister tower. Mahito seeks his Natsuko, his mother who may still live, and, in essence, to cope with grief and embrace life in a fantastical realm where the preborn, the living, and the dead intermingle. Along with female friend Himi, Mahito must confront mysteries, endure tests of survival with tenacity and ingenuity, and struggle to embrace transcendent values. Along the way, huge parakeets, cute warawara, hordes of pelicans, and other frightening conflicts await.

The Japanese title, translated as “How do you live?”, communicates the film’s soul. This question, raised in Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel with that title, pinpoints the essence of “The Boy and the Heron.” It presents with exhilarating vitality the challenge to answer this critical inquiry through animation with vibrant colors and multiple layers of detailed action amidst diverse environments. “The Boy and the Heron” is available in the original Japanese with English subtitles or in dubbed English. I much prefer the original. Check listings.