Kai Aronson

An Instant Classic. A Psychedelic Fever Dream. A Bird With Boundary Issues. I walked into The Boy and the Heron expecting a charming coming-of-age tale. What I got instead was a two-hour metaphysical therapy session guided by a war-traumatized child and a heron with the energy of a disgraced aristocrat turned drug dealer. From the first five minutes—when the main character’s mom immediately catches fire—I knew we were in for a whimsical trauma dump sprinkled with just a dash of interdimensional existentialism. Miyazaki really said, “You want closure? Here’s a screaming bird in a hat.” Let’s talk about the titular heron. He is absolutely the most chaotic, untrustworthy, suspiciously humanoid creature ever animated. He opens his beak like a retractable limousine door, talks like he’s trying to sell you ketamine, and leads our young protagonist through increasingly deranged set pieces that feel like Spirited Away on a caffeine bender. The plot? That’s adorable. There is no plot. There is only vibe. You will witness towers built on towers, floating moms who might be someone else’s mom, armies of parakeets committing light fascism, and a child so stoic he could teach Batman a thing or two about emotional repression. Visually? Stunning. Conceptually? Disturbingly biblical. At one point, I was unsure if I was watching a Ghibli film or ascending into a fourth-dimensional moral riddle disguised as an animated children’s movie. I left the theater unsure of my name, but deeply convinced I’d been judged and found wanting by a heron-shaped god. My favorite part was when the boy went full Ghibli protagonist and said, “Okay” to everything. Heron says: “Enter this terrifying portal filled with the screaming souls of the lost.” Boy: nods stoically “Alright.” Ten minutes later: “Swim through this sea of aggressive birds who want to colonize your face.” Boy: deep sigh “Sure.” By the end, I wasn’t sure if he found his mother, his purpose, or just dissociated so hard he looped back into enlightenment. 10/10. I laughed. I cried. I googled ‘what the hell did I just watch.’ Edit: Sorry for the one star. I meant to give it 42 metaphysical soul stones.

Reminds me of CyberChase from when I was a kid. Great show and very educational.

The commercials made it look like a great movie. Warners marketing department deserves an award. It’s an incoherent preachy mess with terrible writing.

Yeah. High hopes as I loved the Lord of the rings trilogy. But the show is bland boring and not respectful of the source material.

Favorite movie of all time. Gets me every time

Season 1 was okay. Like good back round noice and entertaining. By the time you get to season 3-4 the writing is so bad it sounds like it was legitimately written by the high school screen writing class. Like I have no idea who they let into the writing room but that person/s does not know how to write a coherent story or even normal dialogue.

Certainly has its funny moments. But a lot of the politics comes off as preachy instead of funny. What happens when comedy try’s to be PC.

Fantastic movie. Great acting. It’s a movie that keeps you thinking even after the credits. The critics reviews on this are absolutely biased and do not reflect the quality of this movie. If it weren’t for some of the unfair critic reviews I’d give this movie four stars, but to help offset the unfairness I’ll leave it with Five.