Review: THE BOY AND THE HERON by Studio Ghibli

Earlier this year, GKIDS and Studio Ghibli released the Oscar-winning film The boy and the heron on physical and digital formats. Since then, the film has also been added to Max for your streaming convenience.

GKIDS was kind enough to send me the 4K UHD+ Blu-Ray package to check out and review, but all thoughts below are my own. I also want to clarify that this will not be a review The boy and the heron. For that, check out the review written by our team in November.

THE BOY AND THE HERON “follows the young Mahito who, after losing his mother during the war in a hospital fire, moves to the family estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to an ancient and isolated tower, home to a mischievous gray heron.

“When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron into the tower and enters a fantasy world shared by the living and the dead. As he embarks on an epic journey with the heron as his guide, Mahito must discover the secrets of this world and the truth about himself.

The first, and probably best, reason to want to purchase a physical copy of this film (and any other media) is that you own that copy and no one can just cross it off your list and remove it from your library.

I feel like this has become a bigger and bigger deal in recent years and I fully support and encourage owning physical media. It’s also great to have physical media for when you don’t have access to streaming for whatever reason, like simply moving to a new place before setting up the internet.

Another important reason for wanting to purchase any movie is to access the bonus features included in the home version. For The Boy and The Heron, there are about seven bonus features, although two of them are just a music video and trailer, so not that notable.

However, the other five will appeal to a variety of people. First, you have “Feature-Length Storyboards”. From what I could see (I didn’t watch the whole thing) this is literally the entire movie, but it uses storyboards instead of animation. This is nice, although definitely not my thing.

I could definitely see how people are more interested in the animation/storyboarding/filmmaking/etc process. he would be really interested.

Another special feature is “Drawing with Takeshi Honda” which I didn’t finish watching because it turned out to be longer than I thought it would be. Essentially, this special lets you watch the supervising animator Takeshi Honda draw the film’s key characters and he’ll tell you little tidbits as he does so.

This was a bit interesting to watch, although its flaw comes from the fact that Honda doesn’t talk much (and he also says he doesn’t usually talk while drawing so he might not have been the best choice for this) and so c ‘It’s just a lot of silence filled with beautiful music.

The last three features are separate interviews with Honda, the manufacturer Toshio Suzukiand composer Joe Hisaishi. Personally I found the interview with Hisaishi the most interesting.

He talked a little about how he and Hayao Miyazaki they have been working together for about 40 years. He also recounted how a small song composed as an unrelated gift for Miyazaki became the main theme of The Boy and the Heron.

The interviews with Honda and Suzuki went well, but they didn’t impress me personally. Honda’s interview seemed to be more focused on how he ended up working on the film and what it was like making art alongside Miyazaki. Meanwhile, the thing I learned most from Suzuki’s interview was that the Gray Heron appeared to be based on him.

At the end of the day, I think I’d buy a copy The boy and the heron It’s not a bad move. The animation is gorgeous, the film is interesting, and at least you can own a copy that can’t simply be written off for tax purposes.

If you like watching interviews with members of the production crew or want to watch the film via storyboard, I think the special features will definitely give you added value. If you want The boy and the heronI would always recommend purchasing a physical copy.

You can purchase it now from your favorite retail outlets with digital copies costing around $9.99 and physical copies starting at around $27.