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Of course any new movie by Studio Ghibli is high on our to-watch list. So when it was announced that The Boy and the Heron was going to be shown in Dutch cinemas after Christmas, I kept an eye on the cinema schedules and our own schedule to see where they matched up.

So we went to see it in one of the smaller cinema’s, which gives a more intimate setting but also means that you get to sit right next to the people noisily eating chips…

I don’t think this is a typical Ghibli movie. There are some elements that are familiar from other Ghibli movies, like flashbacks to certain scenes and concepts. It’s like a tribute movie. Thematically, I think it’s most similar to Spirited Away, but it lacks the narrative thrust of it. It has lots of the magical realism that is familiar to any Ghibli fan, but there are more loose ends and unspecified circumstances than we are used to. It felt more like a conceptual sketch than the tight storytelling of other Ghibli movies.

At some parts, the animation was pretty spotty as well — it would have been fine for a TV series, but sub-par for a movie, and certainly for the budget of a Ghibli movie. (I admit I don’t know the economics of anime movie making, but with Miyazaki’s track record, I would assume an almost unlimited budget…)

That is not to say that it is a bad movie — you should certainly go see it, if you have the opportunity! It’s just that it falls short of other Ghibli movies. If this is going to be the final Miyazaki movie, then he is not ending his career on a high note, which is unfortunate.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.