The Boy and the Heron | Hayao Miyazaki | Studio Ghibli | GKIDS | NA Debut at TIFF | WINNER OF THE OSCAR FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

[MovieMan89]

17 hours ago, Noctis said:

The Wind Rises would have been a more fitting send off for Miyazaki than this.

Absolutely not. It sticks out like a sore thumb in his filmography, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion on the movie. This is far more in line with the high-fantasy and ingenuity his whole empire was built on. Not even getting into the fact that the film is literally a commentary on him coming to terms with the end of his life, career, and legacy. Can’t even express how satisfying it feels as a huge Miyazaki fan to me to not have the odd man-out TWR as his last movie and this instead (for now). 

[harrisonisdead]

47 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Absolutely not. It sticks out like a sore thumb in his filmography, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion on the movie. This is far more in line with the high-fantasy and ingenuity his whole empire was built on. Not even getting into the fact that the film is literally a commentary on him coming to terms with the end of his life, career, and legacy. Can’t even express how satisfying it feels as a huge Miyazaki fan to me to not have the odd man-out TWR as his last movie and this instead (for now). 

I wouldn't consider "most fitting send-off" to be synonymous with "most superficially similar to the rest of his career," especially for a filmmaker that has always been evolving. The Wind Rises is undoubtedly thematically and artistically the culmination of a career, and the fact that it is so different from his usual fare is part of what makes it feel like such a definitive statement.

 

That said, perhaps the most Miyazaki thing to do would be to just keep making movies after your "swan song," and although I'd consider The Wind Rises to be the perfect endcap to his career, I'm delighted that he decided to make another (and may very well make one more after this, and maybe another after that...), and that it's a movie that has continued the tradition of The Wind Rises of looking inward and interrogating his own flaws and legacy. Because he's continued beyond The Wind Rises, I don't think there will ever be a true definitive closing statement to his career, he'll probably just die at some point and whatever he made last will retroactively become it. I wouldn't be surprised if his next movie (if it actually ends up happening) is just like Ponyo 2 or something.

[MovieMan89]

2 minutes ago, harrisonisdead said:

I wouldn't consider "most fitting send-off" to be synonymous with "most superficially similar to the rest of his career," especially for a filmmaker that has always been evolving. The Wind Rises is undoubtedly thematically and artistically the culmination of a career, and the fact that it is so different from his usual fare is part of what makes it feel like such a definitive statement.

 

That said, perhaps the most Miyazaki thing to do would be to just keep making movies after your "swan song," and although I'd consider The Wind Rises to be the perfect endcap to his career, I'm delighted that he decided to make another (and may very well make one more after this, and maybe another after that...), and that it's a movie that has continued the tradition of The Wind Rises of looking inward and interrogating his own flaws and legacy. Because he's continued beyond The Wind Rises, I don't think there will ever be a true definitive closing statement to his career, he'll probably just die at some point and whatever he made last will retroactively become it. I wouldn't be surprised if his next movie (if it actually ends up happening) is just like Ponyo 2 or something.

I just don’t see the argument for TWR as “fitting” for a Miyazaki send off when it revisits themes he had already explored thoroughly in his movies before in a super grounded, realistic way that is pretty much the opposite of what Miyazaki movies always were. 
 

This one is doing both the new and the old for Miyazaki thematically, so we’ve got ties to his most prominent themes along with him venturing into new territory, all executed in a type of film that could literally only come from Miyazaki. If you told me someone else made TWR, inspired by Miyazaki themes, I’d 100% believe you without knowing better. No one else could have made this movie. 

Edited December 15, 2023 by MovieMan89

[Noctis]

2 hours ago, MovieMan89 said:

Absolutely not. It sticks out like a sore thumb in his filmography, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion on the movie. This is far more in line with the high-fantasy and ingenuity his whole empire was built on. Not even getting into the fact that the film is literally a commentary on him coming to terms with the end of his life, career, and legacy. Can’t even express how satisfying it feels as a huge Miyazaki fan to me to not have the odd man-out TWR as his last movie and this instead (for now). 

 

I adored it. 

[lab276]

13 hours ago, cannastop said:

Well I haven't seen Wind Rises but this seems like as good of a send off as any. But Miyazaki is supposedly working on another movie now so who knows what that will be.

 

I expected as much lol. Can't keep a creative down. 

[MovieMan89]

50 minutes ago, lab276 said:

 

I expected as much lol. Can't keep a creative down. 

Yes but this took him a decade to make and assuming he will be alive in his early 90s to finish the next one is maybe getting ahead of things a bit… 

[Danhjpn]

$30M is still on the table? 

[harrisonisdead]

10 hours ago, Danhjpn said:

$30M is still on the table? 

Yeah, pretty easily. If the $4.7M for this weekend holds, that's a pretty rough drop, but even if it plays out like Suzume for the rest of its run (which had three 60%+ drops in a row...) that would put it at $29.7M.

 

Suzume lost 80% of its theaters in its third weekend, dropping from 2170 to 440, then lost the bulk of those theaters in the following weekend, dropping to 116. The Boy and the Heron is unlikely to shed its theaters nearly as fast, so between that and having winter break and the holidays (including Christmas next weekend), I don't think it'll be difficult for it to get past $30M.

[JustLurking]

My theater ruined my effort to dodge Heron promo by playing the trailer in front of Wonka oh well

 

I'll be seeing this when it's out here in two weeks

[Becker]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:37 AM, cannastop said:

Well I haven't seen Wind Rises 

I recommend you do. It's like another well known boxoffice hit this year. It's available on the Max streaming platform, but only in Dubbed form, unfortunately. 

 

 

[harrisonisdead]

4 minutes ago, Becker said:

I recommend you do. It's like another well known boxoffice hit this year. It's available on the Max streaming platform, but only in Dubbed form, unfortunately. 

 

 

No, it's in both dubbed and subbed! At least in the US.

[Becker]

The Thing that I love about the Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli is that he/they never sold out.

1. 90%+ of their movies are all hand drawn, which is significantly more expensive than being digitally crafted. Especially considering they artistically decided to put as much detail to every frame as possible. But at the same thing, it just adds an extra dimension to their movies. I'm not quite sure I know how to describe it. 

(Earwig and the Witch never happened)

2. They aren't good capitalists. Miyazaki doesn't kiss weebaboo behind and just makes whatever he wants. Sticks to making movies centered around themes important to him. Probably also the reason why the studio is not financial top notch for as legendary as they are. 

[Becker]

11 minutes ago, harrisonisdead said:

No, it's in both dubbed and subbed! At least in the US.

Live in the States, but I only see Dubbed as the options. 

[harrisonisdead]

14 minutes ago, Becker said:

Live in the States, but I only see Dubbed as the options. 

For whatever reason, Max lists different audio track versions as different movies, rather than letting you choose the audio track on the film's page. If you search "The Wind Rises" (or the name of any film with two audio tracks) you can find the Japanese audio version.

[cannastop]

2 hours ago, Becker said:

The Thing that I love about the Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli is that he/they never sold out.

1. 90%+ of their movies are all hand drawn, which is significantly more expensive than being digitally crafted. Especially considering they artistically decided to put as much detail to every frame as possible. But at the same thing, it just adds an extra dimension to their movies. I'm not quite sure I know how to describe it. 

(Earwig and the Witch never happened)

2. They aren't good capitalists. Miyazaki doesn't kiss weebaboo behind and just makes whatever he wants. Sticks to making movies centered around themes important to him. Probably also the reason why the studio is not financial top notch for as legendary as they are. 

I agree with this. Miyazaki doesn't pander to Otaku. Even though his movies do make a lot of money they come from a genuine artistic place.

 

Japan I would say just appreciates the hand drawn style more than Americans do.

[harrisonisdead]

Came in at #14 on IndieWire's annual critics survey, the highest ranked animated film. 158 critics from around the world participated.

 

Also, it's quietly climbed up to #3 of the year on Metacritic, 2nd highest rated narrative film of the year after Past Lives.

[CoolioD1]

2 hours ago, harrisonisdead said:

Also, it's quietly climbed up to #3 of the year on Metacritic, 2nd highest rated narrative film of the year after Past Lives.

Past Lives that high is ridiculous.

[MovieMan89]

A certain scene has to be the most visually arresting thing I’ve seen depicted in animation in ages. This is why we need hand drawn animation too, impossible to do something like that in computer animation. 
 

Edit: what happened to spoiler tags on mobile, am I blind? 

Edited December 17, 2023 by MovieMan89

[MovieMan89]

7 hours ago, harrisonisdead said:

Came in at #14 on IndieWire's annual critics survey, the highest ranked animated film. 158 critics from around the world participated.

 

Also, it's quietly climbed up to #3 of the year on Metacritic, 2nd highest rated narrative film of the year after Past Lives.

If we look at meta, RT overall and top avg, only Inside Out is on the same level for animated films since TS3 (and I have no clue how but that’s another convo). 
 

But when I talk about this having the best shot for BP nom since TS3, that’s definitely a part of the argument. Miyazaki’s legacy being the other part, what IO didn’t have (nor the legacy of a franchise like Toy Story). 

[cannastop]

they really screwed this movie by not marketing it.

They should have started doing something, anything, starting weekend 2, at least. In Japan.