The boy and the heron

[Muso]

In my opinion it's a masterpiece. The drawings, the backgrounds, the soundtrack, the story and the characters (with particular reference, as usual talking about Miyazaki, to two female characters) are amazing. More mature and obscure than previous movies, but at my age I personally appreciated it.
What is your opinion?

 

[Older Beholder]

I agree.
I have a particular bias towards birds as a visual theme, so this was an easy favourite for me.

 

[Vael]

I saw it last week and really enjoyed it.

 

[beta-ray]

I liked it, but I didn't think it was a masterpiece. It seemed very much like a compilation of previous Miyazaki works. Not bad at all of course, but not his best (imo).

 

[Older Beholder]

A friend said they thought one of the themes of the film was 'Stop asking me to come out of retirement to make more films!'
Which I thought was funny.

 

[Muso]

I liked it, but I didn't think it was a masterpiece. It seemed very much like a compilation of previous Miyazaki works. Not bad at all of course, but not his best (imo).

I don't think so for some reasons. There are no flying machines for example and the henron is a completely different character with respect to other movies. OK, there are some citations from previous movies, as usual (e g. the boats of the dead mariners similar to the planes in Porco Rosso), but the theme of a tower containing a parallel world with doors opening in different times is new, if I am not wrong (in Howl there is a door opening in different places, not times).

 

[TerraDave]

It felt like a combination of his WWII movies and his more standard fantasy ones. Theme, plot, and world building all felt underdeveloped compared to many of his other movies. But certainly better than a lot of other stuff put out lately.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

It's a very good movie. Beautiful to watch and very touching.

I read a review that said something like "For most people this would be their masterpiece. For Miyazaki it's about the middle."

 

[Muso]

It felt like a combination of his WWII movies and his more standard fantasy ones. Theme, plot, and world building all felt underdeveloped compared to many of his other movies. But certainly better than a lot of other stuff put out lately.

I partially agree. The real world does not need any development. The world inside the tower does not need a full development because it is a sort of dream, it does not live it's own life and depends completely from its creator's will. The plot is not undeveloled, it's just different and less linear (because of time paradox) than other movies. Regarding the henron I partially agtee with you, I don't understand its actions completely (the initial actions in particular), but probably I have to rewatch the movie.

 

[beta-ray]

I don't think so for some reasons. There are no flying machines for example and the henron is a completely different character with respect to other movies. OK, there are some citations from previous movies, as usual (e g. the boats of the dead mariners similar to the planes in Porco Rosso), but the theme of a tower containing a parallel world with doors opening in different times is new, if I am not wrong (in Howl there is a door opening in different places, not times).

I didn't mean it as a literal clone, just many ideas seemed reused.