With the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki, without a doubt one of the greatest practitioners of the magic we know as animation, a few years ago and the future of the Studio he helped found and run hanging precariously in the air, the question has gone out as to who, if anyone, can possibly fill the void left by the departure of a legend. Make that two legends because Miyazaki's fellow Ghibli titan Isao Takahata laid his pencil down too. I adore the films of Hayao Miyazaki, most of them anyway, and Studio Ghibli. It would be impossible for anyone to be the "next Miyazaki" as nobody can be someone they are not. However, there is a shining beacon of hope. Someone who can fill the need for beautiful animated wonderment complete with a stirring and heartfelt emotional core and his name is Mamoru Hosoda. I have seen only two of Hosoda's films prior to The Boy and the Beast, Summer Wars and Wolf Children, and both of them are gorgeous marvels of the art form. I have not seen The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as it is currently out of print in the U.S. until Funimation, reportedly, releases it on our shores again. Hosoda has quickly risen from obscurity into the limelight of the Japanese animation scene and The Boy and the Beast is yet another proof why. It is a truly gorgeous film to marvel at that also happens to have a heart centered on very real human emotion and experiences filtered through a fantastical lens where a world of beasts who walk and talk as men coexists with our own. I drove for almost four hours from Chapin, South Carolina to Durham, North Carolina to catch this amazing film in theaters during its very limited theatrical engagement. And boy was it worth the time! Up and back took all day, but I have this memory to cherish for the rest of my life.
Ren is a nine year old runaway after a family tragedy and one night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo he runs into Kumatetsu, a beast who looks an awful lot like a bear walking on two legs, and ends up following him into the world of beasts where humans are not exactly welcomed warmly as it is a commonly known thing that humans possess a dark hole in the center of their being that could destroy everything if they ever lost control. Kumatetsu is in the running to be the next lord of the Beasts in the greatest beast city of Jutengai and he has been tasked by the current lord, who is in the process of picking what he will become after his transcendence, to take on a pupil despite Kumatetsu's rough and uncouth nature. He of course chooses Ren because he sees a fire in the young boy that makes him believe that Ren can be the pupil that none of his other failed ones were and he gives Ren the new name Kyuta (from the Japanese word for nine based on his age) after Ren refuses to give him his real name. However, Kumatetsu is not very good at teaching and ultimately it becomes a relationship where both boy and beast learn from each other and forge a bond that matters more to both of them than either may ever be willing to admit and that will ultimately be tried in the hottest of fires.
Okay, so that synopsis may sound a little... Weird? Well, yes it is in theory, but the joy comes in watching the story unfold over the course of nearly two gorgeous hours. The Boy and the Beast is another visual masterwork from Hosoda, who left Madhouse where he formerly worked and formed his own studio, Studio Chizu, to develop his fourth theatrical masterpiece. I could wax poetic about the art of this film for hours, but I must keep it to the point. The animation is crisp and lively and perfectly conveys the emotion of each scene as the story progresses. The voice work is top of the line as well. Funimation saw fit to release both their dubbed version and the original Japanese at the same time in select theaters and I saw it in Japanese with English subs. It was all good though. The emotions were so strong that they overcame any language barrier. The music score Takagi Masakatsu is exceptional as well and does its job without calling undue attention to itself or otherwise distracting from the story being told so beautifully.
I adore this film and I will not hesitate to see it again in the theater if the opportunity presents itself. I cried at this one alright? It was that strong and I wanted to give it a standing ovation, but alas maybe next time. Do yourself a favor. If you are a fan of great animation and the power the medium can hold when used properly and if you find that The Boy and the Beast is playing anywhere near you, whether it is in your very neighborhood, or at the least at a reasonable enough driving distance as I had to travel, go see it. Trust me, even if you don't totally glow for it I'm sure you will still find it more than worth the time.
5/5
So yeah, I've been off for a while. I may still be until I see a film that moves me the way The Boy and the Beast did. I will try to be more regular, but as this is currently just a hobby on the side of my real workaday job I may not always have the strength or stamina to go on here and review, but rest assured my love for film and the escape it provides is as strong as ever and keeps getting stronger.
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