Earlier this year, GKIDS and Studio Ghibli released the Oscar-winning film boy and heron Regarding physical and digital formats. Since then, the movie has also been added to Max for your streaming convenience.
GKIDS was kind enough to send me a 4K UHD+ Blu-ray package for review and review, but all thoughts below are my own. I also want to make it clear that this is not going to be right boy and heron. To do this, check out the review our team wrote back in November.
The Boy and the Heron tells the story of young Mahito, who loses his mother in a hospital fire during the war and moves to his family’s country estate. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a playful gray heron.
When Masato’s new stepmother disappears, he follows 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 Heron as his guide, True Sid must uncover the secrets of the world and the truth about himself.
The first (and arguably best) reason to want to buy a physical copy of this movie (and any media) is that you own the copy and no one can take it off the list and remove it from your library delete.
I feel like this has become more and more important in recent years and I fully support and encourage having physical media. It’s also great to have physical media when you can’t access streaming media for any reason (such as moving to a new place before setting up the internet).
Another major reason to want to buy any movie is to get the bonus features included with the home release. For The Boy and the Heron, there are about seven bonus features, although two of them are just music videos and trailers, so they’re not all that compelling.
However, the other five will appeal to a variety of people. First, you have the “longform storyboard”. As far as I know (I didn’t watch the entire movie), this is actually the entire movie, but using storyboards instead of animation. It’s cool, although definitely not my type.
I can definitely see how people could get more involved in the animation/storyboarding/filmmaking/etc. process. Really interested in this.
Another special show was “Drawing with Takeshi Honda”, which I didn’t finish because it was longer than I thought. Essentially, this special lets you watch the supervising animators Takeshi Honda Draw key characters from the movie, and he’ll throw in little tidbits along the way.
This looked kind of fun, although the downside of it was that Honda didn’t talk much (he even mentioned that he usually doesn’t talk when he’s drawing, so he probably wasn’t the best choice) and so there was silence, filled with great music.
The last three features are individual interviews with Honda and the producer Toshio Suzukiand composer Hisaishi Joe. I personally found Joe Hisaishi’s visit the most interesting.
He talked about how he Hayao Miyazaki Been working together for about 40 years. He also shared how a ditty he wrote for Hayao Miyazaki that had nothing to do with gifts ended up being the theme song to The Boy and the Heron.
The interviews with Honda and Suzuki were okay, but not that impressive for me personally. Honda’s interview seemed more focused on how he ended up finishing the film and what it was like to create art with Miyazaki. Meanwhile, my biggest takeaway from Suzuki’s interview is that Gray Heron appears to be based on him.
Ultimately, I think buying a copy boy and heron This isn’t a bad move. The animation is gorgeous, the movie is fun, and at least you get to own a copy that can’t be written off just for tax purposes.
If you like to watch interviews with cast members or watch movies through storyboards, I think the special features will definitely bring you some added value. if you like boy and heronI always recommend purchasing the physical version.
You can buy it now from your favorite store, with digital copies priced at approximately $9.99 and physical copies starting at approximately $27.
