The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Hayao Miyazaki hands a grieving boy the worst tour guide imaginable: a lying grey heron that turns out to be a cranky little man hiding inside the bird. That’s one of the simpler ideas in The Boy and the Heron, which races through its other world so fast that a lot washes past on a first viewing. During the war, Mahito’s mother dies in a hospital fire, and his father marries her sister Natsuko and moves the family to her country estate. The heron keeps insisting his mother is alive, and the promise leads into an old tower on the grounds. Inside wait hungry pelicans, puffy spirits called Warawara floating up to be born, a girl named Himi who commands fire, and a whole kingdom of giant parakeets. Every frame looks hand polished. It holds a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and made $295.5 million worldwide. An 8.7 because loss has never looked this strange or this gorgeous. $873.83 says you stare at the next heron you see a beat too long, waiting for it to say something rude.

What works: Every frame is gorgeous, and the heron is a wonderfully rude guide through a world packed with pelicans, fire and floating spirits.

What doesn’t: The second half piles on new creatures and rules so quickly that first-time viewers can lose the thread of Mahito’s story.

Who it’s for: Studio Ghibli fans and anyone willing to let a strange, sad fairy tale wash over them without needing every answer.