THE BOY AND THE HERON Home Release — GeekTyrant

Earlier this year, GKIDS and Studio Ghibli released the Academy Award-winning film. The Boy and the Heron in physical and digital formats. The movie has since also been added to Max for your streaming convenience.

GKIDS was kind enough to send me the 4K UHD + Blu-Ray bundle to review and review, but the opinions below are all my own. I would also like to make it clear that this will not be a review. The Boy and the Heron. For that, check out examination our team wrote about this in November.

THE BOY AND THE HERON “tells the story of young Mahito, who moves to his family’s country estate after losing his mother in a hospital fire during the war. There, a series of mysterious events leads him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron.

“When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron to the tower and enters a fantastic world shared by the living and the dead. Going on an epic journey guided by a heron, Mahito must uncover the secrets of this world and the truth about himself.”

The first, and arguably best, reason you’ll want to buy a physical copy of this movie (and any piece of media) is that it belongs to you, and no one can delist it and remove it from your library.

I feel like this has become an increasingly bigger issue in recent years and I fully support and encourage owning physical media. It’s also great to have physical media when you don’t have access to streaming for any reason, such as moving to a new location before setting up the internet.

Another important reason to want to buy any movie is to get access to bonus features included in the home version. There are about seven bonus features for The Boy and The Heron, but two of them are just a music video and trailer, so it’s not all that remarkable.

But the other five will appeal to a variety of people. First, you have your “Feature Storyboards.” This is literally the entire movie as far as I can tell (I haven’t watched the whole thing), but using storyboards instead of animation. This is very nice, even though it’s definitely not my style.

People’s animation/storyboarding/filmmaking etc. I could definitely see how they were becoming more involved in the processes. This would really interest you.

Another special production is “Drawing with Takeshi Honda”, which I couldn’t finish watching because it was longer than I thought. Basically this particular program allows you to watch the supervising animator Takeshi Honda Draw important characters from the movie and give little facts as you do so.

This was kind of interesting to watch, but what it lacks is that Honda doesn’t talk very much (and he even notes that he doesn’t usually talk while drawing so he might not have been the best choice for this), and so there’s a ton of silence filled with great music.

The last three special episodes are separate interviews with producer Honda. Toshio Suzukiand composer Joe Hisaishi. Personally, I found the interview with Hisaishi the most interesting.

He talked a little bit about how it was and Hayao Miyazaki We have been working together for nearly 40 years. He also shared that a small song he composed as a disinterested gift to Miyazaki became the main theme of The Boy and the Heron.

The interviews with Honda and Suzuki were good but didn’t speak to me personally. Honda’s interview seemed to focus more on how he came to work on the film and what it was like to make art alongside Miyazaki. By the way, my biggest takeaway from Suzuki’s interview was that Gray Heron was based on him.

At the end of the day, I’m considering buying a copy. The Boy and the Heron It’s not a bad move. The animation is gorgeous, the movie is interesting, and at least you can own a copy that can’t be deleted for tax purposes.

If you like watching interviews with members of the production team or want to watch the movie through storyboarding, I think the special features will definitely add added value to you. If you want The Boy and the HeronI always recommend purchasing a physical copy.

You can purchase digital copies now at your favorite stores, with prices starting at around $9.99 and physical copies starting at $27.