The Boy and the Beast (2016)

Fresh and Exciting

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The first must-see film of the year.

A beautifully animated adventure that's (almost) perfectly told. Yes, "The Boy and the Beast" has an epic story that, in my opinion, is not as epic as it thinks (especially in acts 2 & 1). The character arcs were on point and the movie, most of the time, is very fun to watch. I did have a couple of major problems with the movie:1.) Kaede is JUST a love interest. She was introduced late in the movie making her the obvious love interest for Kyuuta/Ren. That was her only purpose.2.) Why does Ichirohiko look like a beautiful girl!? Had his brother not said that Ichirohiko is his brother, I would not realize that Ichirohiko is a guy.(((VAGUE SPOILERS FOR NUMBER 3))) 3.) Near the film's 90-minute mark, something unexpected happened. Unexpected because it was unlike the first hour and a half of the movie. It made me form a different (darker in tone) expectation for the film's last half hour. However, the ending is consistent (tone-wise) to what I formed prior to the "thing that happened unexpectedly." This. however, damaged the film for me. Despite the fact that it's consistent (tone-wise) with what I originally formed, I would've liked the darker (tone-wise) ending I formed after the "thing that happened unexpectedly."DESPITE THESE MAJOR PROBLEMS, I STILL LIKED"THE BOY AND THE BEAST."

"Bakemono no ko" is a very interesting movie with a couple of very good ideas, well developed, with a nice direction and an engaging drawing style.Ren's mother dies, and he has to go to live with some relatives. However, he is not very happy, all angst and desperation and decides to run away. Lost in Tokyo, a beast meets him and offers him to become his apprentice. Kumatetsu, the beast's name, is strong, and wants to become the next Grandmaster. However, he is also lazy and all his disciples end leaving him. Ren decides to follow him and ends in the 'beast world', a kind of parallel world, where he and Kumatetsu will be forced to understand each other.Subtlety be damned, "Bakemono no ko" has its purpose on its face (and on its title, and in every corner of its running time). From "Moby Dick" allusions, to mirrors or the beast-human conundrum, Mamoru Hosoda and the plot don't care about being too obvious. However, the delivery is really good, the pace nice, the characters engaging and easy to relate to and the story sweet but also poignant. The biggest problem is the need to have characters fight as if this was another fighting anime (Dragon Ball or Yu Yu Hakusho style). The need to be strong becomes too much related to physical force and defeating the other, something that could have been developed in a smarter way.Otherwise, a movie worth checking.

Mamoru Hosoda has become a rather distinguished director in my mind. His films feature a distinct animation style, story lines full of off-beat moments deeply grounded in reality and everyday life, characters you could expect to meet on the street, who are still very interesting to follow and from whom you can learn a lot. His films are a good combination of simple morals mixed with extraordinary settings and situations.All of this holds true for The Boy and the Beast as well, but with this film I think that Hosoda falters a bit when it comes to storytelling. It almost feels like an adaptation which assumes that you already know the story and is only telling a stylized version of it. It skips over scenes that feel like they should be necessary for us to see, only briefly hints at lore, which is pretty integral to the workings of the plot, and the ending pulls some twists, which were never really alluded to us. For example, there's a training trip montage near the end of the first act, something which is usually the turning point of the story. But in this it's over in less than a minute and the main character's training continues long after it, throughout the whole second act. So, what was the point of the trip, other than to show off the Beast World, into which our human protagonist stumbles almost accidentally?And yet, the film is charming. All the characters are interesting both visually and story-wise. The animation is very smooth and fluid, the music works and the message is a good one. And I can safely say that I very much enjoyed pretty much all of the scenes. They simply didn't connect all that well.It's possible that this is based on an existing story or legend. At least it would explain why I as a Westerner feel like I'm missing something. Still, it's worth watching if you've liked Hosoda's earlier films.

The movies starts out with a very emotional story, and creates a magical animal world where they are equal to humans. The story could have ended perfectly with everyone working together to kill the evil. But instead, we got a very strange ending that reveals the author still believe that animals will always sacrifice themselves for humans. To help illustrate the point, we have to flip around the role of the people and the animals: 2 people fought a Kungfu match. The loser's dog is consumed by evil, and tries to kill the winner and his dog. The winner decides to die and turn into a sword to occupy his dog's heart. His dog wins the fight, then decides to go to school.