The 2022-2023 Film Journal Entry #18: "The Boy and the Beast"

2022-2023 Film Journal Entry #18

by Xavier E. Palacios

"The Boy and the Beast"

4 out of 5

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

Rated "PG-13"

In the Beast Kingdom, a place where humanoid animals live separately from the human world, Kumatetsu (voiced by John Swasey), a lazy, ill-tempered, immature, yet mighty warrior bear, competes for the title of Grandmaster against (voiced by Sean Hennigan), a noble, popular boar with two sons; one of them an adopted human boy who longs to be a real beast, Ichirōhiko (voiced by Morgan Berry and Austin Tindle). In Shibuya, Japan, troubled and orphaned nine-year-old Ren (voiced by Luci Christian and Eric Vale), is a runaway who meets a wandering Kumatetsu. Following him into his world, Ren becomes Kumatetsu's apprentice in a dysfunctional yet ultimately affectionate relationship. When Ren becomes seventeen and the challenge for the Grandmaster title nears, he ventures back into the human world and meets fellow teen Kaede (voiced by Bryn Apprill), a student who fosters his curiosity to learn and grow independently. Soon, the inner, human darkness within Ren and Ichirōhiko manifests into destructive violence, and Kumatetsu's relationship with his surrogate son will change forever.

Director Mamoru Hosoda has long earned a place in the prestigious, elite list of my all-time favorite film directors, a group which includes folks like Brad Bird, David Lynch, Genndy Tartakovsky, Guillermo Del Toro, and the Wachowskis. Sadly, until his next work, The Boy and the Beast is the last original film of his I have not seen. Oh, are they simply terrific. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Summer Wars. Wolf Children, which is my mother's favorite anime film and one I adore. Mirai, which I marvelously saw in theaters. Last year's Belle, which I also got to see in theaters and may be Hosoda's best picture yet. Now, The Boy and the Beast. These films feature moving music; memorable dramas; impressive animation; striking structures; startling thrills; funny moments; heartwarming touches; and masterful technical compositions. They are written with great intelligence and creativity which too many animated pictures lack; hand-drawn with a strength and attitude that defines Hosoda's directorial signature.

After watching The Boy and the Beast for my family's communal "Anime Sunday" time, my sister remarked that, despite the undying and well-deserved crown given to Studio Ghibli in the animated world, Mamoru Hosoda, and his accompanying Studio Chizu, have become their equals. If for nothing else, his films prove to me that, despite the endless, rumbling march of poor animated films and cartoons that do not inspire me to take any kind of new cinematic journey, this cherished medium is still infinite with possibilities, grace, and adventure. Finding them in the modern era may be difficult thanks to the very forces that hold back the artform. But animation, in and of itself, can always be magical.

One of the major strengths of The Boy and the Beast is how the film breaks a continually depressing, obvious trend in contemporary, Western animated cinema: the goal-centric plot structure. Granted, many spectacular modern films center around venturing on a road trip of sorts to achieve a goal, such as Pixar Studio's Inside Out; the best picture of 2015. Regardless, several dozen Western animated films for the past fifteen years have characters solely embarking on a quest to complete a task in a limited amount of time, and nothing else, sometimes feeling simply like lazy writing. The style is not inherently a problem, but when every animated film uses this structural formula again and again, to reference a line from Book Two of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the medium becomes focused more on the where and less on the going. What audiences tend to be offered today are plots set upon pathways akin to precisely timed and coordinated theme park rides, which has grown tiresome.