Jacob Thompson
Mamoru Hosoda is arguably one of the best filmmakers working in animation today. And nowhere is that more clear than in the Boy in the Beast. Coming off fresh from other fantastic animated films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, Hosoda crafts a funny, compelling, bittersweet, and well animated tale about mentorship and confronting your demons.The struggles the main characters go through is done in a way that's both plausible and implausible at the same time. I really love films that allow you to relate to a character's dilemmas in a way you wouldn't expect. I also really love the relationship between the titular characters. I normally don't get into relationships that are mostly shouting and arguing, but the two share a relationship more reminiscent of a bickering father and son rather than something more obnoxious or dark. Both characters have their flaws that you would think would make them unlikable, but each has their own reasoning for being how they are and either side is completely understandable and relatable. As the film progresses, you slowly learn that both characters are on the same side of the same coin.Its only downfall in my opinion is the third act. Without giving anything away, it's fine for what it is, but it mainly came off as kinda forced and not explored quite as well as some of the other aspects of the film. It's not terrible and it doesn't really harm the film as a whole, I feel it would've come off a lot stronger if it was explored a lot more.But besides that, I absolutely freaking loved The Boy and the Beast. Mamoru Hosoda truly is gifted with the craft of telling stories through Japanese animation. Many people have been referring to him as the next Hayao Miyazaki. But honestly, I don't think that's necessarily true. Both are great directors and both have this wonderful ability to take realtivley dumb ideas and somehow make them plausible. But Hosoda is something entirely different. I connect to his films in a different way than I do Miyazaki's. Each has their own style and their own means of forming a connection with their audience. And this film truly connected with me.
SquigglyCrunch
The Boy and the Beast follows a young boy who gets raised and trained to fight in the world of beasts. The animation is pretty great. It's noticeably smoother and more unique than other anime I've seen, and it's overall a very pretty movie to watch. The fight scenes are also great. They're fast-paced, well choreographed, and just plain fun. I wish they lasted longer and didn't bend to the clichés of anime by often cutting away to less interesting things, but when the fights happened they were certainly a treat. The characters are pretty interesting too. They're relatively well- developed and fun to watch interact with each other. The writing ranges from pretty great to awful. In typical anime fashion characters will, from time to time, embark on lengthy, poetic explanations about things that don't mean a whole heck of a lot. While long monologues aren't bad things all the time, the way it happens in most anime is just kind of cringe-inducing because of how unrealistic it is, and this movie is no exception. They stand out even more because of how good the writing usually is. The movie does bend to a handful other anime clichés that I think it tried to avoid most of the time, but still failed to at times. I don't know why, but it doesn't matter. That's just how it happened. Overall The Boy and the Beast is a fun and interesting watch, with a few writing issues and other clichés that are shamelessly indulged in that ultimately affect the entire movie. In the end I'd recommend this movie.
xscd
This movie from Mamoru Hosoda continues the great tradition of extremely impressive Japanese animation evident in the exemplary work of Hayao Miyazaki and others. The story is full, complex, entertaining and engaging. The characters are well-developed and interesting. The English-language dubbing cast did a very nice and credible job with the dialog and the emotional content of the movie.Mamoru Hosada has an artistic style full of contrast and energy, very different from that of Hayao Miyazaki but impressive in its own way.The themes in the movie are universal: the darkness that can be present within us and how we can transcend it, the love and support offered by and between both people we can feel comfortable with, and those we learn to understand and appreciate despite differences (and sometimes, despite similarities). The movie, at almost 2 hours, does not feel abbreviated but instead adequately explores and presents all of its major themes and plot elements.Highly recommended.
andy-hungster
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.
AD
