The Boy, The Star, The Leo, and the Heron - Renegade Animation #128
In this episode, Captain Kaye and the Animation Guru discuss Disney's Wish, Adam Sandler's Leo, and Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron!
What’s going on, everyone? This is your Captain (Mike Kaye), alongside my esteemed co-host and editor of the podcast, The Animation Guru (Cameron Ward). This week’s episode was an interesting one, in terms of the quality of each film we discussed. We’ve got Disney closing out their year-long celebration of their 100th anniversary with Wish, the studio’s 62nd animated feature. Following that is Leo, an animated film produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, as part of his lucrative deal with Netflix. And finally, we have Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, which may or may not be his swan song. Tune into the podcast to hear the full discussion!
Wish
This doesn’t actually happen that often, but my initial review of this film was much more positive than my current thoughts. I still enjoyed this overall, perhaps a little more than Cameron did, but we both agree that it did not live up to all of the pomp and circumstance of Disney’s 100th anniversary celebration. The highlights are Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine’s excellent vocal performances as Princess Asha and King Magnifico respectively, and the villain song “This is the Thanks I Get” is genuinely one of their best in a while. If there was a lesson to be learned from this, it’s that Disney can no longer afford to rest on their laurels, especially when more animation studios are rising to the occasion.
“What was meant to celebrate a company’s 100th anniversary results in a film that has its high points, but ultimately plays it safe with its story, characters, visuals, and musical numbers.“ -The Animation Guru
Leo
The only reason I think it’s fair to compare this movie to the first two Hotel Transylvania films is because Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel were more creatively involved than I remember. In other words, they’re no strangers to the world of animation, as evidenced by their great comedic timing, genuinely enjoyable musical numbers, and probably one of Sandler’s best vocal performances in quite a while. Unfortunately, the third act suffers a bit from certain family film tropes and clichés, but this was overall a pleasant surprise.
“Adam Sandler and his team craft an earnest if uneven at times animated feature about an old lizard helping a group of kids deal with their insecurities through laughs and wonderfully creative writing.“ -The Animation Guru
The Boy and the Heron
If you still haven’t seen the movie yet, I would suggest you bookmark this podcast, and come back once you’ve seen it. All I have to say here, just in case this is the last time Hayao Miyazaki makes a movie for good, is thank you. Thank for everything that you’ve contributed to the wonderful world of animation, from your humble television beginning, to the foundation of Studio Ghibli 38 years ago. And thank you for returning to the big screen with one of your most artistically ambitious projects, if not your best. And thank you to GKids and NYAV for assembling such an incredible voice cast for the English dub, particularly Robert Pattinson giving 110% to his role as the Grey Heron.
“Whether this is the last time we see Miyazaki craft another animated venture or not, The Boy and The Heron offers an ambitious and complex tale of grief, letting go of the past, and finding your way through a complicated world and choosing how you want to live.“ -The Animation Guru
That’ll do it for this episode! Thank you all for joining us! We have provided resources for those who wish to support the victims of the Israel-Hamas war: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/, https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org/, https://itch.io/b/2120/games-for-gaza, https://www.instagram.com/palestineredcrescent/, https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/, https://www.npr.org/2023/10/13/1205235922/help-israel-gaza-humanitarian-organizations.
