The Boy and the Beast

"You need to grab hold of the sword that's in here, in your soul."

“The Boy and the Beast” is the latest anime film effort by acclaimed director Mamoru Hosoda. It follows a young orphaned boy as he stumbles upon a world full of beasts, and soon finds himself the apprentice of a brash warrior fighting for the role of king of their land.

It’s hard to explain with that synopsis alone, but “The Boy and the Beast” has a truly magnificent world to behold.

It’s not all that hard to fathom why: Mamoru Hosoda has created plenty of imaginative worlds in his other works, such as the technical world of ‘Oz’ in “Summer Wars” to the quiet countryside in “Wolf Children.” The man’s a genius at reeling you in, and “Beast” is certainly no different (also, the animation is quite fantastic as well, but that goes without saying).

But with all that aside, the real positive of “The Boy and the Beast” is its own heart. The director’s other works have dealt with themes of friends and family before, but this film is a bit special: it focuses mainly on father-son relationships. The film doesn’t try to hide it (in fact, it almost seems to blatantly state it at one point), but, nevertheless, it’s a great message that needs to be experienced personally to fully appreciate.

However, there is one negative aspect that sets this apart from what other Hosoda films have done correctly: it tries to do too much.

It’s easily fixable, but it still managed to seep through: there’s just too much going on here. It starts off nice and easily, gently nudging you into its world, but then this happens, and then that happens, and, in the end, it derails.

Though, have no fear: it isn’t like this is a bad omen for things to come, no; there is a specific fluke to blame this problem on: Hosoda’s co-writer is missing. Every recognized film before it has included one rarely-mentioned, but still deathly important, staff member named Satoko Okudera. Instead, “The Boy and the Beast” is written solely by Hosoda, which just doesn’t work out. Even the film’s core message, with which Hosoda alone leading the helm, was muddled after a while.

However, this just shows that with his co-writer, the director’s works can be consistently fantastic, because, after all of that, this film still shows intense promise for the acclaimed writer-director.

7/10- Muddled, yes, and it has some clustered plot points too, but “The Boy and the Beast” has convinced me that director Mamoru Hosoda has a great filmography ahead of him… if he only needs a little bit of help to do so.