The Boy and the Beast

A bizarre but fascinating mishmash of Narnia-esque alternate world fantasy, teen drama-esque coming of age story, and Karate Kid-esque martial arts training saga. The story is oddly-paced at times, skimming past stuff you'd rather see in more detail and focusing at length on stuff that could be skimmed, and lurching suddenly in very new directions. But overall it's just too fun and different and interesting to ignore. Definitely recommended.

The first act sets up a beautiful but cliched and trite fantasy coming-of-age story, the second act subverts this set-up cleverly and turns the story into a more character-focused drama. Unfortunately, the film isn't quite sure where to go from there and rushes to wrap up all of its thematic threads at the end. An engaging effort that does land emotionally but not quite to the extent that it perhaps could've with a sharper focus.

I really liked this movie even though I felt it would have been much better as a multi episode OVA. As a movie it drags a bit while at the same time it seems to skim over interesting and important things. The main three parts of the film are great but the film fails to connect them well. The first part about the young boy going to the land of the beasts and finding his place is the best. The second half concentrating on his budding relationship with a girl, father and himself was nice but felt r

This movie becomes extremely complex by the end, almost as if you are watching three different movies going on at once: A fantasy adventure movie, a coming of age drama, and a piece of psychedelic experimental cinema. While all three of these stories work very well on their own, they do not fit together convincingly.

The animation could have been done already in the 1970, so little to distinguish it from any other Japanese anime film the past 40 years. But it's a style that's delivered classic after classic. A proven technique, and it works for Bakemono no ko [The Boy and the Beast] (2015) too. The whale sequence were fantastic! The whole film was a portion too long, otherwise a heartfelt warrior story with focus on the heart.

The length could be cut down quite a bit and the pacing can definitely be improved. There are times where you feel like the movie has concluded 4 times, but still has 30 minutes left. Also, for a fighting movie, they chose to make a lot of the action off screen for some reason.

A classic story with a ton of heart, interesting developments, and really nice fight choreography that avoids the "anime speed lines" like the plague (as it should). Some parts of the story felt like they could use more development, and I feel the pacing of the move is inconsistent, as it left me wanting more in several sections, but I felt that the other parts, where the movie takes its time, deserve to be called a modern classic.

Kaede: "Everyone of us carries that darkness equally. Ren carries it, and so do I. But I'm still struggling as hard as I can, even now. That's why there's no way Ren can lose to you who were so easily swallowed by the darkness. There's no way we're going to lose!"

Pretty good. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two leads and, of course, the nice visuals that come with a Hosoda movie.

This movie has a strong central relationships and a lot of good elements and themes, I only found the pacing to be a little awkward.

rvw. some cool/great stuff like lore/training/masters/rivals/gods/lords etc. was 82+ til the ending

[CBFF 2019] Hosoda's films are usually a lot more mature than their family-friendly reputations suggest, but this one's a kids movie through and through. Feels like he ran into a lot of first-time director issues by taking on the script himself and it leads to a lot of forest for the trees moments where his thematic strengths don't hit the way they're supposed to. Fortunately his career lands on its feet with Mirai.

Kind of weak in the story department. Boy is angry, he goes and trains with a beast, goes back to his world, learns lesson, etc.

okay movie

A hilarious and touching first half leads into a clumsy, but still engaging, second half.

poor plot, bad characters, predictable, boring, recipe for disaster.

Intriguing premise and a fun and sometimes heartwarming movie. Dragged down by the pointless scenes in the human world and by the super-pointless romance. Pretty epic climactic battle but weak ending.

It's pretty cute and particularly beautiful when the whale shows up

So touching, I cried so much. The symbolism was so beautiful. I don't even have words, I'm so touched. The concept of a sword in your heart, then kumatetsu filling it after all they'd been through...

IMHO a somewhat Disney treatment of a coming of age tale. Animation good overall, exceptional in few brief parts. Loved the alternate world that was built here but felt a promising start was somewhat squandered by a generic continuance. Overall certainly entertaining, I just felt it could have been better if played a bit more down and dirty.

Good mash-up , Fine messages and character developtments, character arcs also great. Animation is simple but good. Characters are loveable, screenplay is understandable but also fit with scenario. Ending and the relationship between boy and girl looks like kinda rushed but it was still heart-warming nice movie.