Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

One of the public tags assigned by Netflix to this movie directed by Mamoru Hosoda of The Girl Who Leaped Through Time fame is “heartfelt.”

Don’t let that scare you. The basic theme may sound run of the mill — a small boy reacts very negatively to the arrival of a baby sister — but how the boy’s emotions and behavior are then explored is clever, imaginative, occasionally sentimental, and at times downright surreal and even scary.

The movie explores not only the little boy’s relationship with his parents (he sees his mom as a witch and his stay at home dad is clearly overwhelmed by parental responsibilities) but through some sort of magic he travels through time and meets up with his baby sister as an adolescent and he sees members of his own family in their own formative years.

Some of the sequences are admittedly stressful including the boy’s faltering attempts at learning to ride a two wheel bike. Others are frightening as when he “runs away” and is embedded in a surreal and nightmarish train station. Still others reflect the pain and suffering his ancestors have experienced as happens with his great grandfather during World War II.

Through it all his “baby sister” (her name is “Mirai”) acts as his guide from her perspective as an adolescent in the future. Parts of the movie reflect very traditional Japanese themes but it’s all engrossing.

To top it all off the animation is absolutely superb. The mix of realistic, anime-traditional, and abstract details is beautiful and occasionally breathtaking. Homelife details are realistic as are bird-eye-view scenes of cityscapes as seen now and from the past. Character design is at times remarkable; note how nicely done is the similarity between the little boy’s mom and grandmother.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright (c) 2020 by Dennis D. McDonald

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