Boy and the Beast

After we watched the beginning of Boy the and Beast in class, I rented the film from the library later that day and finished it. I must say, we basically watched all the best parts of the film, because it was all downhill after that... (at least, in my opinion!)

I might be biased, because I really love anthropomorphic animal/monstrous characters and the world-building around them, but I absolutely adored the first half of this film! The beast world was so exciting to watch Kyuta explore, and all characters in it were unique and engaging in their own ways-especially Kumatetsu! Because of this, though, I was really disappointed in the film's tonal turn by the midpoint, where Kyuta goes back to the human world and meets some high-school girl (who I found to be incredibly boring, at least in comparison to all of the big personalities that the beast-characters had), and reunites with his real father. It was such a hard shift from Kumatetsu's hilariously dysfunctional father-son relationship to Kyuta, and I was saddened by the story taking time away from that in favor of the less entertaining (or interesting) human-world characters.

With that, the story got so broody and edgy once the children grew up, so Kumatetsu was the only character I was invested in by the end, because they made him so incredibly lovable throughout!!! But sadly, Kumatetsu, and the Beast world as a whole, start to feel like an afterthought in the story at this point. It almost felt as if I was watching a completely different film! We don't get to even see Kumatetsu interact with Kyuta for a while, until the climax.

Just when I was so happy to see Kumatetsu again, after he wins against the boar-beast in their final battle, the villain stabs him!!! So he's gone from the story AGAIN!!!! The next time you see Kumatetsu (which is like 30 minutes later, after a cheesy and honestly uninteresting explanation for the villain's existence) he sacrifices himself, turning into a god, and becomes the 'sword in Kyuta's heart'. I know that's supposed to be a good thing, and I understand the metaphor, but... I wish Kumatetsu had more of a real presence in the end... He brought so much personality and legitimate fun to the film and I was so sad to see that wasted on bland-brooding human characters.

Despite all of that, I mostly enjoyed the film overall, I just wouldn't say its one of Hosoda's best- especially due to the tone-shift from the exciting beast world to the comparatively slow human world.
And because I'm just bitter about what happened with Kumatetsu. :'(

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