In common with Spirited Away, it is a tale of an impressionable child on an odyssey in a mysterious and magical realm. The story begins during the Second World War when Mahito’s mother dies in a horrific hospital fire. After the war he moves to the countryside with his father. There, he is subjected to the persistent attentions of a curious grey heron, who guides him to investigate an abandoned tower house, which one day he bravely enters. Miyazaki fills every frame with a phantasmagoria of colour and movement as familiar flora and fauna are imbued with wonder.

The Boy and the Heron Official Trailer;