Why ‘The Boy and the Beast’ is the Number One Animated Film to See in 2016

Forget what you may have heard about what excellence in animation looks like for 2016, Mamoru Hosoda’s The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono no Ko) is the timeless classic in the making you won’t want to miss. Equal parts hilarious entertainment, glorious artistry, and heartbreakingly beautiful story, The Boy and the Beast tells both the tale of how family bonds can be formed between even the most unlikely of beings and how as humans we must learn to accept our wonderful, terrifyingly complex natures. Having already secured the 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival’s Arigato Award and the 2016 Japan Academy Prize among several other international award nominations, it’s no surprise that The Boy and the Beast was last year’s second grossing film from Japanese box offices. Now, thanks to Funimation, this treasure of film has been brought to American theaters at last.

What make’s Ren’s story transcend beyond the run-of-the-mill coming of age cartoon is, of course, Mamoru Hosoda’s now legendary skill to seamlessly blend fantasy with reality and build each moment into a crucial layer for the next. Like his films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children (all of which also won the Japan Academy Prize for their respective years), Hosoda takes us on both a physical journey to a supernatural realm and one of spiritual discovery. After the death of his single mother prompts nine-year-old Ren to run away from home and accidentally stumble across the entrance toJūtengai…