The Boy and the Heron vs My Neighbour Totoro: My Heron Neighbour

A new Hayao Miyazaki film from Studio Ghibli has appeared! The Boy and the Heron is the master animator’s first feature length work in more than ten years, and on this week’s episode we dive deep into its mysterious, dreamlike world and measure it up against what might be the studio’s greatest feature, 1988’s My Neighbour Totoro. It’s no great surprise to find a lot of common ground here, with both films examining magic, love, fear and family crises. But which of the two is filled with so many ideas it risks incoherence? Which offers a barely disguised guest appearance from Mussolini? Which film vividly reminds us of our own endless summers? And which one stars our new favourite animated characters, the Potato Puff People?

Plus an extra special ‘Also Playing’ segment, a look at new Portland-based feature film ‘Hangdog’, a novel peripheral for your television, a visit to a shooting location for a well known science fiction series, and the startling realisation that maybe the whole world is actually just a 13 piece block puzzle…

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