DVD Review - Mirai

This film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards. It was nominated at the Golden Globe Awards. It was nominated at the Critics Choice Awards. It won Best Animated Independent Feature at the Annie Awards. Unfortunately, it lost at the Oscars to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is as much a technical achievement than anything. Yes, it had some emotional moments and a fairly compelling story about a young boy who is visited by others related to him through supernatural means in order to help him navigate a troubling time in his life. This film, written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, has the same fairly compelling story, but the emotional moments here hit a whole lot harder than the emotional moments in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

A little boy named Kun who loves trains feels ignored when his new baby sister arrives. His sister is named Mirai. His parents are frustrated. His mother is the breadwinner who goes back to work, while the father stays home and manages the house-work. The father feels inundated as he also tries to balance the baby and doing work from his laptop. Kun tries to get his dad's attention constantly and his mom's attention when she's available, but they always overlook him. As a result, Kun throws tantrums, screaming and crying like a baby, sometimes mimicking his baby sister.

When Kun does throw tantrums, he normally runs into his backyard where there is an oak tree. Under the tree, the backyard teleports him or teleports other people through time. The first person that Kun meets after his first tantrum is the teenage version of his sister, Mirai. He snaps out of these time diversions and goes back to his home life, which again frustrates him. Kun will then have another tantrum where he runs into the backyard. After his second tantrum, he has another time diversion under the oak tree. The time diversion brings another family member through time to visit Kun. Some might see some comparison to Don Hertzfeldt's World of Tomorrow (2015), an animated short film that was critically acclaimed.

It might seem repetitive as Kun keeps having these tantrums and keeps having these time diversions. However, what is revealed as these repetitions happen is information about Kun's family that makes him or anyone watching appreciate the family tree and the history of people being linked together. It's another way of getting to the same emotional impact as the ending of Coco (2017). It's perhaps a better way of getting to that same emotional impact. I would say the emotional impact is even greater here.

The animation is beautiful, particularly at the end during a train station sequence. It still might not be up to the technical achievements of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but this film did something that the Oscar-winner didn't do. It made me cry. It did so without killing anyone or singing a sentimental song. It did so with a well-written drama.

Rated PG for thematic elements including scary images.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 38 mins.