The Boy and the Heron
This Studio Ghibli fantasy follows 12-year-old Mahito as he grieves his mother's death and enters a mysterious spirit world guided by a talking heron. The animation is breathtaking, but the film carries genuine emotional weight and some unsettling imagery that is better suited to older children and patient viewers.
Thoughtful kids 10 and up who are comfortable with grief themes and surreal, sometimes dark fantasy imagery.
If you’d rather skip
The film opens with air-raid sirens and a chaotic night sequence in which Mahito rushes through crowds and flames toward a burning hospital where his mother dies; the death itself is not shown but is unmistakable.
Air-raid sirens blare suddenly and loudly at night, waking the household and kicking off the opening crisis.
Mahito is wrestled and beaten by bullies, then deliberately strikes the side of his own head with a rock; blood gushes down his face and he arrives home near collapse.