Mirai

This movie is more ambitious and serious than it seems. A story told through the four year-old kid as he learns to accept and love his newly born baby sister. Along the way he sees the future and his sister as a teenager while he remains the same four year-old. He sees his dog a person who he can play with and who works with his future teenage sister. He slowly learns he is no longer the center of attention with his parents. The movie moves along nicely, but there are a few intense and surprise moments. His mother’s face suddenly turns into a large mean angry face, just like that, surprise! This happens twice. Another time, there’s a sudden loud engine noise of the War plane his grandfather flew. Again, surprise! Most intense is the scene near the end of the film where the 4-year old deals with be alone in the world. He’s in a subway station and eventually it builds up to where he’s inside the train car. He’s looking at the backs of the seats and then “bam” they turn around with skeletons in every chair! My eight year-old kid loves all of the age-appropriate older Studio Ghibli films and I think his trust of those plot lines was broken by unnecessary shock points here. He did not want to watch the subway scene, and luckily we turned it off before the skeletons. I skipped it ahead while he was out of the room and resumed it to watch the last 10-20 minutes. I’m not sure I would recommend this movie for kids under 11. I saw this director’s other films are for young teens, and I should’ve clued into that! It’s a good film overall, but one should know what they are getting into.