It takes a time-travelling village to raise a brat
FILM REVIEW Mirai
Are you one of the numberless hordes who hate Caillou, that annoying 1990s Canadian animated show about an obnoxious boy, his little sister and their parents? Then you may not want to take a chance on Mirai. Because for all its magic realism and gorgeous animation, in many ways it boils down to a series of temper tantrums by a coddled boy.
Meet Kun, voiced by Moka Kamishiraishi in the subtitled version and by Jaden Waldman in the dub. He’s an only child until the day his infant sister Mirai comes home from the hospital, at which point the kid becomes consumed with jealousy. Granted, he’s only four, so he’s not able to process this emotion very well. But his outbursts prove trying for Mom and Dad and, by extension, the viewer.
Fortunately, Kun has time-travelling kin to help teach him life lessons. They include Mirai (her name is Japanese for “future”), who shows up as an adolescent, worried that the parents’ failure to put away the annual Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day) decorations will bring her bad luck. Kun also runs into his own mother as a little girl and his great-grandfather just after the war — and all without a DeLorean.
Mirai was written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, a Japanese animator whose last film, 2015’s The Boy and the Beast, was a beautiful if perplexing story of an orphan boy who becomes the apprentice of a warrior beast in a fantastical realm. This one would seem to hew closer to reality, but between a human personification of the family dog and a bullet-train station with an express to hell — well, it’s a tough slog for kids and parents alike. Particularly parents who have a thing about watching animated children lose their tempers. Kun eventually achieves a kind of wisdom, but for most of the film it’s very much a case of one step forward, two steps back. ★★
Mirai opens across Canada on Dec. 21.