The only thing we regret about missing the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) this year was this.
Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t at the Toronto Film Festival for the international premiere of his movie The Boy and the Heron, but three-time Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro was. Del Toro surprised the crowd for the movie’s gala presentation tonight and received rapturous applause at Roy Thomson Hall. TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey introduced del Toro as “Miyazaki’s most passionate fan.”
“He knows what makes my fat butt move!” quipped del Toro after Bailey asked him to introduce the film.
“This is the first audience to watch this movie outside of Japan,” beamed del Toro to great cheers. “This is the world, god-damn premiere!”
“Animation is film, and tonight’s film goes beyond that. Animation is hard,” said del Toro.
“We are privileged enough to be living in a time where Mozart is composing symphonies,” said del Toro. “Miyazaki san is a master of that stature, and we are so lucky to be here.”
“He has changed the medium that he started in, revolutionized it, proved over and over again that is a tremendous work of art,” del Toro continued.
“Miyazaki, in my estimation, is the greatest director of animation ever, and he has made his films as full as dialogues and questions as he is. These are not easy films, but these are films that portray him so intimately, that you feel you’re having a conversation with him.”
“And they are paradoxical because he understands that beauty cannot exist without horror, and delicacy cannot exist without brutality.”
“He repeats motifs over and over again: flying, hope, despair, the power of innocence, the great of innocence. Each of his parables, because they become parables, are full of belief in humanity and full of heartache in humanity. I believe the film we will watch tonight will be no exception.”
It’s the first time that a Japanese title or an animated movie has opened the Toronto Film Festival.
