Directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu, Mirai tells the story of 4-year-old Kun and his family. Their house, designed by Kun’s architect father, is of a very modern design with an open-air yard in the middle of it. Kun is initially excited by the arrival of his new baby sister, Mirai, but excitement soon turns to jealousy when he finds he is no longer the center of his parents’ undivided attention. And between his parents, tension rises as his mother prepares to return to her job while his father works freelance from home and assumes the duties of caring for the children.

Mon, Dad, and Mirai. IMDb.com.

One day, after a particularly angry exchange, Kun enters the yard on the way to his detached playroom and encounters what turns out to be the family dog, Yukko, manifesting in human form. Yukko complains that he once had all the attention, but things changed for the worse when Kun was born. From here, the films shifts back and forth between scenes of Kun’s parents trying to cope with their responsibilities and Kun, himself, having a series of encounters with Mirai as a teenager, his mother as a child, his great-grandfather as a young man, and Kun, himself, as a teenager. Each encounter gives Kun an opportunity to learn about his family and about himself.

Hosoda said in an interview that he drew on his own experiences as a new parent when making this film, and it shows. The everyday challenges faced by the family seem very real and, at times, almost painful to watch. But Kun’s fantastical adventures seem real in their own way, too, and the transitions between the two worlds are adroitly handled and appear seamless. It’s never entirely clear if it’s all taking place in Kun’s imagination or if he really is having magical, time-shifting, encounters.

Mirai and Kun. IMDb.com.

All the characters, even Yukko the dog, are highly developed over the course of the film, both through their modern-day actions and through the things Kun learns about them in his adventures. The plot is essentially a voyage of personal discovery for Kun as he learns about his family, himself, and how to deal with having a younger sibling.

Visually, Mirai is stunning. Broad vistas are rendered in spectacular fashion, and Kun, his family, and his home are depicted in intimate detail. It’s a hybrid of hand-drawn animation and CGI that works amazingly well. The two styles blend and complement each other beautifully. Most of the time, it’s hard to tell where the hand-drawn art ends and the CGI begins. Some exceptions are a few travel scenes and a nightmarish sequence of Kun getting lost in a bizarrely creepy train station, but even when the CGI is obvious, it’s well done and serves the story. This is a great example of CGI done right.

Overall rating: 7.5/10