granduncle

Once Mahito enters the tower — a wonderland of talking birds, unborn souls and the boy’s godlike granduncle — the score grows larger and stranger, with quirky tuned percussion, electronic effects, chorus and reverberant, cosmic orchestration.

Then, there’s the strange gray heron who badgers him and claims that his mother is still alive, and the mysterious tower built by Mahito’s long-vanished granduncle.

There is also a elderly granduncle with a long beard nearing the end of his life, aware that his ability to hold this crumbling world together is receding.

His mother’s family owned a chain of popular general stores, and his granduncles ran the location on Front Street until it closed around 60 years ago.

Daddy is beyond geeked that I was “really able to connect with” his favorite granduncle.