Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) on Netflix

NR20181h 30mAnimation Drama Fantasy

Mizore Yoroizuka, a quiet oboist, and Nozomi Kasaki, an outgoing flutist, are best friends in their last year of high school. Their duet comes from a fairy tale about a blue bird.

Netflix3.9/5
IMDb7.2/103,195 votes
Rotten Tomatoes83%

Trailer

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Plot summary

Mizore Yoroizuka is a quiet third-year oboist in her high school concert band, and Nozomi Kasaki, an outgoing flutist, is the friend she thinks about most. For a coming concert the band rehearses a duet, Liz and the Blue Bird, built on a German fairy tale Nozomi had loved since childhood. In that tale a girl, Liz, and a blue bird that takes human form share a home until they have to separate. Both girls see their own friendship and approaching graduation in the story, which unsettles Mizore. She keeps to herself and turns down invitations from her other bandmates. Niiyama, the woodwind instructor, tells Mizore she could keep studying music after high school and become a professional; Mizore cares little until Nozomi says she may apply to the same school.

Cast

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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Liz and the Blue Bird (2018)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

The soundtrack was composed first and the keyframe animation done afterwards to match it. Composer Kensuke Ushio built the sounds of the characters' footsteps into the music for the high school scenes, so their movements had to be perfectly synchronized with the sounds.
The end credits open with an original song, "Girls, Dance, Staircase", composed by Kensuke Ushio with lyrics by Naoko Yamada. On Yamada's idea it was sung by a boy soprano, which Ushio called "a brilliant idea" because that voice is not distinctly male or female.
To record the soundtrack, Kensuke Ushio and Naoko Yamada went to the real-life school the film's building is based on. Ushio recorded himself tapping and using objects there and put those sounds into the soundtrack; he later remembered that Yamada "couldn't stop laughing" while he recorded.
Composer Kensuke Ushio wrote part of the score using a method Naoko Yamada called "decalcomania": he spilled ink on sheet music, folded it, and turned the end result into music.