The Boy and the Heron is Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature film. It is a hand-drawn, original story written and directed by Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki. The anime film will be released in US theaters on December 8, but there will also be early screenings for The Boy and the Heron on November 22.
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What Is The Boy and the Heron About?
The Boy and the Heron follows a young boy named Mahito Maki. He lost his mother due to firebombings in Tokyo.
Mahito and his father moved to the countryside, where his father married his late mother’s sister. He encountered the talking heron in this new town.
An official logline for The Boy and the Heron reads:
A young boy named Mahito
yearning for his mother
ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.
There, death comes to an end,
and life finds a new beginning.
A semi-autobiographical fantasy
about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship,
from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
The Boy and the Heron was inspired by a literary work — the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino.
It was also Hayao Miyazaki's favorite childhood book, and it had a huge influence on his works. Miyazaki began working on the film in 2016.
GKIDS licensed the film. The English voice cast of The Boy and the Heron includes some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Florence Pugh, and Dave Bautista.
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Early Screening of The Boy and the Heron
Distributor GKIDS announced that The Boy and the Heron will have special preview engagements in Los Angeles and New York City on November 22.
You may be able to check all the movie schedules at the different cinemas in Los Angeles and New York City on the GKIDS official website. You can also purchase tickets on the said website.
The Boy and the Heron will also get early access screenings on IMAX on December 4 before its nationwide release on December 8.
After the film’s theatrical run, we can expect it to arrive on streaming, although there’s no confirmation yet as to the film’s streaming release date and platform.
Since Max is the home for Studio Ghibli’s streaming releases, we can probably expect to see the film on Max soon, although this is not confirmed.
For now, fans in the US can enjoy watching The Boy and the Heron in theaters in special previews on November 22 or on the film’s nationwide release on December 8.
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