GKIDS has released the first official teaser trailer of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron film, which will be screened in North American and IMAX theaters nationwide on December 8, 2023.
The Boy and the Heron was an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. It premiered in Japan on July 14, 2023, where it has earned 6.235 billion yen (US$42.66 million) as of August 14.
Singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu contributed the film’s main music theme “Spinning Globe.”
The Boy and the Heron‘s Japanese title (How Do You Live?/Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka) takes inspiration from the 1937 novel by Genzaburou Yoshino. It was published in English in 2021.
The voice cast includes Souma Santoki as Mahito, Masaki Suda as the Blue Heron/Heron Man, Kou Shibasaki as Kiriko, Aimyon as Himi, Yoshino Kimura as Natsuko, Takuya Kimura as Shouichi, Shinobu Ootake as Aiko, Keiko Takeshita as Izumi, Jun Fubuki as Utako, Sawako Agawa as Eriko, Karen Takizawa as Warawara, Jun Kunimura as the Great King of the Parrots, and Kaoru Kobayashi as the Old Pelican.
Miyazaki is credited with the original work and the script writing. Takeshi Honda (Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy) is serving as the film’s animation director, with Toshio Suzuki as the producer, and Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) as the music composer. Studio Ghibli is handling the film’s animation production.
GKIDS describes The Boy and the Heron as:
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.
