Get excited, Studio Ghibli fans! GKIDS announced it will bring The Boy and The Heron, the highly anticipated new film from legendary, Academy Award-winning Hayao Miyazaki, to cinemas nationwide on December 8, 2023. The latest feature from Japan’s celebrated animation house, Studio Ghibli, begins special preview engagements on November 22 before expanding to cinemas nationwide and Canada on December 8, 2023. As with previous Studio Ghibli titles, the film will be released in its original Japanese with English subtitles and a new English language version.
While Studio Ghibli didn’t do any marketing Japan ahead of the film’s release, GKIDS also released the first teaser trailer for The Boy and The Heron, marking the first time footage from the film has been shown outside Japanese theaters. In an unprecedented decision by Studio Ghibli, no images, trailers, synopses, advertisements, or other information about the film were made available to the public prior to its release in theaters in Japan on July 14. Studio Ghibli recently revealed first-look images to celebrate the film’s ongoing theatrical release in Japan. Last week, GKIDS released an English language “pre-teaser,” officially introducing the film’s story.
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The teaser trailer is definitely a tease, as many clues are not revealed through it. Haunting music plays as a boy runs through an end-of-the-world type of dream, calling out for his mother. The over-one-minute trailer is intriguing and seems to set up a good mystery.
The hand-drawn, animated feature – director Miyazaki’s first feature film in 10 years – is an original story written and directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, produced by co-founder Toshio Suzuki, and featuring a musical score from Miyazaki’s long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi. Its theme song, “Spinning Globe,” was penned and performed by global J-pop superstar Kenshi Yonezu.
The Boy and The Heron’s synopsis:
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 makes its international premiere at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival on September 7 as the Opening Night Gala. Tickets to all TIFF screenings sold out in record time. This fall, the film makes its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, its European Premiere at the Opening Night of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
