Crunchyroll has announced that it’s acquired the Australian and New Zealand rights to Studio Ghibli’s hugely-anticipated new animated feature film, The Boy and the Heron, partnering with Sony Pictures to bring the film to Aussie cinemas on December 7th, where it’ll be shown both in its English dub as well as Japanese with English subtitles.
The Boy and the Heron is written and directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, and tells the story of a young boy named Mahito who finds himself in a mysterious world shared by both the living and dead in pursuit of his mother. It’s described as a semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, creation and friendship and it looks positively stunning:
The film features a musical score from long-time Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi, and the English-language dubbed version of the movie will feature a star-studded cast with the likes of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.
The Boy and the Heron surpassed Spirited Away’s opening box office numbers in Japan when it debuted earlier this year and has received glowing reviews both in its domestic launch and at film festivals across the globe in the months since.
