In celebration of the Academy Award win for Best Animated Feature for Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s latest feature, The Boy and the Heron will return to theaters nationwide starting March 22. Originally released nationwide on December 8, 2023, making this the first title in the Studio Ghibli catalog to be released in IMAX premium formats and opening at number one.
The rerelease will include exclusive bonus content featuring an introduction from the film’s composer Joe Hisaishi and supervising animator, Takeshi Honda, who won Best Character Animation at this year’s Annie Awards. The film will be in both the original Japanese language, and in English featuring Ghibli alum Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, and up-and-comer Luca Padovan.
The film centers around young Mahito moving to his family’s estate in the countryside after his mother dies. A chain of mysterious events leads him to a secluded tower, where a mischievous grey heron (Pattinson) resides. When Mahito’s new stepmother suddenly disappears, he follows the heron into the tower and enters a new world occupied by the living and the dead.
This is the second Oscar win for Miyazaki, after four previous nominations, and his first Oscar since Spirited Away in 2002–just the second year for the award. It should be noted that Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron are the only two hand-drawn films to win in that category.
The Boy and the Heron became the highest-grossing film for Studio Ghibli earning over $46 million at the North American box office. At the same time, it hit the milestone of the highest-grossing original Japanese animated film of all time, domestically.
