Hayao Miyazaki may have repeatedly said he was quitting movies, but here he is again with another highly anticipated animated film from Studio Ghibli. The Boy and the Heron is set to release in theaters this December, and we have a new trailer showcasing the star-studded voice cast which includes Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, and Mark Hamill.
Watch this:
Other voices in the English cast list also include Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, and Karen Fukuhara.
If you’ve watched Miyazaki movies before, you’ll notice that a lot of his signature elements are also in The Boy and the Heron from the fantastic visuals to all kinds of crazy creatures.
We don’t know exactly what the story of the film is yet, but it definitely looks like the titular boy in the film comes from a Japan that is undergoing the Second World War (the uniform looks pretty familiar); plus there is a lot of imagery with flames surrounding him which could allude to the bombs being dropped.
With Oppenheimer coming out last July, a lot of critics have said that the film kind of lacks the point-of-view from the actual victims of the bomb. Maybe The Boy and the Heron could be Miyazaki’s remedy to that; but we’ll just have to wait and see until the movie comes out.
Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother’s death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.
The Boy and the Heron comes to theaters Dec. 8.
