Celebrated director of Japanese anime, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning film, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is all set to hit theatres on 10th May in India. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s first ever IMAX feature film garnered massive critical and box office success despite limited marketing and the film soon grabbed the spot of the fifth highest-grossing Japanese movie of all time.

The title of the film draws inspiration from Genzaburō Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name; however, the film is not an adaptation of it. Among its adulations, the film is the proud recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

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First released in Japan on July 14, 2023, the film recorded a box office collection of US$294.2 million worldwide. The idea of the film had been conceived over 7 years ago. Miyazaki started the storyboarding of the film in 2016, and the title was announced in 2017 with the release expected to be around the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, by this time, only 36 minutes of the film had been ready as it was meticulously hand-drawn by 60 animators. The production navigated its fair share of challenges from the delay caused by the onset of the global pandemic COVID-19. As per producer Toshio Suzuki, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is one of the most expensive Japanese films ever produced, with financing sources involving streaming deals of previous Ghibli films.

The film is going to offer an immersive and captivating experience just like previous illustrious films like ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ by the renowned director. ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is going to weave together themes of loss, identity navigation, and resilience in the bildungsroman narrative of its protagonist Mahito Maki against a world full of conflict and loss. The fantasy feature film is set against the backdrop of the Pacific War in Tokyo and etches the journey of Mahito, who moves to the countryside after his mother’s death and soon finds himself in a fantastical realm with a talking grey heron.

‘The Boy and the Heron’s Japanese version has been voiced by Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, and Takuya Kimora, among others, whereas the English variant features the voices of Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, and William Dafoe, among others.

The film is sure to enchant the viewers with its surreal encompassment of emotions and imagination with a landscape thriving with captivating visuals and immersive storytelling, of which Miyazaki’s oeuvre is the finest example.