Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning anime film The Boy and the Heron is set to release theatrically in India on May 10, Warner Bros. India announced on Friday.
The movie bagged the best animated feature award at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.
“Academy Award Winner, THE BOY AND THE HERON releases in Cinemas in India on May 10,” Warner Bros. wrote on Instagram alongside a poster of the film.
The Boy and the Heron, touted as Miyazaki’s final Studio Ghibli project, came out in Japan on July 14 last year. It will release in Japanese with English subtitles and English-dubbed versions in Indian theatres.
Taking its title from the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino, The Boy and the Heron follows a 12-year-old boy, Mahito Maki, who finds it difficult to adjust to a new town following his mother's death. But an encounter with a talking grey heron changes his life forever when the creature informs Mahito that his mother is alive.
The anime feature, which amassed USD 294.2 million worldwide, deals with themes like loss and grief, discovery and adventure, and the power of hope and new beginnings.
Warner Bros. India also dropped the official Japanese trailer of the movie on Friday. Beginning with an emotionally-charged sequence of Mahito’s mother burning to death, the trailer goes on to show the protagonist embarking on a quest in a fantastical world to save her. It also shows never-before-seen scenes from the film such as Mahito being introduced to his stepmother and a strange man asking him to “continue his work” of improving the condition of the fantasy world.
The Japanese voice cast includes Soma Santoki as Mahito, We Made a Beautiful Bouquet actor Masaki Suda as the grey heron, Aimyon as Lady Himi and Takuya Kimura as Shoichi Maki. Yoshino Kimura, Jun Kunimura, Kaoru Kobayashi, Ko Shibasaki and Shohei Hino also lend their voices to the characters.
Five months back, the production banner had shared an English-dubbed trailer featuring voices of Christian Bale, Willem Defoe, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Karen Fukuhara and Mark Hamill.
