Hayao Miyazaki’s (possibly) last film The Boy and the Heron will soon come to streaming. The animated Studio Ghibli film will arrive on Max in September. Fans in the U.S. can begin watching the film on Friday, September 6th.
For those outside the U.S. and Japan, The Boy and the Heron will arrive on Netflix, Variety reports. No date has been set. However, the deal includes the entire Studio Ghibli catalog of films.
The Boy and the Heron arrived in theaters last year. It tells the story of a young man who moves to the countryside after his mother’s death. Once there, a grey heron leads him to a tower, which bring him to a magical world beyond.
Notably, the Ghibli movie is the first full-length film written and directed by Miyazaki in 10 years. After the release of The Wind Rises in 2013, Miyazaki announced his retirement. But it turns out the legendary director had more films to make. After writing and directing the short film Boro the Caterpillar in 2018, he decided on one more feature film. And that’s how we got The Boy and the Heron.
The English cast for the film features a number of big-name actors. Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Willem Dafoe, Florence Pugh, and Robert Pattinson all lends their vocal talents to the movie. Toshio Suzuki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, produced the film. And legendary Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi provided the soundtrack.
The film has done well, grossing almost $300 million worldwide. It also won the award for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards this year.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, you can soon stream Hayao Miyazaki’s swan (heron?) song. It seems like The Boy and the Heron may be his last film, but hey, you never know.
