The Boy and the Heron, the latest animated film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, is set to officially be released in the US and Canada on December 8th, and now we have the first trailer for the film.
While The Boy and the Heron was originally released in Japan in July, it received virtually no marketing beyond a single poster, instead drawing audiences largely on the reputation of Miyazaki and Ghibli. The strategy worked, too, as the film instantly became the studio’s biggest opening ever.
That means the trailer below is the first look anyone outside of Japan has had at Miyazaki’s latest directorial effort. However this is still one teaser trailer, so don’t expect to get too many ideas about the film’s plot. Instead, prepare to enjoy many abstract images that deal with the conflict between humans and nature in classic Miyazaki style.
The official plot description keeps things similarly vague. “A young boy named Mahito who longs for his mother enters a world shared by the living and the dead,” it says. “There, death ends and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death and creation, a tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.”
The Boy and the Heron officially opens in theaters in the US and Canada on December 8 courtesy of distributor GKIDS and will be released in both dubbed and subtitled formats. Expect to hear some more English-language buzz before that, though, as the film will be making the festival rounds in the months leading up to release, starting with a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7.
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