Oh, boy, the teaser for Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron is here(on)
As expected, the trailer for the new Hayao Miyazaki film looks unlike anything else out there
Film News The Boy and the Heron
A decade after releasing his previous “final film,” the teaser for Hayao Miyazaki’s latest career capper is here. Downgraded from the original title How Do You Live, Miyazaki’s new film, now called The Boy And The Heron, was released in Japan without any promotion, hoping the director’s pristine batting average would drive people to theaters. It worked; the film is Studio Ghibli’s biggest opening ever. Still, we Americans won’t see anything without a commercial, so we’re lucky enough to get a taste of the master animator’s new movie before it releases. And, boy, does this thing have some compelling imagery.
From those searing heat waves to a horde of frogs beckoning our hero to the afterlife, Miyazaki’s seven-year journey to put this on screen appears worth the wait. The minute-long teaser is a montage of hand-drawn animation unlike anything produced by Hollywood, evoking the whimsy and adventure of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro as well as the dire stakes of Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. Most importantly, Miyazaki’s penchant for drawing the strangest, most adorable old ladies remains intact.
For months, the film was kept under strict secrecy. Japanese audiences were only treated to a single teaser image ahead of its release, a release tactic presumably inspired by The Whale. Eschewing the cryptic release strategy, in addition to a teaser, GKIDS has released an appropriately poetic synopsis for the film:
A young boy named Mahito
yearning for his mother
ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.
There, death comes to an end,
and life finds a new beginning.
A semi-autobiographical fantasy
about life, death, and creation,
in tribute to friendship,
from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
The Boy And The Heron hits theaters and IMAX on December 8.
16 Comments
Thanks for doing what the writer couldn’t figure out.
Thank you for supplying the point of the article.
Right? I was like, oh good the site is even more broken now.
I thought I was losing my damn mind.
I also thought I was going crazy.
Wow!
Thanks for doing what the tit who wrote this “article” clearly lacked the brains to do. Take your star!
Watching anything Hayao Miyazaki does is as close to a religious experience as I have ever had in pop culture. It goes beyond poetry. I’m just glad he came around during my lifetime.
I can’t quite formulate it coherently, but there is something almost annoying about the fact that the majority of TV anime these days is technically in the same genre as this – portal fantasy, or isekai – and yet the gulf between how Miyazaki treats (and has historically treated) this trope and how the millions of Shousetsuka-ni-narou users treat it is astonishing. Releasing a traditional portal fantasy in a media landscape currently glutted with stories about being hit by a truck and reincarnated as the most powerful (and inexplicably sexually attractive) magician ever (or a super-powered slime, or a super-powered vending machine, or the villainess in a dating game, or…) seems almost perverse.I suppose there’s a lot more in the theatrical landscape that hews closer to Miyazaki in tone or even demographic, but the TV market just doesn’t seem to support anything with a similar tone to his work.Anyway, film looks great, bring it on.
Hey Matt, I think you forgot something here(on).
Bradley Cooper portrayal of Leonard Bernstein really offensive isn’t it?
This is the first time I’ve seen a release date for this movie stateside. I’m excited!
Ever send a long dense email that hinges on a pivotal attachment that you forgot to actually attach?
The film was released in Japan in July and the entire plot is summarized on wikipedia already. I hope I can avoid spoilers long enough to get the full experience in theaters in December.
The score by Joe Hisaishi needs to be mentioned too. Beautiful and haunting.