The Boy and the Heron - Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson part of Hayao Miyazaki's cast

Master animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's comeback film The Boy and the Heron has revealed its English dubbing cast and it's a star-studded affair. Christian Bale will voice the character Shoichi Maki with Dave Bautista as The Parakeet King, Robert Pattinson as The Grey Heron, Florence Pugh as Kiriko, Gemma Chan as Natsuko, Willem Dafoe as Noble Pelican, Mark Hamill as Granduncle and Karen Fukuhara as Lady Himi. 

The central character of Mahito Maki has been voiced by Luca Padovan and the story of The Boy and the Heron follows 12-year-old Mahito who, having lost his mother in a fire, is sent to live with his aunt by father, an air munitions factory owner. It is here that the young Mahito begins to explore and lead himself into an imaginative world shared by the living and the dead after a chance encounter with a Heron. Hayao Miyazaki is world renowned for not only for his groundbreaking work as an animator but also the magic that he spots in the mundane through his stories, weaving fantastical worlds that exist in our vicinities. 

The Boy and the Heron, of course, marks Miyazaki’s return to feature filmmaking after a hiatus of a decade. The 82-year-old filmmaker had announced his retirement in 2013 but chose to return in 2018 after working on the short film, Boro the Caterpillar. Reportedly, the upcoming film is the most expensive film ever produced in Japan but it’s local release has already fetched great results at the box office with close to $56 million collections. 

The Boy and the Heron had its Toronto International Film Festival recently in September and is set for a full-fledged global release on December 8, 2023. Prior to that, both the Japanese and English versions will have special previews on November 22.