The star-studded English voice cast for The Boy and the Heron has been revealed and it’s loaded with big names.
The list of actors joining the English cast, as was revealed by GKIDS, includes Christian Bale as Shoichi Maki, Dave Bautista as The Parakeet King, Gemma Chan as Natsuko, Willem Dafoe as Noble Pelican, Karen Fukuhara as Lady Himi, Mark Hamill as Granduncle, Robert Pattinson as The Gray Heron, and Florence Pugh as Kiriko.
For a few of the actors, this isn’t their first time in a Studio Ghibli project, as Bale played the titular character in Howl’s Moving Castle while Dafoe played Cob in Tales from Earthsea. Meanwhile, Hamill played Colonel Muska in Castle in the Sky and the Mayor of Pejite in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
“Through encounters with his friends and uncle, follows a teenage boy’s psychological development,” reads the synopsis. “He enters a magical world with a talking grey heron after finding an abandoned tower in his new town.”
Who wrote and directed The Boy and the Heron?
The Boy and the Heron (originally titled How Do You Live) is written and directed by Miyazaki and serves as his first directorial project in a decade. He’s best known for directing classics like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo. The hand-drawn animated film features the voices of Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda (The Backwater), singer Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura (Confessions), Shōhei Hino (As Long as We Both Shall Live), Ko Shibasaki (47 Ronin), Takuya Kimura (Howl’s Moving Castle), and more.
It is produced by Studio Ghibli founder Toshio Suzuki. Its musical score hails from Miyazaki’s long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi, and the film’s theme song, “Spinning Globe,” was penned and performed by global J-pop superstar Kenshi Yonezu.
