Ahead of its international premieres at Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, GKIDS Films has dropped a The Boy and The Heron video for Studio Ghibli’s newest Hayao Miyazaki movie, confirming the upcoming release of its teaser trailer.
The pre-teaser video reveals the name of the film’s main character, while also confirming the story’s fantasy aspect as its set to take places in a “world shared by the living and the dead.” Following its Japanese premiere last July, the animated fantasy is expected to arrive in U.S. theaters sometime this fall.
Check out The Boy and the Heron pre-teaser trailer below (watch more trailers):
What is The Boy and the Heron about?
“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.”
The Boy and the Heron (or How Do You Live) is written and directed by Miyazaki, which 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.