For a while now, one of the most astonishing things about The Boy And The Heron – the film formerly known as How Do You Live? – was that we hadn’t even seen a single image from it. Hayao Miyazaki’s long-awaited Studio Ghibli comeback movie (10 years after his (second) supposed retirement with The Wind Rises) was shrouded in total mystery, until it was finally released to Japanese audiences last month. And it took a while, but images are now making their way into the world.
You may want to remain completely unspoiled, but a handful of images have been shared by movie-ticket site Fandango on Twitter – offering some tantalising glimpses at what one of the all-time-great animators has cooked up for his (likely) final film. So, if you want to check them out, look here:
It certainly looks like a Miyazaki movie, doesn’t it? Not only do you have those sweeping, lush green natural scenes and wide-open blue skies – but there’s some strikingly surreal imagery too, from a heron with human teeth, to a giant floating rock, to a flock of coloured birds flying through the air. If it was possible, our excitement just got even higher.
For now, we don’t know exactly when The Boy And The Heron will land on these shores. It will receive its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and is due in American cinemas later this year courtesy of distributors GKIDS. But plans for a UK release and a distributor here are yet to be confirmed – stay tuned for more as we get it. In the meantime, we’re off to watch Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service and The Wind Rises on a loop to get our fill of flight-themed Miyazaki movies.