EXCLUSIVE: Studio Ghibli Director Hayao Miyazaki Opens Up About Making A Comeback With The Boy And The Heron
In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Studio Ghibli Director Hayao Miyazaki shared this thoughts about making a comeback with a project like The Boy and The Heron. Here's what the Oscar-winning movie maker said.
"There’s nothing more pathetic than telling the world you’ll retire because of your age, then making yet another comeback."- Hayao Miyazaki, Director
A highly anticipated masterpiece by the Academy Award-winning director, Hayao Miyazaki. The Boy And The Heron follows the magical journey of teenager Mahito in a completely new world. Experiencing the pain of losing his mother and having complicated relationships with his family and classmates, Mahito gradually isolated himself, until he met a strange talking heron. Well, now that the movie is coming to the bigger screens in English dub, here is what director Hayao Miyazaki has shared about making a comeback with this special film.
Director Hayao Miyazaki shares his thoughts on making a comeback
The Boy And The Heron won the Academy Award this year for Best Animated Feature. It also won the Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes, Bafta Film Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. This is director Hayao Miyazaki’s second Academy Award win. He had previously won an Oscar in 2001 for the Animated Film Spirited Away.
The Japanese anime auteur, Hayao Miyazaki is making his much-awaited comeback with The Boy and The Heron after 2012. But the journey to direct the film and completing it was not as easy. Miyazaki says, "There’s nothing more pathetic than telling the world you’ll retire because of your age, then making yet another comeback. Is it truly possible to accept how pathetic that is, and do it anyway? Doesn’t an elderly person deluding themself that they’re still capable, despite their geriatric forgetfulness, prove that they’re past their best? You bet it does."
He further adds, "It’s all very well to drag in others and cause a heap of trouble yet still finish a film, but it’s also entirely possible that you could become bedridden or die come crunch time. The instigator himself might be fully prepared for that, but for those who’d end up burdened with an incomplete mishmash of a film, it would be unbearable. Feature-length films take at least three years to complete. I could do one in a year when I was in my 40s, but now I’m 75, it’s a lot to get done in three years, and I’m tempted to say “Let me work on it till I’m 80.”
Cast and release date updates
The English Voice Cast of The Boy And The Heron features the voices of Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Willem Dafoe, Gemma Chan, Mark Hamill, Karen Fukuhara and Luca Padovan.
The film will be released in cinemas across India today - May 10, 2024, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film will be released in both Japanese with English Subtitles and English Dubbed Versions.
The release mentions provided are accurate at the time of writing and are subject to change at the discretion of circumstances and creators.
At last, keep an eye on Pinkvilla for more updates like this.