Hayao Miyazaki’s film, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. The other contenders for the awards include films such as Sony’s Spider-Man: across the Spider-verse, Netflix’s Nimona, Pixar’s Elemental, and Robot Dreams.
About the Film ‘The Boy and the Heron’
The Japanese anime film ‘The Boy and the Heron’ premiered at the North American box office in 2023 and was admired as the number one film, making US $ 13 million and $167 million worldwide revenue.
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‘The Boy and the Heron’ has been nominated for seven Annie Awards this year and has won Golden Globes, and a slew of critics awards including NYFCC, CA, and National Board of Review. The film is considered the most expensive film ever produced in Japan.
The film ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is supposedly last film of the 83 year old director Hayao Miyazaki.
The Theme of the Film
The film ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is inspired by Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel ‘How Do You Live?’ and subtly highly personal story for Miyazaki as the film is set in the time of World War two that Miyazaki has lived through.
The film is a semi-autobiographical story of a young boy searching for his mother in a mysterious factory world. On look release, Peter Bradshaw a Guardian chief film critic, described the film as a “mysterious and charming fantasy about childhood pain and grief.”
Who is Hayao Miyazaki?
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He is known for films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and many others, created with Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded with Isao Takahara and Tashio Suruki in 1985. 
He is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the animation world and won a series of awards including the Best Animation Film Feature Oscar in 2023 for Spirited Away and two other Oscar nominations (2006) for Howl Moving Castle and The Wind Rises (2014).
This Oscar of 2024 for ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is second Oscar of Miyazaki after Spirited Away.
The Cast of the Film
Original Japanese voice casts include Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Kaoru Kobayashi, and Shinobu Otake.
The cast of the English language dub of the film includes Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Mark Hamill, Willem Dafoe, Mamadou Athie, Luca Padovan, Karen Fukuhara, Dan Stevens, Tony Revolori, and more.
Where to watch the Film?
‘The Boy and the Heron’ will soon be available on Max, owned by Disney Plus, from June 2024. However, an official date has not been announced by its filmmakers yet.
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