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Studio Ghibli’s 'The Boy and the Heron' now has English dub trailer from its Hollywood-star cast

10 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Near-simultaneous releases have become the norm for anime TV series, but overseas fans still have to be patient when it comes to theatrical animated features from Japan. That’s especially true when it comes to Studio Ghibli movies, as the animation house itself and its licensors tend to want the utmost polish on what are the anime industry’s highest-profile prestige releases.

So while "The Boy and the Heron" (or "How Do You Live," as its Japanese-language title translates to), the latest movie from director Hayao Miyazaki, debuted in Japanese theaters in mid-summer, its overseas screenings have been limited to film festivals. That’ll be changing next month, though, when "The Boy and the Heron" finally opens in theaters in the U.S., and to help ramp up the excitement even more, there’s now an English-dubbed trailer, which also shows off some new clips from the anime that haven’t been seen outside screenings until now.

As we talked about when it was first announced, the English dub cast for "The Boy and the Heron" is especially star-studded, with multiple Hollywood A-listers joining up for what may end up as Miyazaki’s last anime. That’s Mark Hamil saying “So, you made it. Have a seat,” early in the trailer, giving a touch of rumble to his performance as the character Granduncle, Dave Bautista declaring “We must protect this world ourselves,” as the Parakeet King, and, very briefly, Christian Bale shouting the name of protagonist Mahito as his father, Shoichi, swings a sword at a flock of birds.

▼ Is "The Boy and the Heron" Miyazaki’s best movie ever? is a debate we’re probably going to be hearing a lot in the months ahead, but there’s absolutely no debating that it’s his most bird-filled one.

Screen-Shot-2023-11-03-at-13.40.56.png
Image: Studio Ghibli

The most striking performance in the trailer, though, is Robert Pattinson’s voice for Gray Heron. It’s the complete opposite from the somber and/or suave characters the the 37-year-old "Twilight" star is best known for, and it almost sounds like the Gray Heron is choking on the words he’s saying, something that’s entirely appropriate given his eventually revealed identity. Gray Heron’s Japanese voice actor, Masaki Suda, steals almost every scene the character appears in, and it looks like Pattinson may end up doing the same.

In addition, the video also gives us our first listens to Luca Padovan as Mahito, Gemma Chan as his aunt Natsuko, Florence Pugh as the adventurous, bandana-wearing Kiriko, and Karen Fukuhara as the literally fiery Lady Himi. We also get our first audio preview for the group of elderly women who work as housekeepers at Natsuko’s traditional Japanese mansion, though it looks like we’ll have to wait until a second dub trailer, or the theatrical release itself, to hear Willem Dafoe as Noble Pelican.

Distributor GKIDS Films will be holding special preview screenings in Los Angeles and New York City on November 22, with "The Boy and the Heron’s" general release, in both subtitled and dubbed formats, on December 8.

Source: YouTube/GKIDS Films via Anime News Network/Alex Mateo

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- English dub cast for Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron is packed with Hollywood stars

-- Studio Ghibli’s new anime may be the most expensive Japanese movie ever made, producer says

-- Ghibli might finally be willing to let images of Hayao Miyazaki’s new anime be seen outside theaters

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

10 Comments
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Dubbed anime (and any TV shows or movies) are far inferior to subbed. There are rare well dubbed anime. A Canadian troupe did a great job with "Inuyasha". Don't even let Hollywood have it. Worst voice-overs ever. I'll watch this with sub-titles. I like to get the real feel for the show.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Gene, I agree. Ghibli's voice overs that I have seen have been cringeworthy.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

BertieWooster

Gene, I agree. Ghibli's voice overs that I have seen have been cringeworthy.

Yeah, I remember hearing the English dub on Totoro. It lost so much nuance of the original Japanese.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Can't wait to see it. Animation of any kind is ideal for dubbing for an optimal experience.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Dubbed anime (and any TV shows or movies) are far inferior to subbed.

I agree with you there, not a huge anime fan but the English dubbs are horrible.

The only exception for me was Dragon Ball Z, I couldn't watch it in Japanese.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I second the comments on the dubbed versions. Some of the English voices are painful indeed.

Even though I'm not a Brit, I think that Japanese studios should consider using more British English in their dubs. I think that would work much better, especially for fantasy/historical-type works.

That said, I will give Mark Hamil a pass as his voice acting is generally excellent. His work on Joker has been fantastic.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Having just watched that scrappy trailer above, I must say the jury is still out on the dubbing job.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Some English dubbing for Ghibli films were okay; others not. I didn't mind the English dub for Spirited Away and Ponyo for example. I'll give this one a shot because the English voice cast is pretty stellar.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japanese anime and Kdrama is best viewed with subs. You lose too much with dubbing. I don't watch dubbed stuff at all.

Dubbing is OK for little kids and older folk who cannot follow the subs.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Pretty much disagree with most of the commenters here. The English dubs for Ghibli films since the days that Studio Ghibli films were released by Disney in English speaking territories have been the best in the business. The casting and performances have been very appropriate For example, Michael Keaton's performance in Porco Rosso has been compared very favourable to Jean Reno's performance in the French dub. I myself love the Kiki's Delivery Service English dub, featuring Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartmann and Janeane Garofalo.

I watched Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka in Nagoya in August, so I am pretty enthusiastic to see it in English in December.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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