Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson lead English dub cast for ‘The Boy And The Heron’

18 October, 2023

The English dub voice cast for Studio Ghibli‘s upcoming animated film The Boy And The Heron has been revealed.

Yesterday (October 17), film distributor GKIDS took to social media to announce the English voice dub cast, which was recorded “in compliance with SAG-AFTRA” during the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike.

The cast, per GKIDS, includes a star-studded roster of performers including Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista, Mark Hamill, Karen Fukuhara, Gemma Chan and more.

See GKIDS’ announcement below.

Per a report from Variety, the film’s English voice cast will see Christian Bale voice Shoichi Maki, Dave Bautista as The Parakeet King, Gemma Chan as Natsuko, Willem Dafoe as Noble Pelican, Karen Fukuhara as Lady Himi, Mark Hamill as Granduncle, Robert Pattinson as The Gray Heron and Florence Pugh as Kiriko.

Supporting roles will be performed by Luca Padovan as protagonist Mahito Maki and Mamoudou Athie, Tony Revolri and Dan Stevens as the Parakeets.

The Boy And The Heron will receive a cinematic release in North America from December 8 onwards, with screenings in IMAX, as well as screenings with the film’s original Japanese version. Tickets are set to go on sale soon. The film will receive a cinematic release in the UK on December 26.

Touted as the Studio Ghibli co-founder and animator Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy And The Heron tells the story of a teenage boy who enters a magical world with a talking heron after discovering an abandoned tower in his new town.

The film was released in Japan in July, and has so far received critical acclaim, with several critics describing the effort as “a masterpiece”. Time Out Japan‘s Emma Steen found the new work to be a “mature, complex masterpiece from the anime legend”. She added that there’s “visual brilliance in abundance in a coming-of-age fable that’s brought to stunning life by Miyazaki’s painstakingly hand-drawn animation”.

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