• The English voice cast for Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, The Boy and The Heron, has been confirmed.
• It features past collaborators like Christian Bale and Willem Dafoe.
• The English dub is expected to hit cinemas in the US come 8th December.

We are anime fans here at the Hypertext office, which means we like many other South Africans, are eagerly awaiting the release of the reportedly final film from Hayao Miyazaki – The Boy and The Heron.

The film has already aired in Japan, and is currently doing the rounds at international film festivals before reaching cinemas in the United States on 8th December 2023.

At the time of writing, there is no word on when or indeed if it will arrive in South African theatres, with neither Ster-Kinekor nor Nu Metro listing it in their respective websites’ “Coming Soon” categories.

While we continue to wait, a bit more information regarding the film has been shared, with the English voice cast that have signed on to do the dub now confirmed via Deadline.

Among the star-studded voice talent are a couple of past Studio Ghibli collaborators, with Christian Bale and Willem Dafoe featuring. The actors worked on Howl’s Moving Castle and Tales from Eathsea respectively.

The full list of English voice actors are as follows:

• Christian Bale voicing 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
• Florence Pugh as Kiriko,
• Luca Padovan as Mahito Maki
• Mamoudou Athie, Tony Revolori, and Dan Stevens as the Parakeets.

As we await a local release for the highly anticipated film, check out the teaser trailer below.