- The Boy and The Heron is set to start showing in South African cinemas on 19th April.
- Local distributors have been able to secure both the Japanese and English dubbed versions for SA cinemas.
- Both Nu Metro and Ster-Kinekor have opened up pre-bookings in either language option.
In a bid to get as many people in South Africa as possible to watch the latest Studio Ghibli film, and potentially Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie, The Boy and The Heron, local distributors have confirmed that both the original Japanese and English versions will be showing at cinemas.
In fact, both Nu Metro and Ster-Kinekor have pre-bookings available for each iteration, with the film hitting cinemas on 19th April.
You can find links to the pre-books below:
- Nu Metro – Japanese with English subtitles,
- Nu Metro -English,
- Ster-Kinekor – Japanese with English subtitles,
- Ster-Kinekor – English.
We always recommend watching in the original Japanese dub where possible, but as an organiser for a local media screening of the film explained to us, having both options available means they can cater to the loyal Ghibli fans, as well as introduce the Studio’s works to new audiences.
The English voice actors on the project are also quite notable, and feature some past Ghbili collaborators too, with the likes of Christian Bale and Willem Dafoe lending their talents.
The English voice cast is as follows:
- SHOICHI MAKI – Christian Bale
- THE PARAKEET KING – Dave Bautista
- NATSUKO – Gemma Chan
- NOBLE PELICAN – Willem Dafoe
- LADY HIMI – Karen Fukuhara
- GRANDUNCLE – Mark Hamill
- GRAY HERON – Robert Pattinson
- KIRIKO – Florence Pugh
- MAHITO MAKI – Luca Padovan
- THE PARAKEETS – Mamoudou Athie, Tony Revolori, and Dan Stevens
Helping director Hayao Miyazaki and his second Oscar for an animated movie, having previously won for Spirited Away in 2003, you can read our spoiler-free review of the film here.
