‘The Boy and the Heron’ Coming to Max: Here’s the Release Date

Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning film The Boy and the Heron will make its U.S. streaming debut on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max in September.

The Studio Ghibli film will be available exclusively on Max in the U.S. starting Friday, September 6. Miyazaki’s hand-drawn, semi-autobiographical animated film marks his first feature film in a decade that he has both written and directed. The Boy and the Heron joins the rest of Studio Ghibli’s library on Max as part of the streamer’s multi-year exclusivity U.S. contract extension announced earlier this year.

This spring, The Boy and the Heron will be available on Netflix outside of the United States and Japan, thanks to a renewed deal for Studio Ghibli’s entire film catalog. Netflix has not yet set a premiere date for The Boy and the Heron.

The English version of The Boy and the Heron features the voices of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh. The film is produced by Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki and features music by Miyazaki’s longtime collaborator Joe Hisaishi. For international distributor GKids, the film is their highest-grossing film to date, grossing $46.8 million at the domestic box office.

The official synopsis of the film is as follows: “After losing his mother during the war, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron. When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron into the tower, and enters a fantastic world shared by the living and the dead. As he embarks on an epic journey with the heron as his guide, Mahito must uncover the secrets of this world, and the truth about himself.”

“The Boy and the Heron” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film this year, making it Miyazaki’s second Oscar after “Spirited Away.” In 2014, he also received an honorary Oscar for “exceptional contributions to cinema.”

Max has been the U.S. home of Studio Ghibli’s catalog since 2020, when the service first launched as HBO Max. The contract extension with GKids means that at least 20 Studio Ghibli films will be exclusively available on HBO Max, including “My Neighbor Totoro,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.” Max will be available in the U.S. in a few years.

Max has been the U.S. home of Studio Ghibli’s catalog since 2020, when the service first launched as HBO Max.