The Boy and the Heron Cast: All The Familiar Voices In The English Dub

Lea Veloso
·5 min read
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If you’re a Studio Ghibli aficionado, you might be wondering who is in The Boy and the Heron cast. Well, this stellar film by Hayao Miyazaki does not disappoint and neither does the English dubbed cast.

The Boy and the Heron is a semi-autobiographical film about a boy in wartime Japan. Many scenes derive from certain events from Miyazaki’s childhood. The protagonist Mahito moves to the countryside with his father Shoichi to take up residence at the Gray Heron Mansion, where Mahito unravels a series of self-discoveries. The film offers a mystical insight into the boundaries of life and death.

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GKids, who is in charge of the English dub of the Japanese movie, had the big opportunity to bring the film to the West. “This is a very complicated film,” GKIDS president Dave Jesteadt told IndieWire, “and I don’t think Miyazaki will ever do an interview where he lays out what it all means. But we asked a lot of questions, and we got a lot of answers back,” many of them from Ghibli co-founder and frequent Miyazaki producer Toshio Suzuki. “I feel really privileged to have what feels like a skeleton key for what things were supposed to represent or mean.

So who’s in The Boy and the Heron cast? Read more to find out.

1. Luca Padovan as Mahito Maki

Luca Padovan voices Mahito Maki in The Boy & The Heron. Mahito is the protagonist of the film who moves to the countryside with his father and his aunt—whom his father just recently married.

Voice director Michael Sinterniklaas praised the young actor’s ability to capture the character. “Ghibli’s version of Mahito sounds mature,” Sinterniklaas told IndieWire, “and we had to match that. It’s a tricky character because he’s not a cute, cuddly, huggable lead like we’ve had in the past, and he makes himself more distant in the first half of the story. Luca did an extraordinary job of relating Mahito’s self-reliant streak.”

2. Robert Pattinson as The Gray Heron

Robert Pattinson plays The Gray Heron in The Boy and The Heron. Pattinson was considered an odd casting at first, but managed to pull it off really well.  GKIDS’ Director of Acquisitions and Development Rodney Uhler recalls to IndieWire, “When we introduced the film to him, he was, I would say, giddy with excitement. He was nothing but enthusiastic about the project, not only because of the film but also because of the prospect of doing this role in particular. We didn’t offer him a platter of roles — we offered him only the Heron, and he was very, very excited about being presented with a role as complicated and nuanced as this one.”

“He knew he could do it,” Uhler said, “and he showed up and delivered magic.”

3. Gemma Chan as Natsuko

Gemma Chan plays Natsuko in The Boy and the Heron. Natsuko is the aunt of Mahito Maki and married his father after the death of his mother (and her sister).

4. Christian Bale as Shoichi Maki

Christian Bale voices Shoichi Maki, Mahito’s father, in The Boy and the Heron. He returns to Studio Ghibli after lending his voice as Howl in the English dub of Howl’s Moving Castle in 2004 after Japanese actor Takuya Kimura returned to the Japanese version. GKIDS president Dave Jesteadt told IndieWire, “It was a big deal for them that the actor who played Howl in Howl’s Moving Castle returned as Mahito’s father, and they told us it would be great if we were able to do a similar stunt. So we tried to do that as much as possible with people who had appeared in previous dubs.”

5. Karen Fukahara as Lady Himi

Karen Fukahara plays Lady Himi in The Boy and the Heron. As a native Japanese speaker, she talked about the process of dubbing. “For dubbing,” Fukuhara told IndieWire, “I usually try to emanate the essence of the original voice cast because I believe that’s why they were chosen in the first place, and so I was trying to match Lady Himi’s voice because I thought that was what I was being called upon to do. But eventually, Michael said, ‘That sounds too Japanese.’ The way I was saying the words, and also my reactions. He asked if we could make it more Americanized, and in doing so he gave me permission to fly free and really put my own twist on it. He pushed me to be more emotional — more vulnerable — than the original recording.”

6. Florence Pugh as Kiriko

Florence Pugh voices Kiriko and an old woman in The Boy and The Heron. Ulher described how Florence had the essence to voice twho characters, “That was one of the parts we were most scared of casting,” Uhler told IndieWire, “because it’s both an emotional heartbeat and a comedic highlight, and Florence spoke so authentically to both of those aspects. She did a phenomenal job.”

7. Mark Hamill as Granduncle

Mark Hamill voices Grand Uncle in The Boy and the Heron. An iconic voice actor for The Joker and Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hamill returned to voice another Studio Ghibli character after lending his voice to Muska in Castle In The Sky.

8. Wilem Dafoe as The Old Pelican

Willem Dafoe plays The Old Pelican in The Boy and the Heron. He previously played the villainous Lord Cob in Goro Miyazaki’s much-derided Tales from Earthsea.

9. Dave Bautista as The Parakeet King

Dave Bautista plays The Parakeet King in The Boy and the Heron. It’s very cool to get a sneak preview of a new Miyazaki movie,” he told IndieWire, “and to be in the mix for what might potentially be the last one is just epic”

10. Dan Stevens, Mamoudou Athie, and Tony Revolori as The Parakeets

Dan Stevens, Mamoudou Athie, and Tony Revolori provide the English dubbing for the Parakeets in The Boy and the Heron.

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