The Boy and the Heron trailer finally revealed

4 months after its July release in Japan, we’ve finally got the first trailer for The Boy and the Heron. And it was worth waiting for.

The trailer, tweeted by Elysian Film Group, is packed with mysterious, dreamlike visuals. With Ghostbusters 4 trailer teased in a cryptic tweet recently, it pays to keep your eyes on X.

There’s a boy covered in a carpet of frogs, a sleeping woman melting into a puddle, and a sprinting business man wielding a glowing blue samurai sword. What does it all mean? Good question.

Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli haven’t done much promotion for the film, preferring to let it speak for itself. The general gist concerns Mahito, a 12-year-old boy in mourning after his mother's death. When he meets a talking heron that tells Mahito his mother his still alive in a different dimension, he goes in search of her through a portal in an abandoned tower.

While it’s best to go in without knowing too much about the film, one thing’s likely: coming from the studio that brought you Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke, it probably won’t suck.

And, with the July release scoring a Ghibli-best 1.83B yen ($13.2M) debut - impressive given the lack of PR and international ticket sales - The Boy and the Heron looks on track to out-perform previous efforts such as Ponyo and The Wind Rises.

The Boy and the Heron releases in cinemas December 26.