Mar 13, 2024

Life After the Oscars: "The Boy and the Hare" Will Head to the Max after Japanese and U.S. Theatrical Re-release

Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Hare" will be re-released in cinemas in Japan and the United States after winning this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Feature over the weekend.

GKIDS, Ghibli's North American distributor, tweeted that "The Boy and the Hare" will be "celebratory re-released" in North American theaters. Heron is GKIDS' biggest release ever by any metric we can think of: the highest grossing film in GKIDS history and the first film distributed by the company to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature after 13 nominations.

Interestingly, Toho, the film's Japanese distributor, will release an English dubbed version featuring A-list stars Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Defoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh The film will be re-launched in Japan on March 20. The film will be screened again in Japan on March 20.

Warner Bros. Discovery has extended its streaming deal with producer Studio Ghibli; Max, and before the name change, HBO Max, have been streaming Ghibli's full catalog since 2020.

Other Ghibli titles that will continue to stream on Max include:

Elizabeth Bannan Atcheson, WBD's Vice President of Content Acquisition, stated in a release:

Our subscribers are always looking for unique stories, and our award-winning and acclaimed award-winning and critically acclaimed works, and we are pleased to add The Boy and the Hare to our deep and rich Max content offering."