Where Can You Stream Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron?”

Highlights

The Boy and the Heron, a Studio Ghibli masterpiece, is critically acclaimed and a financial success, breaking records.
Fans wondering where to stream the film may have to wait, as availability depends on location and streaming platforms.
Despite the delay in streaming options, the film is definitely worth seeing, with high ratings and numerous award wins.

Having been released in October 2023, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron has been a financial success, critically acclaimed, and has broken some box office and award recognition records. With everything going on with the film, the question has inevitably been popping up; where can fans stream it?

Considering the dominance of streaming in the media landscape, this is a logical question to ask. However, the answer is a little more complicated, so let’s get into where to stream it (and when that day might come).

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What is The Boy and the Heron?

Mahito and The Gray Heron in The Boy and the Heron

The Boy and the Heron is the latest (and possibly last) film by acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of a young boy who is grieving the loss of his mother during a bombing in World War II. He goes to live with his father’s new wife (who also happens to be his aunt) and is pulled into another world by a cocky blue heron. In this world, the boy will discover secrets of his past, his family’s past, and a decision he will have to make regarding the future of both. Made specifically for his grandson, The Boy and the Heron is also Miyazaki’s meditation on life and death.

How Do You Live?

Though the film is known as The Boy in the Heron in most international territories, the movie is titled How Do You Live? in Japan, as the movie is partially inspired by Miyazaki’s favorite book. How Do You Live? is a novel written by Japanese author Yoshino Genzaburō, and follows the coming-of-age journey of a young boy named Copper who navigates the complexities of life, relationships, and societal expectations in pre-war Japan.

The story is primarily set against the backdrop of the protagonist’s experiences growing up in Japan during the early 20th century, providing readers with insights into the cultural, social, and political landscape of the time. As Copper grapples with the challenges of adolescence, he learns valuable lessons about friendship, family, and the pursuit of meaning and identity in a rapidly changing world.

Though the characters and situations are very different in Miyazaki’s film, many of the themes and philosophical questions remain in The Boy and the Heron. Never-the-less, How Do You Live? makes for a great companion read after watching the movie.

Is it a Movie Worth Seeing?

Although film is subjective, the overall verdict is yes; the film is VERY much worth seeing. As of this writing, the film has a 97% ‘Fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 250 reviews), with the overall consensus being:

Soulfully exploring thought-provoking themes through a beautifully animated lens,
The Boy and the Heron
is another Miyazaki masterpiece.

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an A- rating. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 91 out of 100 based on 55 critic reviews, indicating “universal acclaim” for the film. The movie has also won a slew of awards from some of the top organizations in the industry, coming in just behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in how many awards an animated film won in 2023.

What are Some of the Awards?

Awards The Boy and the Heron won include (but are not limited to):

The movie also won a couple of Annie Awards and was the runner-up at the Toronto International Film Festival for the People’s Choice Award.

The Boy and the Heron Review

Now in theaters across America, Hayao Miyazaki ambitiously builds off the technical animation skill that has made his films famous the world over.

Where Can You Stream It?

The Conjuring Series Max Streaming Service

GKids (the company that handles the American distribution of the film) has re-released the movie in theaters. Barring the eventual BluRay release, the ability to stream the movie is going to depend entirely on where you live. Internationally, most countries will be able to stream it on Netflix, which acquired the rights shortly after the film won the Academy Award.

If you are in America though, you will have to turn to Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service; Max. In fact, Max is the current home of ALL of Studio Ghibli’s films, with the streaming service renewing its deal with Ghibli for the foreseeable future. In both cases, the exact streaming date is unknown at the moment. If you want to purchase the film though, digital platforms will give viewers the option to rent or purchase the title on June 25th (the BluRay will be released on July 7th for those who want something to put on their shelves).

While this may be frustrating to American viewers (a country where far more people have Netflix than Max), in a way, this is poetic. Producer Toshio Suzuki said that the reason Studio Ghibli finally sold the rights to their film catalog to be streamed was to provide funding for The Boy and the Heron itself. Now, with Max (HBO Max at the time), having provided some of the funding for the film, The Boy and the Heron will be coming home to the company that helped make all this possible.