Max Extends Studio Ghibli Deal, Includes The Boy and the Heron

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Max Extends Studio Ghibli Deal, Includes The Boy and the Heron

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced a multiyear agreement with GKIDS, which extends the company’s streaming rights for the Studio Ghibli catalog.

Billed as the “U.S. home” to a number of the animation house’s films since 2020, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is the next Studio Ghibli film to be available for streaming on the platform. The streaming debut date of the hit movie will be announced later this year.

“Our subscribers are always looking for unique stories, and we are happy to continue to offer these award-winning, critically acclaimed films and to add ‘The Boy and the Heron’ to our deep and rich Max content offering,” said Warner Bros. Discovery VP of content acquisitions Elizabeth Bannan Atcheson.

The hand-drawn film follows 12-year-old Mahito as he relocates to a new town after his mother’s tragic demise. As he tries to adapt to his new life, a talking gray heron’s persistent appearance makes his new, strange world grow even stranger.

“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 official synopsis reads.