How a Birthday Gift to Hayao Miyazaki Became ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Musical Theme
variety.comMichaela Zee With their nearly 40-year history, one would think Hayao Miyazaki could no longer surprise composer Joe Hisaishi.
However, the Japanese animation master did just that when he introduced “The Boy and the Heron” to his longtime musical collaborator.
It wasn’t because Miyazaki was coming out of retirement (once again). Rather, it was how the Studio Ghibli co-founder presented the film to Hisaishi. “The most important part of the process of composing a film is meeting up with the director and trying to decide where the music should be going in which part of the scenes,” Hisaishi tells Variety, via an interpreter. “But he skipped all of those meetings.
We had none whatsoever.” Hisaishi had no access to the storyboards or artwork, and instead watched a nearly complete version of the film in July of 2022.
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