Why Studio Ghibli changed The Boy and the Heron’s title
“The Boy and the Heron” is the new title requested by the Studio Ghibli producer – here’s why he decided on this title.
Originally titled ‘How Do You Live?’ for its Japanese release. It was supposed to be Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, but the director decided to continue his career after its success. The reason behind the title change remained unknown until recently.
Why was the title of The Boy and the Heron changed?
In an interview with IndieWire, GKIDS President Dave Jesteadt explained: “There was a total press blackout on the film in line with the release in Japan, but because of our long relationship with Ghibli, we asked if we would be able to announce that we had the rights, as we needed to be able to set up a big fall release.”
“It was at that time that Suzuki asked for a title change. The call came from inside the house. I can’t speak to the exact reasons for the title change, but I think there was a desire to move away from the name of the book, as people were constantly mistaking the movie for an adaptation.”
The film has the same title as the 1937 novel that inspired Miyazaki. However, since the story is different, Studio Ghibli decided to change the title. In the same interview, Jesteadt also spoke about how they went through several potential titles. “We talked about ‘The Tower Master’ or ‘The Grand Uncle’, and our feeling was that they felt a little too much like hard fantasy.”
“We tried a lot of different permutations of ‘How Do You Live?’ but ended up choosing the option closest to Suzuki’s original suggestion.” He also revealed there’s a hidden meaning behind the new title: “Miyazaki based the characters in this movie on people in his life…and the heron is based on Suzuki. To me, there’s something very meta and very funny about this heron — this trickster — inserting himself into the situation and suggesting we give the movie an international title [with his name in it].”
We see someone, and slowly zoom in as they sit at a table about to write a masterpiece.
Pen to the paper, their hands tremble but it feels maybe the world is trembling instead.
Word by word a story is jotted down, and names are given to miraculous beings.
To continue this story we need to go back in time, to how these kinds of people were made in the first place.
humans evolved from cavemen, etc etc, as you keep going back you reach ancestry of fish beings, then fungi, and from an exploding star...
or that's too far back.
Eltoretto,
This is Eltoretto,
He was born into an average life in Kaloota, what you may call a first world country. When he was young
he was inspired and taught by artists before him, but none of them were published artists.
Eltoretto learnt to shade like none ever before, his talent seemed like a magic trick, entertaining all those in his schools.
He gave life to a piece of paper which then lighted up the neurons of many around him. It was the inception of him carrying out inception
on others.
Over the decades he mastered these skills, and published his work all over the world. 10s of thousands of prints of his art hang on the walls of the people. Books with his art in book shelves. A big feat. but the importance of this is what was drawn on those pieces of paper.
The artwork resonated deeply with the people as if it was the truth, as if it was contact from the universe or contact from a higher consciousness. It was forgotten that a human created this because of how profound the story was. The artist was eventually forgotten as time does, but the creation of the artist remains intact on the walls and the bookshelves of the people.