Gkids is bringing two extra Studio Ghibli classics to North American Imax screens, with newly remastered 4K variations of “Whisper of the Coronary heart” and “The Secret World of Arrietty” set for launch on April 21 and Could 19, respectively.
Each movies will display screen in U.S. and Canadian Imax venues of their unique Japanese language with subtitles, in addition to in English-dubbed variations.
The releases lengthen the continuing Gkids-Imax collaboration, which in December expanded its scope to convey a slate of newly remastered Ghibli titles to North American audiences solely by Imax. “Kiki’s Supply Service,” the newest title within the sequence, is ready to display screen in 4K remaster starting March 13. “Princess Mononoke,” which launched the present remaster run earlier in 2025, turned the second-highest-grossing vault launch in Imax historical past.
“Whisper of the Coronary heart” (1995), directed by Yoshifumi Kondo from a screenplay and storyboards by studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, relies on the manga by Aoi Hiiragi. The approaching-of-age story follows Shizuku, a younger dreamer whose probability encounter with a mysterious cat leads her towards self-discovery, with an aspiring boy named Seiji and an enchanted cat figurine referred to as The Baron shaping her path.
“The Secret World of Arrietty” (2010), directed by Academy Award nominee Hiromasa Yonebayashi from a screenplay by Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa – who additionally labored on venture planning – adapts Mary Norton’s beloved youngsters’s novel “The Debtors.” The movie follows Arrietty, one among a race of tiny individuals who reside hid beneath the flooring of a human family, after she is noticed by a boy named Shawn and the 2 forge an sudden bond. The English dub options the voices of Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Moises Arias and Carol Burnett.
The 4K remastering course of throughout the sequence is being overseen by Atsushi Okui of Studio Ghibli, a veteran whose involvement with the studio stretches again to “Porco Rosso” in 1992. He most lately served as director of digital imaging on Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning “The Boy and the Heron,” the primary Ghibli title to obtain an Imax launch. Gkids and Imax have been partnered since 2021.
Gkids handles North American distribution for the Studio Ghibli library throughout all launch codecs and platforms, and has run the annual Ghibli Fest month-to-month theatrical program – which screens throughout greater than 1,000 venues nationwide – since 2017.
