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Earlier this year, Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from filmmaking. The living legend is responsible for such classic Studio Ghibli animated films as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, and his final film, The Wind Rises, was released this year. Just like all other Ghibli films, The Wind Rises gets an English-language dubbed cast to replace the Japanese for a wider audience. This cast was just released and it includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Martin Short, Stanley Tucci, Mandy Patinkin, William H. Macy, Werner Herzog, Mae Whitman, and Elijah Wood.
"We credit the beauty and magic of Mr. Miyazaki's final film for bringing together this phenomenal group of performers," producer Frank Marshall exclaimed.
"What I love about acting is becoming somebody else, and when you're just doing the voice and the animation is providing the visuals, you can really become someone else," Gordon-Levitt, a fan of Miyazaki's work, said when discussing his leading voice role in the film.
USA Today reports:
The historical fantasy casts Gordon-Levitt as Jiro Horikoshi, a young Japanese boy in the early 20th century who dreams of flying with the birds and meeting Italian plane designer Giovanni Caproni (Stanley Tucci). Jiro can't become a pilot due to his poor vision, but as he grows up he becomes an aeronautical engineer who designs the fighter planes that the Japanese would ultimately use during World War II - and has to deal with the emotional consequences of his role in the destruction.
The English dubbed version of The Wind Rises will be released February 21, 2014. Here is the trailer for the film:
