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The Boy and the Beast's English Dub Cast, March Opening Announced

FUNimation Entertainment announced the English dub cast and the March 4 theatrical opening of Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast film on Tuesday.

Funimation mentioned that it is working closely with Hosoda to develop the English dub. The original Japanese cast and the English dub cast includes:

• Aoi Miyazaki and Luci Christian as Kyuta (Young)
• Shōta Sometani and Eric Vale as Kyuta (Teen)
• Kōji Yakusho and John Swasey as Kumatetsu
• Suzu Hirose and Bryn Apprill as Kaede
• Sumire Morohoshi and Monica Rial as Chico
• Lily Franky and Alex Organ as Hyakushubo
• Yō Ōizumi and Ian Sinclair as Tatara
• Kazuhiro Yamaji and Sean Hennigan as Iozen
• Haru Kuroki and Morgan Berry as Ichirohiko (Young)
• Mamoru Miyano and Austin Tindle as Ichirohiko (Teen)
• Momoka Ōno and Brittney Karbowski as Jiromaru (Young)
• Kappei Yamaguchi and Josh Grelle as Jiromaru (Teen)
• Kumiko Asou and Jessica Cavanagh as Kyuta's Mother
• Keishi Nagatsuka and Chuck Huber as Kyuta's Father
• Masahiko Tsugawa and Steve Powell as Lord

Funimation describes the film:

When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he's taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who's been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely pair will be put to the ultimate test—a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.

The Fantasic Film Festival in Austin hosted the U.S. premiere of the film with English subtitles in September. Laemmle's Music Hall theater in Beverly Hills, California also screened the film for a week last month.

The film debuted at #1 in the Japanese box-office on July 11 and earned 667,035,100 yen (about US$5.4 million) in its first two days. It eventually surpassed the total box office earnings of Hosoda's previous film, Wolf Children. The film was the second-highest grossing domestic film in Japan in 2015.

Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. The film is Hosoda's first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project. Masakatsu Takagi (Wolf Children) scored the soundtrack.

Yen Press licensed the film's novel and manga adaptation, and it will release the novel and the first volume of the manga on February 23.

American theater chain AMC briefly listed the film with a February opening, but is now listing the film for March 4. The Laemmle theater chain in California and the Amherst Cinema theater in Massachusetts are also listing that the film will open in these theaters on March 4 and March 5, respectively. Theatrical screenings have also been set for France, and the major French movie studio Gaumont is handling international sales outside Asia. Funimation is working with Gaumont International to release the film.

The film was submitted for nomination in the Animated Feature Film category of the 88th Academy Awards, but it did not receive one.

Thanks to getmorerw for the news tip.