Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke screens in 4K in US IMAX theaters starting March 2025

Modified Mar 11, 2025 19:30 GMT

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 saw GKIDS officially announce that Studio Gihblio and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke anime film would be getting a run in US IMAX theaters. The version of the film shown will be a 4K restoration, premiering in select American IMAX theaters starting on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.

Tickets for the limited-time Princess Mononoke 4K restoration run are on sale now, but information on when the run will end is currently unavailable as of this article’s writing. The film is at least confirmed to screen with an English dub, the confirmed cast members of which would suggest it is the original 1999 dub being affixed to the restored visuals.

Princess Mononoke 4K restoration to screen with original 1999 English dub

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As mentioned above, the upcoming limited-time Princess Mononoke 4K restoration will screen with an English dub. Several cast members for the dub have already been confirmed, all of whom are reprising their roles from the original English dub. The upcoming run’s English dub cast includes Gillian Anderson as Moro, Billy Crudup as Ashitaka, Claire Danes as San, Minnie Driver as Lady Eboshi, Jada Pinkett Smith as Toki, and Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo.

While these are the only confirmed cast members for the upcoming run as of this article’s writing, this nevertheless suggests the upcoming run’s dub will be the original from 1999. GKIDS has also confirmed that the film will screen with the original Japanese dub and English subtitles as well. GKIDS also began streaming a special trailer for the upcoming run, which featured the 4K restoration footage.

GKIDS also shared information on the restoration process for the film, which was “overseen by Studio Ghibli’s own Atsushi Okui” who has been with the studio since 1993. Since joining, Okui has been involved “in nearly every major Studio Ghibli project.” His most recent credit with Ghibli was as the Director of Digital Imaging on the Academy Award-winning film The Boy and the Heron.

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Coincidentally, or rather not so, The Boy and the Heron was also the studio’s first film to screen in IMAX format. This is likely why Okui was picked to oversee the 4K IMAX restoration of the iconic film, but GKIDS doesn’t confirm this in their X (formerly Twitter) post thread. Okui was also notably the cinematographer of the original 1997 version of the film.

The Princess Mononoke anime film originally premiered in Japanese theaters on July 12, 1997. Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed the film, which is considered one of his and Studio Ghibli’s best. The film is also a first for Miyazaki’s career in its combination of CGI and hand-drawn animation. The film is a historical fantasy set during the Muromachi period of Japanese history, which spanned from roughly 1336 to 1573.