Ghibli’s ‘Whisper Of The Heart,’ ‘The Secret World Of Arrietty’ Headding To U.S. IMAX With 4K Remasters

Two Studio Ghibli features, including one of the studio’s most underrated gems, are heading to North American IMAX screens this spring in newly remastered 4K versions.

GKIDS, the now-longtime distributor for Ghibli in the U.S., announced that Whisper of the Heart (1995) and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) will each receive one-day-only IMAX special screenings across the U.S. and Canada. Whisper of the Heart will screen on April 21, followed by The Secret World of Arrietty on May 19. Both will be presented in IMAX for the first time, newly remastered in 4K, with showings available in both Japanese with subtitles and English-dubbed versions.

The screenings continue GKIDS’ ongoing collaboration with IMAX to bring classic Studio Ghibli titles to the premium format. Last month, the companies announced similar IMAX screenings for Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Whisper of the Heart stands out as one of Ghibli’s most quietly beloved and too-often overlooked works. Directed by Yoshifumi Kondo from a script and storyboards by Hayao Miyazaki, the 1995 coming-of-age drama follows a bookish middle schooler pursuing her dream of becoming a writer. Unlike many of the studio’s fantasy-driven hits, the film unfolds largely in a grounded suburban Tokyo setting, focusing on artistic ambition, adolescence, and first love.

Though it lacks the spectacle of some of Ghibli’s better-recognized titles, its intimate, character-driven storytelling has earned it a devoted following over the decades.

The second IMAX event spotlights The Secret World of Arrietty, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and adapted from Mary Norton’s classic children’s novel The Borrowers. The film follows a tiny family secretly living beneath the floorboards of a human home, with Miyazaki contributing to the screenplay and project planning alongside writer Keiko Niwa.