Norman the Snowman's planetarium shorts reach cinemas on New Year's Day 2027, with Maaya Sakamoto voicing the boy now grown up

For more than a decade, a snowman named Norman has been a winter fixture under planetarium domes in Japan. On January 1, 2027, he moves to ordinary cinema screens: Pony Canyon said on October 22 that Norman the Snowman: Kodomo-tachi no Hitotsuboshi will play at AEON Cinema locations nationwide.

The hour-long stop-motion program is built around the series' brand-new third chapter, which lends the release its title, with condensed cuts of the first two shorts screened alongside it. Those earlier entries, Kita no Kuni no Aurora (2013) and Nagareboshi no Furu Yoru ni (2016), were directed by Takeshi Yashiro and have been shown at more than 120 planetariums. Ayako Hiroki takes the director's chair this time, and TECARAT again builds and animates the puppets.

The new story jumps ahead in time. The boy who once befriended Norman has grown into a young man who no longer lives with his mother; struggling to say what he really feels, he heads back home and is reunited with his snowy companion. Before long, an unfamiliar child begs them to help track down a "snow flower," and all three set off through a deep, snow-buried forest. The full trailer opens on the young man remembering the friend he once had and later reveals an enormous ship.

Norman is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino, the grown-up boy by Maaya Sakamoto, and a balloon pilot by Yuki Kaji. Rina Sato, Hiroshi Nojima and Akio Nojima are among the supporting voices. The main visual shows Norman and his friend looking up at a starry, snowy sky, with the line "Just by being here, you are special."

Advance Mubichike tickets, available from November 13, cost adults 1,400 yen and children 900 yen.