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What is the plot of Earwig and the Witch?
The official synopsis, as shown on the film’s website, reads: “Growing up in an orphanage in the British countryside, Earwig has no idea that her mother had magical powers.
“Her life changes dramatically when a strange couple takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch.
“As the headstrong young girl sets out to uncover the secrets of her new guardians, she discovers a world of spells and potions, and a mysterious song that may be the key to finding the family she has always wanted.”
REVIEW: Earwig and the Witch
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021
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EARWIG AND THE WITCH Lacks That Ghibli Magic
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While Pixar certainly has a brand people trust and recognize, I think it’s fair to say no animation studio has as consistent an output with as wide an appeal as Studio Ghibli. Their films, and specifically those of genius co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, were for a long time some of the only Japanese animated films to find major success and wide acclaim from Western audiences. That said, they’ve certainly felt the pressure to join the 3D CG animation age. Their first endeavor in this arena is
Earwig and the Witch; sadly, it’s a letdown in just about every arena.
When
Goro Miyazaki returned to Studio Ghibli in 2015, he found the offices to be completely empty.
“Nobody was here and it was like storage, very empty,” Miyazaki recalled in an interview with /Film over Zoom ahead of the release of his upcoming movie
Earwig and the Witch. “And I thought, ‘Okay, so I won’t be making films anymore. ”
But it would be just three years later that Miyazaki would get back in the director’s chair once again, for a kind of film that had never been done at Studio Ghibli before: a CG-animated movie.
Earwig and the Witch was always conceived as a computer-animated film, but the Japanese anime industry more often uses that tech as a tool to imitate a cel-shaded/ hand-drawn look, as Miyazaki had recently done in the CG-animated TV series
Earwig and the Witch Pioneers a New Frontier for Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli s first CGI feature sees the passing of the torch from father to son.
Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki is not a fan of computer animation. Often noted is a scene from the documentary
Never-Ending Man, in which he resolutely slams AI-generated CGI animation in particular. His dedication to (and sponsorship of) the artistry of hand-drawn animation is a major part of why Japanese CGI animation technology has been so slow to advance, while the country’s traditional 2D industry flourishes at home and abroad.
It is appropriate, then, that not he but his son,