This week sees the North American release of
Earwig and the Witch, the first feature Studio Ghibli has produced in-house in six years. The storied anime studio is back in a new guise, and critics are a little thrown.
Earwig and the Witch is the first cg feature from Ghibli, which built its reputation on lavishly produced hand-drawn features. This fact has excited a lot of commentary in the run-up to the film’s release. It debuts on HBO Max today, having opened in select theaters on Wednesday. Watch the trailer and read the synopsis below:
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.
Earwig and the Witch, it pays to set expectations. Longtime Ghibli fans who go in hoping for a theatrical masterpiece on the order of
Spirited Away are setting themselves up for disappointment, and even expecting one of Isao Takahata’s risky Ghibli style experiments is setting the bar too high.
Earwig and the Witch is the first CG feature made under the Ghibli banner, and it’s clearly aimed at small children rather than an all-ages audience. Director Goro Miyazaki consciously chose the small scale and simple story to make the project manageable for the largely freelance team who produced it, while Ghibli’s traditional animators were working on the next project from studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Knowing