Earwig and the Witch

Doing his part to keep his father’s work alive and relevant, Gorō Miyazaki steers the Ghibli ship even further away than Yonebayashi dared, resulting in the studio’s most cheerily radical film to date.

The way Earwig (which was actually made for Japanese TV) sacrifices Ghibli’s visual USP is less of a problem than the way it surrenders the studio’s accustomed emotional beats.

There are some moments early on when there are still shots of nature, or slow Ghibli-esque pans across landscapes. But these isolated shots don’t connect to a larger overall mood, characterization, or thematic idea. They feel like pale imitations from a director who knows what Ghibli films do, but not why.

The problem with Earwig and the Witch has more to do with its confused plotting than its more or less serviceable animation.

Frankly, Earwig and the Witch looks ghastly enough that storytelling merit doesn’t even matter. It’s a movie almost too ugly to consider beyond the surface.

Earwig and the Witch has all the parts needed to be a fun and memorable film, but seems to lack the manual for how to bring it all together.

Ultimately, bar some tedious spell-making scenes, nothing happens. Harrowingly poor.

Saw this movie tonight with my girlfriend. Myself, a longtime Ghibli fan, her, only seen one or two, not the biggest fan. We both thoroughly enjoyed Earwig and the Witch! The story is not some sweeping adventure like Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away, it's a small and focused story about a girl's life, the relationships she builds, and how she builds them. It doesn't get into too many specifics in the story or the characters, but I'd argue it didn't need to. They show you what they need to and let you fill in the small gaps with your imagination. It has a level of childlike whimsy to the flow of the story, and I was just completely into that. There were a couple surprise story reveals that as soon as they hit, I just LOVED. For animation, it's 3D, but it looks much better than most regular 3D anime series. I really enjoyed some of the small touches and details. Goo looks gooey, faces deform when touched, wet hair looks like wet hair. I guess maybe the characters look a bit like 3D representations of an old school anime style (if that makes any sense, kinda like the newest Lupin III 2020 movie honestly). The movie ends quite abruptly and leaves many questions unanswered. However this movie is not about a whole chunck of universe building, it is more one section of time in this girl's life. The girlfriend and I were eager to see more for sure, but it is what it is. Definitely see myself purchasing this when I get the chance.

Much has been made about the fact that this is the first non-"traditional" animated feature from Studio Ghibli, and it is definitely missing some of the small details and unexpected moments that really make a Ghibli movie special. Weirdly, there are moments that are beautifully realized. There are specific animations that are pretty spectacular. But surrounded by a lot of stuff that isn't all that great. For the movie itself, I liked it well enough for about 90% of the short run time but then it just... ends? It wraps up so quickly and with no real build-up to the resolution that I was left thinking... what just happened? It's an interesting first effort, probably could've used another 6months in the oven because as it is it just feels underbaked.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Not a real studio ghibli movie. Ghibli movies are (were) beautiful stories hand drawn that bring a lot of emotions, this last one was just a cold computer graphic cheap cartoon. Disappointing.

I could not watch it. Animation felt like something from early 2000s. They should've just stick with 2D.