The story is straightforward but, and it’s a big but, the final act is incredibly rushed. With this in mind, Earwig’s character makes a bit more sense and seeing her twist the adults around her little finger has to be satisfying for kids who, generally, have to abide by grown-up’s wishes. Indeed, the tagline for the Japanese poster above states that she "will not be put under anyone’s thumb". While the lack of development on Earwig’s part doesn’t jive with contemporary western thinking, both the director and Ghibli producer Suzuki Toshio state that they wanted to make her a character that kids could relate to.
His role isn’t major and he serves as catalyst but not much else. The Mandrake and Bella on the other hand, are far murkier and it is with the former that we see a lot of development over the course of the film. Earwig is perhaps the most clear cut as a young, precocious girl who’s used to getting her way and is thrust into a situation where she does not. The characters themselves are an interesting bunch. The original progressive rock songs (another departure for Ghibli) also add an ethereal feel to the film and are used at just the right points and add a layer of depth in conjunction with some character development. Far from a classical film score, this is much more upbeat and contemporary. The music is, for want of a better word, perfect. The house itself (and the Mandrake’s rooms in particular) showcase a real flair befitting (spoiler) his musical tastes. The English countryside is rendered with an incredible accuracy that does match Pixar. If you can focus on what the characters are doing as opposed to how they’re doing it, you’ll be rewarded.īackgrounds and props show a true attention to detail. Adults may notice this, but kids won’t bat an eye. It’s perhaps a conscious decision to make the characters less detailed lest some uncanny valley creep in. If you like silly faces you’re in for a treat. When you see past the rough edges, the animation is actually quite well done. Indeed, the ‘Making of’ featurette shows a rather young but dedicated crew working with off the shelf software. It is not Pixar quality, but then this isn’t a Pixar film and it wasn’t made with Pixar’s crews who have hundreds of years of experience between them, or Pixar’s hundreds of millions of dollars either.
The animation has come in for a lot of criticism that is, in my opinion, unwarranted and unfair. There aren’t many higher themes or deeper meanings but that isn’t to say that there aren’t any takeaways either. The crew strike out on a different path from previous Ghibli films and tell a pretty straightforward story in a straightforward manner. 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.Īs I said above, you have to approach this film as a clean slate or you will be disappointed. Her life changes dramatically when a strange couple takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch.
Growing up in an orphanage in the British countryside, Earwig has no idea that her mother had magical powers. The film centres on an orphan called Earwig but endowed with the name ‘Erica’ by the orphanage matron. Earwig and the WitchĮarwig and the Witch is based on the Diana Wynne Jones novella of the same name and is a natural fit for a studio that has both a feature with a young witch protagonist, and an adaptation of another of Wynne Jone’s novels under its belt. Earwig is the studio’s first full-length CGI feature and they should be given some slack for at least trying. Goro (and his producers) are not oblivious to the economics of animated filmmaking and are well aware that CGI presents numerous advantages over traditional animation. Plenty of reviews bemoan that it fails to live up to Ghibli’s best, but that is an improper viewpoint to take because the film purposefully avoids such comparisons.
#Earwig and the witch series
I find he’s a perfectly competent director who’s suffered from a series of unfortunate circumstances least of which is being the son of perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.Įarwig is the first real attempt to depart from Ghibli’s hand-drawn style and it’s essential to approach it as such. Necessary Contextīefore we begin, I have to state that I actually like Goro Miyazaki’s previous films including Tales from Earthsea. NOTE: This is a review for the forthcoming Blu-Ray/DVD combo release from GKIDS and Shout! Factory and not the film as shown on HBO Max.
0 kommentar(er)
