There are some nice touches here and there, like the whirling little demons with batwings who are devoted to Mandrake. But the script ignores all the interesting bits of the story – who are the witches chasing Earwig’s mum and how does she shake them off? How does Earwig feel about being abandoned? Since the last Studio Ghibli release five years ago I’ve become a parent. I used to roll my eyes when friends said how much their young kids loved Ghibli films – sceptical that the slow bits and big complicated feelings would keep little ones entertained. Then I saw it first-hand – the dreamy faraway look on my four-year-old’s face watching When Marnie Was There. So this new film is genuinely disappointing. Then one day, much to her disappointment, Earwig gets chosen by a strange pair of foster parents. Upon arrival at her new home, Earwig discovers Bella Yaga is a witch in need of assistance, and the Mandrake is a powerful demon. Despite those two, Earwig finds herself an ally in the charming talking cat Thomas. (I am always here for talking cat characters.) Earwig then sets herself on a journey to either learn magic or escape the house at whatever the cost. How Earwig and the Witch Helped Me Understand the Horror Genre’s Benefits for Kids The spell is a success and Bella Yaga is furious at her extra pair of hands, and casts magical worms that appear in Earwig's room. Because of Earwig's magical resistance, the worms are harmless. Earwig sends the worms through a hole in the wall, which angers Mandrake. In the ensuing chaos, Earwig breaks into Mandrake's room and discovers he and Bella Yaga were members of the band Earwig. Skyline of "St Morwald's Home for Children" in the morning; Goro Miyazaki aimed to reproduce the architecture and setting of England.

Ghibli, Goro Miyazaki Make CG Anime of Earwig and the Witch Novel by Howl's Moving Castle's Diana Wynne Jones". Anime News Network. June 3, 2020. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020 . Retrieved June 3, 2020. Still, deep readings of “Earwig and the Witch” are only so useful given how dramatically inert the movie often is. This may be Goro Miyazaki’s most eccentric feature yet, but it’s also his least engaging. “Earwig and the Witch” doesn’t move the way it should, and that’s lethal when your last name is Miyazaki. With this enthralling book, Jones proves that she is still at the top of her game. Booklist (starred review) In a way, 3DCG animation didn't catch on in the film industry in Japan and I was disappointed with that. In addition, Studio Ghibli was inexperienced in this area. Also, I thought I should take the opportunity, ” explains Gorô. Ghibli is a studio that Toshio Suzuki helped found to produce Hayao Miyazaki's films. However, these two won't be able to continue wearing it forever. Come to think of it, I knew there was no future for the studio if we only made copies of the films of the past: well-made imitations, but copies nonetheless. So, I thought I should make this movie in 3DCG."Ghibli's 1st CG Feature Earwig and the Witch Briefly Listed Cast, Staff, December 30 Debut (Updated)". Anime News Network. November 11, 2020. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020 . Retrieved November 11, 2020. During the Ghibli Not Big exhibition held at the Aichi Arts Center in Nagoya, Gorô Miyazaki gave a press conference on July 27, 2020, announcing his new film and why it was going to be in 3DCG, “I was the only one among the people of Ghibli who knew this method of creation, so I was able to move the project forward without consulting anyone. Hayao Miyazaki told me to go ahead, and producer Toshio Suzuki encouraged me by telling me that it seemed like a good idea. But after that, I was on my own. I was basically the only master on board. So I created the film with a young team and I didn't consult the old guard at all. It's a job that I want everyone to see now." Soon Earwig decides to make the best of her situation, and learn some of the many strange spells that Bella Yaga is working on. She also has an unexpected new ally: the witch's talking cat, Thomas. With his help, she might be able to master enough magic to make Bella Yaga regret ever treating her like a slave... Ghibli's Earwig and the Witch CG Feature Delays Theatrical Release in Japan Due to COVID-19". Archived from the original on April 23, 2021 . Retrieved April 23, 2021.

Aya wurde als Baby beim Waisenhaus St. Morwald ausgesetzt. Aya lebt gerne dort; Alle machen was sie sagt und ihren Freund Pudding mag sie am Liebsten. By no means does Earwig and the Witch prove that all Studio Ghibli films should be animated in CG from here on out. Instead, it opens up a new niche in the genre: Earwig skews younger, while other Ghibli films are often enjoyed by adults and children alike. "Children aren't concerned about whether something is 3D CG or cel animation," Gorô Miyazaki noted to The Los Angeles Times. Older Ghibli fans might be more pleased with Hayao Miyazaki's upcoming (and hand-drawn) film How Do You Live?, but the industry shift to using more frames per second has drastically lengthened the production for those kinds of films (via Entertainment Weekly).

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Original: Rumi Hiiragi, Sakura Ishida, Hiroshi Iwasaki, Yuri Kimura, Farahnaz Nikray, Miyuki Sahaku, Kanon Suzuki, Emi Taniguchi, Akira Tokuda I also watched the studio Ghibly adaptation of this after and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that one either. They experimented with a different type of animation on it and everyone agrees that it was a mistake, because the film looks kind of hideous... On October 13, 2021, it was announced that Netflix had acquired the worldwide streaming rights to the film, except Japan and United States. It was released on the service on November 18, 2021. [38] Reception [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] Using this technique makes it possible to describe very realistic characters and settings. But making a photorealistic animated film wasn't what I wanted to do. So I gave the characters an appearance that resembles that of a full-length animated film, like Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) by the American studio Laika. Take the hair of the characters for example. Instead of drawing them one by one, we created them in pieces to reproduce the volume drawn by Katsuya Kondô, their creator." What a huge disappointment! In the first place, it was a little too Roald Dahl wannabe for me, both text and illustrations. Nothing wrong with Dahl, but we already have him, we don't need a copy.

In 1990s England, a witch leaves her child, Earwig, at St. Morwald's Home for Children. The matron head of the home thinks that the name is unfit for a child and changes it to Erica Wigg. Years later, Earwig is a rambunctious 10-year-old who is very comfortable in an orphanage where everyone does what she wants. She likes living there with her friend Custard and does not want to get adopted. It is based on the 2011 book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, which was translated by Kaoruko Tanaka and published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten in 2012. This is Gorô's third film, after Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill. The story revolves around Erica, a bright, young orphan who pits her wits against her magic-wielding foster parents in a mysterious new home.

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And there’s a while to wait yet for the latest from Miyazaki Sr. Sixty animators are currently working – by hand, naturally – at a rate of one-minute of animation a month on his new film. Speaking last year, a producer said they have 36 minutes in the bag with three years to go. Aside from announcing his new film, Gorô unveiled concept art for the upcoming Ghibli Park. On that same day, a groundbreaking ceremony for the park was held at the Aichi Expo Memorial Park. On July 7, 2020, Studio Ghibli's North American distributor GKIDS announced they had acquired the North American distribution rights to the film and that the film would be set for a theatrical release date of early 2021 in North America. [29] [30] The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (1987) • Miyazaki and Kurosawa Fireside Chat (1993) • Ghibli Was Born This Way: A Birth Story Spelled Out With Reproduced Images (1998) • World Journey of My Memory / Journey of the Heart (1998) • How Princess Mononoke Was Born (2001) • Lasseter-San, Arigato! (2003) • Hayao Miyazaki Produces a CD (2004) • Yasuo Otsuka's Joy of Motion (2004) • Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum (2005) • Ghibli: The Miyazaki Temple (2005) • The Work of Toshio Suzuki (2006) • Scenery of Ghibli (2006) • A Ghibli Artisan – Kazuo Oga Exhibition – The Man Who Painted Totoro's Forest (2007) • How Ponyo Was Born (2009) • Poppy Hill - 300 Days of War Between Father and Son (2011) • Ghibli's Bookshelf (2011) • The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013) • Until The End of The Creation of When Marnie Was There (2015) • Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2016) • NHK Image File: I Want To Meet This Person - Isao Takahata, Animation Film Director (2018) • 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019) In an interview on Deadline, they explains that for Gorô, the process of fleshing out the visual world of Earwig was one of “trial and error,” although heading into the project, he knew how he wanted to use the medium of 3DCG. “With a lot of the animation created here in Japan, the way they use CG, the quality is always based on the approach that was done with hand-drawn animation,” he says. “So, they’re just kind of replacing the process of what they used to do manually, to having the computer do that for them.”

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Pony Canyon on December 1, 2021, making it the first Studio Ghibli movie since the original VHS release of Whisper of the Heart not to have Walt Disney Japan as home video distributor. [27] However, Walt Disney Japan released the film (under license from Pony Canyon) as part of a box set on the same day which contains the non–Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata Studio Ghibli feature films. [28] United States [ edit ] Studio Ghibli's CG-animated film revealed: 'Aya and the Witch' ". EW.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020 . Retrieved July 1, 2020. Directed by Gorō Miyazaki, the film was announced as the first full 3D CG animated film by Studio Ghibli and was scheduled for a television premiere on NHK in late 2020. [12] [13] [14] On June 19, 2020, images from the film were revealed by Miyazaki. [15] Gorō said that his father told him to go with it and Toshio Suzuki encouraged him, but after that he was left on his own and made the anime with young staff and "didn't consult with the old guys at all." He also said that he is the only one at the studio who knows the method of creating CG animation. [4] Music [ edit ]

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The cast includes many prominent morning drama actors such as Kokoro Hirasawa, Shinobu Terajima, Etsushi Toyokawa amd Gaku Hamada. Earwig and the Witch is Studio Ghibli's first 3D animated film. It's disappointingly subpar". Vox. Vox Media. February 3, 2021. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021 . Retrieved June 2, 2021. On February 11, 2021, Toho announced that the film was slated to be released theatrically in Japan on April 29, 2021. This version includes some scenes not shown on the TV broadcast version [22] [23] (but already included in releases of the film outside Japan). [24]