Hello and welcome,
If you happened to watch my update video you will know that I have made a New Year’s resolution to watch, and review, all of the major released animated movies this year. Our first one of the bunch is Earwig and the Witch from Studio Ghibli. If you are unaware of this studio, they are a Japanese studio that has made some of the most legendary animated movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro, just to name a few.
Background
To let you guys know, the 3 movies that I mentioned above were all directed by Hayao Miyazaki but this movie, however, is not, but instead is directed by his son, Gorō Miyazaki. Goro has directed two other movies, Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill. If you are wondering my thoughts about these two, Tales from Earthsea I thought was meh, and I have not yet seen the other one. The movie we have here is the first CGI from Studio Ghibli. Apparently, Goro had to work with a whole bunch of amateur artists with the medium. Allegedly Miyazaki encouraged Goro to do this movie in CGI but then offered no help (which is very “on brand” for Miyazaki).
Plot
A witch drops a baby girl (Earwig) off at an orphanage and the baby grows up there until she is about nine or ten years old. She is then adopted by another witch named Bella Yaga, and a demon named Mandrake but does not want to go because she does not want to leave her friend. They adopt her to be simply an extra pair of hands to serve them.
Opinion
For the record, I am reviewing the English dub. One thing I will say about the animation is Studio Ghibli’s first attempt at CGI is not a total embarrassment, but I have seen better and the animation looks like it is better suited for TV (to be fair though, in Japan, ironically, it first premiered on TV before going to theatres).
To get some positives out of the way, the music is pretty decent. I really do like some of the characters, particularly Mandrake and I really wish we had more of him. The English voice cast was good (I can obviously not speak to the Japanese cast).
Now we, unfortunately, have the negatives. The movie is too short, at just under 90 minutes, making it one of the shortest Studio Ghibli films. Most of the movie takes place in the witch’s house, more-or-less in the parlor (as in where the potions are made). There is a mystery about Earwig’s mom, but that is barely glanced at, and we only start discovering it in the last 5 minutes. This movie literally ends while starting to get good.
Earwig is completely unlikable. Her only motivation is to get people to do what she wants and there is no change in her character through the course of the movie. Now for the record, the main character does not necessarily need to go through a change. For example, in the Little Mermaid, Arial did not go through a drastic change during the course of the movie (for that reason I would argue that King Trident was the protagonist and not Arial) but she was just likable enough that the audience could root for her. When your protagonist leaves a bad taste in the audience's mouth, right from the start, it is kind of necessary for a character arc, however, this movie, unfortunately, does not do that. To be fair though there are elements of a well-developed character trying to peek through. Just maybe, something got lost in translation but I highly doubt it considering the fact that Studio Ghibli has a very strict no-cut policy on dubs.
For my recommendation, if you are an HBO Max subscriber, it might be worth watching at least once to make your own decision. If you are not a subscriber, this movie is worth casting a disappearing spell on. My rating, and it really pains me to do this, is one and a half stars. I hope this movie is not a sign of what to expect in animation for 2021.
Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™
Mr. Bee
No comments:
Post a Comment