Studio Ghibli has been a force in the animated world since the 1980s. How good are they? Well, in a recent comparison, Their bench of movies is on par with Disney and Pixar: high, but well deserved praise. Because Isao Takahata has passed away and Hayao Miyazaki has retired. The burden of the Studio’s future has fallen upon Hayao’s son Goro, the weakest director of the 3. Helming the one misfire from the studio, Goro decided it was time to push Ghibli into the CGI animated world. If Earwig and the Witch represents the future of Studio Ghibli, then their years of animated excellence are over.
Earwig (Taylor Paige Henderson) is an orphan, dropped off under mysterious circumstances. While that might cripple most kids, Earwig is flourishing, enjoying her perceived “queen of the orphanage” status. Despite her best efforts, Bella Yaga (Vanessa Marshall) and the Mandrake (Richard E. Grant) adopt Earwig and bring her home, where a world of potentially magical and nefarious experiences await the plucky young girl.
The best of the Studio Ghibli films carry a sense of wonder about them, and also tapping into feelings that people have at some point in their lives. The worlds and the characters are complex and interesting too. All of that is missing in Earwig. All majesty is gone the minute you start watching this 1994 CGI film. Ghibli must be starting from the ground up, because the design of the world and characters looks right out of some 3D imager, and when the characters speak, the dialogue is horribly mismatch like a bad dubbing. Not a great start. The setup is promising though: headstrong heroine gets adopted by disinterested couple with magical powers. Very Tim Burtoney: I would have rather had Laika Studios give this story a try. Instead, Goro Miyazaki spends a majority of his time isolating the movie into 3 constrained rooms inside a house, repeating a pattern of: Earwig is excited to do magic, Bella refuses to teach her and gives her chores instead, and Earwig gets mad, which makes the Mandrake mad. By the third time this happens, we’re almost an hour in, waiting for SOMETHING to happen, as none of the main characters have kept our interest in any way. Being an hour in, the movie then tries to wrap up all the mystery surrounding Earwig, the Mandrake, and Bella in about 20 minutes with rushed flashbacks and a wholly unsatisfying ending that promises more stories that no one will want to see.
You know what a CGI kids movie that takes place in 3 rooms and bores the life out of everyone is called? Trolls. But at least that movie had a banger of a song for 3 minutes. Earwig can’t even manage that. Poor Goro. Living up to your legendary father has to be hard. If I were him, I’d consider hiring Makoto Shinkai and producing his stuff. That dude carries the Ghibli mantle at the moment.