Club Ghibli #22 - Earwig and the Witch (2020)

[Diddy]

The end is near, my dear Ghiblets as we get to the penultimate, and newest, entry in the Ghibli canon. And also the last of our movies from Goro Miyazaki - NO WAIT DON'T GO YET - "Earwig and the Witch" (or "Aya to Majo", lit. "Aya and the Witch")

Previously on Club Ghibli, we left the studio at a crossroads. With the release of "When Marnie Was There" and Hayao Miyazaki's retirement (again), Studio Ghibli's co-founder and long-time producer Toshio Suzuki announced that the studio would take a break to re-evaluate. Speculation abound, Miyazaki added later that this wasn't the end of the studio, just his retirement (until he came out of retirement in 2017 to start work on as-yet-unreleased "How do you live?" ).

Until then, however, it looked dicey. Several of the artists had started their own Studio Ponoc, including "Marnie" and "Arrietty" director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Studio Ghibli co-produced the acclaimed "The Red Turtle", and then "Earwig and the Witch" was announced as another co-production, this time with Japanese national broadcaster NHK, with Goro Miyazaki at the helm.

In addition, it was originally conceived as a TV movie (though it received a theatrical release in 2021), and it would also be Ghibli's first totally 3D CG movie. Goro had experience with CG, directing the 2014 Ghibli TV series "Ronja, the Robber's Daughter" (which I have downloaded but not watched yet because I'm worried it might be gash). Free from the oversight of the old guard, but with their blessing, could this be a new chapter in the Ghibli story?

Speaking of stories, I haven't seen this one, but Wikipedia helpfully tells me this is another Diane Wynne Jones adaptation (after "Howl's Moving Castle"), and tells the story of a witch's child, Earwig, who is left at a children's home, and eventually adopted by another witch as a source of cheap labour - I don't want to read the ending so let's hope something good happens.

Something good did NOT happen with the critics though, the only real critical bomb for Ghibli, but what do they know?



HOW THIS WORKS

In a semi book club format, the films will be announced, and over the course of about 2 weeks we can watch it and let everyone know what we thought. We are in the last third of the movies now, so I have decided to curate the last run and not pick the last big ones too soon - we've been really restrained I think so far, so thank you!

I was thinking 2 weeks should be enough time for most people to fit in a viewing at some point, but it's not strict so please come back when you have a chance, no pressure!
@Christian @Gangsta Nancy Lam @jivafox @COB @Haiku @ZenGiraffe @Lucille @KindaCool @Eyes @Queen of the Bay @RaspberrySwirl @RJN @Beverley @big ron @ButterTart @Mats (let me know if you don't want to be tagged any more)

 

[Marina Salty]

Just watched this, I think it's a very decent 8 and my only complaint is that it's too short.
Oh @Diddy where's the poll with the points?

 

[Diddy]

Just watched this, I think it's a very decent 8 and my only complaint is that it's too short.
Oh @Diddy where's the poll with the points?

Oh shit! I was very tired and I still am, I’ll do it when I wake up

And oh shit! I didn’t expect you to watch it in RECORD TIME! maybe this can be a one-weeker and we can have our finale!

 

[Diddy]

Oh never mind @Queen of the Bay it was easy to do on my phone and I thought of a title

 

[Marina Salty]

Oh shit! I was very tired and I still am, I’ll do it when I wake up

And oh shit! I didn’t expect you to watch it in RECORD TIME! maybe this can be a one-weeker and we can have our finale!

Had nothing to do today as I'll be going to the island again so it came in at the right time. What the hell am upgrading it to a 9. It was quite lovely to be honest.

 

[Diddy]

Sounds promising anyway mind you, you liked Earthsea too

 

[Diddy]

I guess it’s short because it was a TV movie - same reason Ocean Waves was short

 

[Marina Salty]

You'll see what I mean, this one is really short. Don't want to spoil any spoilers now so I won't properly review it until you've watched it.

 

[K.C.]

I'm watching this tonight.

It's been such a blast you guys. I loved being there every step of the way

 

[K.C.]

It's the foster child abuse for me. I found it hard to overlook that.

The ending was very sweet but a bit abrupt. Would've loved more.

Also, the animation looks surprisingly cheap. Ghibli is definitely capable of better.

 

[Diddy]

I'm watching this tonight.

It's been such a blast you guys. I loved being there every step of the way

The silent partner! Have you been watching the movies too, or just the threads

Anyway fear not, there’s one more movie, and some bonus bits, and more

 

[Diddy]

WELL!

Curious if @Eyes @Christian or @Peekaboo have partaken in this one

It wasn't as bad as I feared but unlikely to be a classic - I'd definitely put it above Earthsea and possibly above Marnie in the Goro rankings, but that's not very hotly contested

It was kind of a throwback for me - @KindaCool you didn't like the child abuse, which is fair, but she never seemed traumatised, and I grew up on Roald Dahl books so that's what this reminded me of Except in Roald Dahl books, at least the protagonist is likeable. What was the story here? Manipulative brat gets adopted and wants to manipulate the foster parents, and eventually does. I feel like the antagonists get character development, but the Earwig doesn't!

I mean you can't complain TOO much about the story if its an adaptation, but why adapt it? It felt very un-Ghibli (apart from being a random British kids novel, how many have they done now?).

As for the animation, I'm back and forth about it. There was a cognitive dissonance from seeing 3D CG for a Ghibli movie (TBH I even got that a bit for the 2D CG stuff in Spirited Away and Howl) - I would disagree with KC that it looked cheap, at least with everything else in the background - but it was just when it came to the characters' faces, especially Earwig and the orphanarium staff. I was watching the Matron and the other staff lady talking and it felt like one of those Disney Channel CG series. But apart from that (which is kind of a big issue), I thought it looked quite nice and certainly captured the English village look really well.

Maybe I just got used to the old styles - not a bad movie, but perhaps a bad choice of source material and a jarring presentation of their faces.

Don't worry, it'll be back to normal for the next (and final!) one

 

[Marina Salty]

Only a 7?

 

[Peekaboo]

Sorry, I've illegally downloaded this shit but cannot bring myself to watch it. The CGI looks HORRIFIC.

 

[Peekaboo]

I've not yet watched Princess Kaguya which I promised I would and I WILL.

 

[Peekaboo]

Also are we doing The Red Turtle? It's technically a Ghibli you know

 

[Marina Salty]

Sorry, I've illegally downloaded this shit but cannot bring myself to watch it. The CGI looks HORRIFIC.

If you get past those 5 minutes of initial sentiment the cgi is not really that bad, it has character.

 

[K.C.]

@Peekaboo stop being a finicky bitch.

 

[Marina Salty]

Time to review it as well. For the first few minutes I had a problem with the cgi and the general aesthetics.

Spoiler

By the time they do come and pick her up though this problem somehow vanishes and I got to appreciate the visuals thereafter. For the most part i loved the plot. Witches and warlocks and demons and spells and talking cats are very appealing.

Unfortunately the plot element that revolves around the music group and don't disturb me and the name earwig are really wtf and you have to wonder how on earth and why the author put them to the story.
I didn't mind that earwig is not a Saint, she is a child after all, but I did mind the sudden end.
The novel and the film would have been improved a lot if we had less of the music group backstory and more of the war between the 12 witches and also a story progression as to how Earwig made the warlock and his demons to serve her.
Oh also I didn't care about her mom at all no reason to bring her back unless you have a story to tell.

Yet it's a 9, cause I had fun watching and really loved the witchcraft elements and the visuals.

 

[Eyes]

Yeah, I mean, Aya/Earwig herself was fun to watch, but partly due to its length, there's a lot about this plot that probably could have been better.

The CG is pretty standard, and not at all Ghibli, it was good on the British village backgrounds, but not so good on the characters' faces and there isn't a whole lot of ambience either - for a witch's hideout the place doesn't feel lived in.

But like, how. How can she be adopted with no oversight? The orphanage literally doesn't show up again. Why on earth are the witch and the Mandrake abusive if they're friends of her mother? Is that fact even important at all considering it's not mentioned when they talk about the music band and she only shows up at the end? Surely that conflict would be more interesting! How is her life suddenly so perfect at the end after defying them so openly - can this witch not break her own spells or is that particular spell just very OP - and if it's permanent I'd, as a witch, simply put it on at the start of my magic career and never take it off. A lot more unexplained about the house, and background, that feels unsatisfying.

It wasn't boring and yeah, I liked Aya, but the plot suffers from not feeling complete, I'm not sure how much is due to the book since I have no idea about the original, but a lot of this story progression regardless does go from one scene to another rather than feeling natural, either too fast or too slow with unnecessary scenes that weaken the main story throughline.

 

[Diddy]

Yeah, I mean, Aya/Earwig herself was fun to watch, but partly due to its length, there's a lot about this plot that probably could have been better.

The CG is pretty standard, and not at all Ghibli, it was good on the British village backgrounds, but not so good on the characters' faces and there isn't a whole lot of ambience either - for a witch's hideout the place doesn't feel lived in.

But like, how. How can she be adopted with no oversight? The orphanage literally doesn't show up again. Why on earth are the witch and the Mandrake abusive if they're friends of her mother? Is that fact even important at all considering it's not mentioned when they talk about the music band and she only shows up at the end? Surely that conflict would be more interesting! How is her life suddenly so perfect at the end after defying them so openly - can this witch not break her own spells or is that particular spell just very OP - and if it's permanent I'd, as a witch, simply put it on at the start of my magic career and never take it off. A lot more unexplained about the house, and background, that feels unsatisfying.

It wasn't boring and yeah, I liked Aya, but the plot suffers from not feeling complete, I'm not sure how much is due to the book since I have no idea about the original, but a lot of this story progression regardless does go from one scene to another rather than feeling natural, either too fast or too slow with unnecessary scenes that weaken the main story throughline.

Yeah the orphanage stuff is totally true - but I guess you have to just take that as one of those tropey Roald Dahl things - I mean there are witches and demons, you need a certain suspension of reality.

Tbh the spell stuff was fine for me - I guess Bella could break the spell but she didn’t know Earwig/Aya/Erica/Whatever had it? I guess she figured it out but Wormgate had already happened.

The band stuff though, yeah - were they trying to kill her at the start? Did they actually know she was her daughter or was that just a weird coincidence, and they just watched a witch? (Which also was weird because WAS Earwig a witch? She didn’t know any skills and only copied magic words off the cat which made me thing there’s nothing you NEED to be a witch except knowledge?)

And the mum coming back - sure that’s *A* note to leave it on and fine, that’s a choice to finish at that moment with all the possibilities ahead. But then the credits had all those drawings of Earwig with almost everyone except her mum!

I guess I think there was the potential for a better film in there, I didn’t like her much, and the faces looked weird.

It’s sort of the Anti-Kiki