Earwig and the Witch

Studio Ghibli is an animation studio whose consistent quality of enjoyable 2D animated films runs deep within my childhood. Their movies tend to have many similarities to one another such as having either an engaging female protagonist, some coming of age aspects, magic sometimes involved, fantasy elements included, etc. The impact they brought with classics such as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke popularized Japanese animation even further in the West, with one of the founders being famous for his work on them, Hayao Miyazaki (who would go through 1 or 2 periods of retirement in his career). This brings us to Ghibli's first computer animated TV film, Earwig and the Witch, which is based on the novel of the same name and directed by Goro Miyazaki (Hayao's son). This feature was an experiment in their first attempt with something different from their hand drawn efforts and it made its debut on HBO Max. I checked it out to see how it would turn out and it ended up as an incomplete disappointment. 

Note: I decided to watch this in the English Sub after sampling both versions in one of their trailers and felt that the sub felt more natural than the dub.

What's it about? 10 years after being left at an orphanage by a red-haired witch, the story follows that child getting adopted into serving as a different witch's assistant. That kind of premise certainly has fun potential in the directions it can go into. The house she lives in is shown to have some fascinating magic manipulation aspects from one of the characters residing there, which is cool to see. As far as the animation is concerned, it's passable enough for a small scaled TV flick this was intended as with some expressions imitating the style from their hand drawn projects. There are sparks of its potential shown here that allow it a better chance to do more with its premise than something like The Little Things.

However, the execution of what the audience is given leaves so much to be desired since it ends ups being incredibly rushed and a boring slog to watch. The main protagonist falls short in terms of emotional investment as her mean sneaky attitude of wanting others to her bidding makes her unlikable. There is an opening segment featuring the red-haired character that goes unexplored, which feeds into a larger issue. There are interesting plot points that are introduced but aren't delved deeper to make the story for intriguing instead of what we're given. What's provided to the audience is just a repetitive cycle of the child just gathering ingredients for the witch while scheming to get what she wants (all while bottled in the house). That all culminates in an ending that stops abruptly before anything of interest worth watching is seen. 

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Kokoro Hirawasa and Shinobu Terajima. It should be noted that the material for the characters here is incredibly limited so it falls to these voice performers to do what they can. Kokoro does a competent portrayal with a mischievous demeanor that her lead role is primarily aligned with (she sounded like it was fun for her). Shinobu gives a fine performance but struggles the most as her script is the most repetitive and tedious to listen to. Honorable mentions go to Gaku Hamada and Etsushi Toyokawa for both of them providing support roles with unique sparks of flair whenever they are given the chance (not much screen time for them). 

 

Overall Consensus: Earwig and the Witch is a disappointment that falters in exploring its plot elements, makes its lead unlikable, and is tedious to get through, but has decent animation, competent performances, and sparks of potential. ⭑⭑1/2 Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes PG

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Goro Miyazaki. You enjoy Studio Ghibli and are curious about this experiment.

 

Reasons to avoid it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Goro Miyazaki. You enjoy Studio Ghibli but aren't curious about this experiment. You dislike rushed stories that end abruptly and feel very incomplete. You are annoyed by unlikable lead protagonists.