Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that gave us My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and many others, was one of the last holdouts preserving the art and beauty of hand-drawn animated films in the CGI era.
Earwig and the Witch (2020), developed by studio creator and star filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki but directed by his son, Goro, is the company's first foray into the 3D-style CGI animation that Pixar has made into the industry standard.
The results are lackluster, at least compared to their animation legacy, but modestly entertaining. Earwig is a plucky orphaned girl adopted by a witch named Bella Yaga, who sees the girl as nothing more than "a second pair of hands" to help her prepare the ingredients for her spells.
Also living in their magical home is the mysterious, intimidating Mandrake, a demonic writer with a short temper and small army of imps to do his bidding, and a talking black cat named Thomas, who offers to help Earwig create her own spells in secret. It's based on a story by Diana Wynne Jones, who also wrote Howl's Moving Castle, and its adventurous, daring preteen heroine recalls Kiki's Delivery Service.
The comparisons don't do Earwig any favors. Produced for television on a smaller budget than the studio's bigger theatrical films, it's a slight piece with little suspense or drama. There are hints of potential stories that come to nothing (including a pop band that Earwig's mother apparently formed with Bella Yaga and The Mandrake many years ago) and the characters don't evolve much as they settle into a kind of easy coexistence.
The designs are distinctly Miyazaki-like and the magical world surrounding Earwig comes alive with inventive and imaginative imagery, but the CGI animation is stiff and flat. The characters all seem to "overact" their facial expressions and the body language and movement lack the expressiveness and personality that defines the previous Studio Ghibli productions.
At 82 minutes, Earwig and the Witch plays more like a sketch than a fully-realized feature film, a footnote to the great films of Studio Ghibli. But it's also an enjoyable fantasy with minor pleasure sprinkled through the meandering story and should appeal to children.
It features both the original Japanese language version and an English language version featuring the voices of Dan Stevens as Thomas, the cat, Richard E. Grant as The Mandrake, and Kasey Musgraves singing the featured pop tune, "Don't Disturb Me."
The Blu-ray and DVD from Shout! Factory includes the half-hour featurette "Creating Earwig and the Witch" (Japanese with English subtitles), interviews with the Japanese voice cast (with subtitles), and trailers and teasers. The Blu-ray also includes full-length storyboards animated to the soundtrack of the film (both Japanese and English versions). A strong option purchase. Aud: E, I, J, K, C, P.