The movie critique portion of this review was written by my colleague Ishmael Hurst.
With the uniform transition of animation giants like Disney and Pixar’s feature films from hand-drawn to fully computer-generated, it’s no great surprise that Studio Ghibli finally budged enough to fall in line. While the 36-year old company has maintained a mostly traditional hand-drawn style for the breadth of its existence, with the changing of the guard comes a change in policy. In many ways, Earwig and the Witch serves as a symbolic passing of the torch from the studio’s co-founder and most celebrated creator Hayao Miyazaki to his son, Goro Miyazaki, the film’s director. The senior Miyazaki has been intermittently retired since 2013, having returned twice now to work on new projects, but with Ghibli’s latest effort the reins seem to have passed in full.
Earwig and the Witch is, at surface, a glowing tribute to the studio’s most beloved works. The film is self-aware in its archetypical retraces: an unshakably determined and resourceful young girl finds herself sprung from mundanity into the esoteric unknown, struggles against wicked, mean-spirited authority figures (who may prove to be mere misunderstood curmudgeons), and perseveres through sheer will and good nature.
The story’s engrossing and fast-paced opening intrigues us with the mysterious circumstances of Earwig’s (Taylor Paige Henderson) past. After a visually marvelous midnight witch hunt with a motorcycle in lieu of broomstick, the witch in question, revealed to be Earwig’s mother (Kacey Musgraves), leaves her swaddled babe in the care of an orphanage in the British countryside. The stranding is clearly one of necessity- Earwig needs protection and anonymity, though the threat is never well defined.
Earwig, renamed Erica Wigg by the orphanage’s sensible matron, grows into a youth unaware and ambivalent of her origins. She is clever, crafty and ungovernable, but most of all content. She eats as well as she wishes, incites mischief with her friends unpunished, and garners adoration from her easily played caretakers. The last thing she wants is to be adopted, which is exactly what the story provides to move itself along. “Erica” is taken in not as a daughter, but as an “extra pair of hands” to assist the working witch Bella Yaga (Vanessa Marshall) and to cook breakfast for the Mandrake, a shadowy and reclusive aspiring novelist. Earwig’s animators have oodles of fun with the brooding, demonic figure of the Mandrake. Though depicted as a pale, hunched, vaguely villainous grouch hidden behind pitch-black shades, he oozes magical potency and barely bridled wrath. The world twists, bends and burns around him. Earwig is warned to never, ever, disturb his writing, as the slightest bother might conjure unspeakable horrors. [Spoiler Alert: she disturbs him.]
Earwig only agrees to be adopted into laborious servitude on the condition that Bella Yaga instructs her in magic, a pact which the bitterly cruel older witch immediately reneges upon. Here, in the direst conditions, Earwig shines as a true Ghibli protagonist, though an especially wily one. She toils and schemes a way to turn the situation in her favor. The only reprieve she finds in the meantime are some old tapes of a band that shares her name, Earwig, with which she quickly becomes fixated. She also finds a companion and cohort in Thomas, Bella Yaga’s disenfranchised talking cat. Somehow, the viewer never doubts that her determination will win in the end.
For most of its screen time, Earwig is engaging and easy to enjoy. The CGI animation has a few outstandingly creative moments (anything Mandrake-related comes to mind), though some things are lost in the transition; most noticeably, facial expressions are often stiff, if not frozen. This is a special disappointment, as Ghibli’s characters have always featured a magnificent and unique range of expression. The soundtrack manifests as a plot device in the form of Earwig the band, which effectively establishes a spirit of magic and elation. The film’s only unequivocal misfire is in its last act, which comes about just as the plot seems to climb, and comes to an abrupt stop that might leave one wanting more than the story has to offer.
Ultimately, whether you celebrate its merits or lament its shortcomings, Earwig is worth watching because, in a somber way, it is an instrument of Studio Ghibli’s swan song. As of February 2021, Ghibli’s general manager has announced that the animation studio is shutting down permanently. Though they first halted production after Hayao Miyazaki’s initial retirement in 2013, it is assumed this closure is absolute. The torch is passed. The future is now. The times are a-changin’.
While viewed as an artistic traditionalist, director Goro Miyazaki’s father Hayao has long come to terms with the digital wave that is changing the landscape of his medium. In 2018, he released Boro the Caterpillar, a short film made entirely with CGI. While working on the project, he expressed optimism about the future of his beloved art form:
“I have ideas I may not be able to draw by hand, and this may be a way to do it—that’s my hope.” Still, while sketching the layout for the film by hand for his team to follow, he pondered a time when even that skill, and the entirety of his illustrative talent, may be made obsolete. “We can’t stop CGI from taking over animated films… I did such a detailed layout not because I don’t trust them, but I want them to create something even better.”
Video Quality
Earwig and The Witch comes to Blu-Ray with a dazzling and vibrant 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The colors present in this transfer are practically leaping off the screen with the wide range of hues permeating the frame. This vividness is where the film truly shines. Black levels are very strong with no hint of compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. The animation style lends itself to nice textures and details, along with very fluid character movements. This is, of course, not as detailed as the traditional hand drawn animation, but it is quite striking nonetheless. There is some very minor banding against some harsher gradients, but overall this is a transfer free of major encode issues. This is a stunning Blu-Ray presentation that should more than please fans of the film.
Audio Quality
This release boasts a pair of immersive DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks in the original Japanese and English dub that really pack a punch. While you should listen to your personal preference, we always advocate to listen to the original audio track with subtitles. There is a significant amount of activity in the low-end due to the various music sequences and other kinetic moments. Dialogue comes through clearly without getting overwhelmed by any competing sound effects or score. The music in the film is very effective in stirring up powerful emotions that make the film feel alive. The track engages all of the channels with panning effects and environmental sounds that sell a fully fleshed-out world. Shout! Factory has delivered a crackerjack audio presentation that brings this story to life quite nicely.
Special Features
- Feature-Length Storyboards: An option to view the entire film in storyboard form, which is the closest this story will ever get to looking like a “classic” Studio Ghibli film.
- Creating Earwig and The Witch: A 30-minute interview in which Director Goro Miyazaki, Producer Toshio Suzuki and various members of the crew discuss the creation of the story, the importance of music in the film, Earwig as an inspirational character, making a film in 3DCG, having the film set in England and more interesting tidbits.
- Interviews with Japanese Voice Cast: A 16-minute interview with the Japanese cast members in which they discuss the audition process, their experience working on the film, traits of their characters, what it was like to work with Studio Ghibli, the music in the film and more.
- Trailers & Teasers: Seven minutes of trailers and teasers in English and Japanese.
Final Thoughts
Earwig and The Witch is a film that will naturally put longtime Studio Ghibli fans on guard due to the shift away from traditional hand drawn animation. While the film does not come close to touching the greatness of these cinematic classics, there is plenty to appreciate in this new story. The message at the heart of the film is one that will resonate with many, and the film is a visual delight in its own way. Shout! Factory has provided a Blu-Ray with a knockout A/V presentation and some great special features. We miss the hand drawn 2-D animation as much as anyone, but this story also has many charms that you should not miss. Recommended
Earwig and The Witch will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack (Steelbook or Standard), DVD and Digital on April 6, 2021.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Shout! Factory and Studio Ghibli have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.