Title: Earwig and the Witch
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Gorô Miyazaki
Starring: Vanessa Marshall, Richard E. Grant, Taylor Henderson
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins

What It Is: When a powerful witch (voice by the amazing Kasey Musgraves) leaves her very small baby she’s named Earwig (Henderson) at an orphanage. Some years later a witch named Bella Yaga (Marshall) and a large male figure who is known simply as The Mandrake (Grant) come to adopt the young witch, though they do not know she is a witch. They soon find out that the crafty little lady is more than they assumed.

What We Think: Man. It is obvious this director thing is not hereditary. At least in terms of this film. Gorô is the son of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. His first two films are pretty good. This however is truly awful. The animation is not good. The decision to go 3D is never a bad one but the designs used here… aren’t great. All of them are aesthetically ugly. Looking at the script it’s all not worth many and the story is as cookie-cutter and easy as it gets. It’s a bore and being an ugly bore makes it even worse. I expect more out of Studio Ghibli. Unoriginality does not become them…hopefully.

Our Grade: D, If the song within the film were not so catchy and great I probably would not have been as kind to this. As it stands though I can’t recommend this even to fans of Ghibli films. It sticks out like a rotting sore thumb. Best to amputate and move on one digit short. Even with all the voice talent here there’s just no substance in the material which is truly sad. Also, it is an atrocious-looking film as I mentioned and that’s a huge sin for an animated piece.