Earwig and the Witch

 

Earwig and the Witch (2020) is a Studio Ghibli/NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) co-production, and as such was first shown on Japanese television before being released in theatres. It was based on Diana Wynne Jones’ last published book; Ghibli had previously had great success adapting her novel Howl’s Moving Castle. It is also the studio’s first CGI animated feature and was directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hiyao Miyazaki’s son; Goro also directed Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill.

Poor Earwig. Released at the height of Covid-19, shown on TV first before a theatrical release, and making less than a million dollars in the total world-wide box office, it was also the first Ghibli film since Whispers of the Heart that was not tied to Disney for its distribution. Critics almost universally decried it as looking plastic and inexpressive compared to the painterly 2D animation of ‘classic’ Ghibli productions.  And the consensus was that Goro Miyazaki was no patch on his old man. I believe you could look up ‘anxiety of influence’ and find his picture there. He can’t do anything like Hiyao without seeming like a copycat or anything different without seeming to betray the nostalgic Ghibli aesthetic. In consequence of such reviews, I went in with no high expectations but with the impulse to be a completist.

I was pleasantly surprised. Its quality was equal if not superior in places to the best CGI animations. The only technical point that I found distracting was that the mouths of characters did not always track with what they were saying, but that was possibly the re-dubbing from Japanese into English. Other peculiarities of character design might seem odd or unrealistic, but these are simply conventions of the animation art form rendered into an unfamiliar format. In the words of the old song, “It's a waste of time to worry over things that they have not; be thankful for/
the things they've got.” 

In Diana Wynne Jones’ original book, Earwig is an orphan of unknown parentage, a strong-willed child whose crafty manipulation of those around her makes her the secret boss of all she surveys. When she is adopted against her wishes by the witch Bella Yaga and a disguised demon called the Mandrake to be essentially their new slave, her talent for adapting to her surroundings and learning magic soon puts her in charge in her new home as well. In the new overlaid backstory for the movie, Bella Yaga, the Mandrake, and Earwig’s mother had all been members of a magical rock band which had broken up most acrimoniously; it is Earwig’s eventual destiny to try to heal that rift.

If there is a weakness to the film, it is an inadequate explication (even if it only sufficiently implied) of the mechanics of the connections. Did Bella Yaga know who Earwig was before they adopted her, or was it just a chance? Why did Earwig’s mother think it necessary to abandon her in an orphanage in the first place? And so on, and so forth.

One can see, if one wishes, common tropes shared with Harry Potter or Coraline, and think that they are ‘copied’ therefrom, even though these motifs are almost as old (or older) than literature itself. Earwig must be judged on how well and how interestingly they are used and blended.

The film credits roll with still drawings of the aftermath of the story. Here we can get a glimpse of what Earwig might have looked like if it were more traditionally animated. Would it have been better, or better received, if it had been done so, I cannot say. I can only say that, if it is not a masterpiece or an ‘instant classic’, it is a hugely engaging entertainment, and one I am glad to have taken a chance on.