English Language Version

Studio Ghibli, In cinemas from May 28: click here for details

 

Earwig is abandoned on the steps of an orphanage by her mother, a witch. When the infernal comes to adopt her, will she sink or swim?

It’s a particularly brutal reviewer who demands more misery from a children’s film, but you know the old saying: spare the rod, ruin the third act.

The Diana Wynne Jones book Miyazaki Gorō’s latest film adapts was published posthumously and, while nobody with a functioning soul would complain at the presence of one more book from such a glorious writer, there were soft, sad rumbles at the time that it felt slightly unfinished. The end arrived suddenly, abruptly even, and couldn’t help but feel somewhat tacked on. This film follows its source material.

It’s hard not to look to the story of a talented yet emotionally tender child striving to find the acceptance of their elders without sniffing subtext. Certainly, Gorō frequently faces harsher opinion from critics and Studio Ghibli fans alike than his father, Hayao, who is rightly viewed with the sort of affectionate adoration usually reserved for rain-soaked mystical creatures waiting at bus-stops.

This is Ghibli’s first 3D CGI animated movie and its style has come in for a good deal of unfavourable comparison with the studio’s more traditionally produced back-catalogue. Personally I think it’s a beautiful film. The skies are rich, the witches’ hair – a magical feature – luscious and serpentine. The characters act wonderfully, not only Earwig (Taylor Paige Henderson) but the supporting cast of the voluminous Bella Yaga (Vanessa Marshall) the simmering, infernal Mandrake (Richard E. Grant) and the superbly cute and feline familiar, Thomas (Dan Stevens). The opening scenes of a motorbike chase beneath pomegranate sunsets is breath-taking.

Indeed, the entire journey of the – short – film is a joy. The only issue, and narratively it’s a big one, is that the story simply screeches to a halt, notably lacking a third act. That said, it’s a journey I’ll take again and most definitely with my young daughter. Perhaps she will fill in the narrative blanks with her own imagination, maybe the story can thrive and find fulfilment there.

Verdict: Curtailed but beautiful, a delicious feast interrupted mid-course by adhering to its source material.  7/10

Guy Adams