Once upon a time a witch on the run from a dangerous threat decided to leave her infant daughter at the steps of an orphanage. Originally named Earwig after a nasty bug of the same name the matron of St. Morwalds Home for Children bestowed a far more proper name upon her. Growing up in their care little Erica Wig was able to build a nice little life for herself... Not only was St. Morwalds far from the stereotypical orphanages youve seen in the movies what with its friendly staff decent food and spotless conditions but she had friends there and she always knew what to say in order to get her way and stay out of trouble. One day however her happy life would be forever changed as another witch named Bella Yaga and her demon companion known as The Mandrake would come to adopt her... Not as their actual foster daughter but as their servant as Bella Yaga needs an extra pair of hands to assist her in spellcrafting. Will little Erica be able to escape or at least adapt to her new environment or is she doomed to spend the rest of her life as a witchs slave? I believe the circumstances behind this movies production have become quite well known since its release but just in case someone out there has been living under a rock heres the story. Earwig and the Witch is Studio Ghiblis first ever fully CG animated movie. Theyve dabbled in CGI before most notably in the backgrounds of Spirited Away and a monster or two in Princess Mononoke but Earwig was the film where they finally took the full leap. I dont know if animating the film in full CG was a studio mandate or a decision made by director Goro Miyaaki but the decision was definitely made and oh boy was it a consequential one. Im tempted to believe Goro made the call himself because from what Ive heard his father Hayao insisted on handing this to him as a solo project and he wound up in charge of a team of brand new animators to the studio so it would make sense to me if he picked CG because it would be less time consuming and because his new team werent used to the studios more traditional aesthetic. Still just a guess correct me if Im wrong. For there to be a fully CG Ghibli movie at all has been a source of controversy for the film as it was a choice that very clearly defies studio tradition and the critics have not been kind to it with the CG aesthetic being one of the biggest reasons. What do I think of it? My feelings are honestly a bit mixed. This is going to sound like an extremely harsh insult at first but once Ive explained what I mean I think you might understand a bit better where Im coming from What this movie reminds me of visually is one of those Pixar movie ripoffs that companies like Asylum like to make in order to piggyback off of more popular films tricking senile grandparents and thrifty parents into thinking theyre either buying the real thing or a cheap alternative to it. Or rather it looks like what movies like that COULD look like if they had much bigger budgets to work with. Yes while Asylum Pixar ripoffs tend to be hideously poorly rendered and full of obvious mistakes and errors Earwig looks like the more polished expensive qualitycontrolled version of that and I dont dislike it. Goros unexpectedly inspired sense of direction also does a lot of heavy lifting. That probably still sounds like an insult so let me also add that CG anime almost always look awful and Earwig by default looks better than at least 95 of them dwarfed primarily by Land of the Lustrouswhich smartly took advantage of the uncanny valley and FF7 Advent Childrenbasically a feature length video game cutscene. Where Earwigs CG aesthetic shines the brightest is in the backgrounds which are insanely detailed from the rows and stacks of books in a dusty library to the shelves of ingredients and surfaces full of clutter in Bella Yagas apothecary. The textures and layers of clothing are also immaculately captured whenever theyre in closeup and the food that we see looks pretty fucking delicious. Where the CG falters however is with the characters. Now to be clear all of the characters are well designed. They all look really interesting and unique and while being rendered in CG doesnt directly damage their looks it does cause two noteworthy issues One while the characters move with flawless graceunless they need to move awkwardly for comedic purposes they look really gummy especially in their faces and that style does not fit the otherwise borderline photorealistic aesthetic of the environment. For two CG lip flaps are way more articulate than 2D lip flaps and while the actors were clearly putting forth a Herculean effort to match the flaps its jarringly noticeable whenever they cant quite make it fit which is unfortunately often. Speaking of the English dub though it is really good. Everyone uses English accents which is probably because the story was originally based on a British childrens book and it fits the setting. I havent actually heard of any of the actors involved with this dub before but Taylor Paige Henderson does an amazing job as Erica. Somewhere around thirteen years old at the time of recording she says all of her lines with a bright and cheerful energy bringing an allaround authenticity to a character who is sometimes duplicitous sometimes mischievous sometimes even a little devilish but almost always positive. Id also like to highlight veteran voice actor Vanessa Marshall who was clearly having a blast losing herself in Bella Yagas very specific hoitytoity cadence. Its a really nice dub overall. So real quick since I came back to reviewing anime how many times have I started this portion of a review by commenting on the subject having a complicated reputation? Quite a few times right? I dont know why. Its certainly not just a general attraction to controversy because I recently watched Happy Sugar Life and I wouldnt review that trainwreck with a sixty foot pole. Having said that a negative reputation was exactly what convinced me to check out the film Earwig and the Witch as part of my 2024 Re:Solution list because it is famously considered one of the worst movies if not THE worst movie in the history of Studio Ghibli. Thats saying a lot when it has competition like Ocean Waves Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill to contend with. People hate the animation they hate the plot they hate the main character... Interestingly enough people does not include Hayao Miyazaki who not only enjoyed the film but finally praised his sons work which is kind of a big deal because while nepotism may have gotten Goro the job his father has still always been a harsh and honest critic who trashed Goros previous films. And the movie he liked was Earwig and the Witch. Huh. As for me well my feelings run from mixed to positive. After watching it a couple of times Ive discovered a pretty weird dichotomy within me over it. I enjoy this movie very much when Im watching it but I find that I dont enjoy thinking about it when Im not watching it. I know that sounds weird and it is weird but there are reasons behind it. First of all one of the biggest complaints people like to make about this movie is that they despise the main character Erica AKA Earwig. They call her a manipulative entitled stubborn brat who is completely unlikeable and I disagree with most of that. I agree that shes manipulative but its not to a point that would be unforgiveable in a child. To be specific shes very vocal about the fact that she likes getting her way and having people do whatever she wants. That sounds bad on the surface but how does she achieve this? By being friendly generous personable and observant. She does favors for people she befriends them and when shes faced with the consequences of her actions she immediately claims responsibility and finds a way to soften the narrative. You want to know what thats called as an adult? Its called keeping your fucking job. At the orphanage she doesnt throw people under the bus she doesnt snitch she just knows how to behave to get what she wants and isnt that the kind of attitude we encourage in kids with Santa Claus and most religions being based on a system of reward and punishment? I mean okay she gets a little more devious after shes adopted but considering the fact that shes being forced into a life of servitude I think thats mostly forgivable. She is creative she is resourceful she is resilient and shes brave. Before you start throwing out the label of MarySue however shes also easily frustrated when things dont go her way which is a common enough flaw that it should be immediately relatable and shes defiant when she believes she or a friend has been treated unfairly. I get how it might rub people the wrong way to hear her talk about wanting everyone to do what she wants them to that sounds pretty bad in isolation but her actual behavior throughout the film is never rotten or entitled enoughin my opinion to back up that implication. Those bits of dialogue aside I think shes a really likeable character as well as an interesting and well written child character. Another complaint is that she doesnt develop very much through the story... Fair enough I guess... But is that really important? Because I havent been driven out of town with pitchforks enough lately lets compare her story to that of Chihiro from Spirited Away. Both are taken out of their comfortable family situations against their will and forced to perform hard labor under a witch. Chihiro receives help from several sources Erica receives help from a cat. Chihiro mostly does what shes told in order to survive Erica has to be creative and rely on herself. Neither character really learns any important lessons other than maybe the value of hard work. Chihiro triumphs and returns to her life a little stronger and more grateful than she was before Erica triumphs and stays where she is overcoming the danger and uncertainty around her to make a new home. Both characters have similar arcs but where Chihiro is changed by her environment Ericas environment is changed by her. Yeah Chihiro receives more development but Erica feels more interesting and dynamic. For these reasons I dont think Ericas lack of significant personal change is really that big an issue and I like that the story is about her adapting and facing challenges to overcome the terror of change. So heres where we are I like the main character. I have a soft spot for the animation. Theres a lot I like about the story. I didnt really talk about it but the soundtrack is pretty fucking sweet too. There is however one problem with this movie that I cant defend and its actually a pretty big problem... The plot. As much as I do like this movie it would be extremely disingenuous of me to not mention just how poorly executed a lot of it is. The pacing for one thing isnt terrible but the movie does feel slightly longer than it actually is. This is partially because of the way its edited with scenes that should lead into each other often being separated by several far less interesting scenes. Most of the movie has a sort of sliceoflife feel to it basically whenever the story isnt focused on a mystery that never gets fully solved despite the amount of clues that build up at various plot points. I do personally enjoy watching Erica fight back against Bella Yaga but it never really feels like shes in any real danger. Yeah being an indentured servant sucks but shes well fed shes almost never harmed and even the Mandrake whos built up to be a serious threat never does anything threatening other than looking scarier. If you cant tell these factors rob the movie of having any effective stakes. In addition one big plot hole I noticed is that apparently its not certain whether witches are commonly known to exist in this world as the orphanage matrons argue about their existence so how is Bella Yaga able to operate a successful witching business selling spells for people? Probably the biggest problem however is the way the backstory is handled. Yeah theres a backstory that ties Erica her foster captors her birth mother and even the orphanage but its barely touched on in the movie until it ends on a cliffhanger that maybe itll all be revealed? Hell I genuinely liked this movie and even I feel robbed by this. Beyond all that theres one change I think could have been made to vastly improve the general perception of the movie. After Erica is informed that shell be acting as a servant she asks to be taught witchcraft in exchange. Believing a deal has been made she diligently puts in the work. She complains and asks a ton of questions but she does what shes told until its revealed that no deal was ever made and Bella Yaga had no intention of teaching her. I found this extremely disappointing because up until that point I genuinely thought there was going to be a clever twist that Bella Yaga WAS teaching her this whole time by forcing her to memorize all the spellcraft ingredients as well as the tedious processes behind preparing them. I thought there would be some kind of moment like You little idiot Ive been teaching you the basics this whole time And hell it kind of DID work out that way because Erica later uses her experience to craft an antimagic spellwhich when it finally pays off in the story just looks like the spell kind of misses. So yeah in between viewings its hard to not think about all the problems I have with the writing of the movie. But I still enjoy it when Im actually watching it. Earwig and the Witch is available from Gkids. The original book by Dianna Wynn Jones is available from Greenwillow Books and can be found in paperback hardcover and audiobook form on Amazon. Earwig and the Witch is far from a perfect film. It has its fair share of problems some bigger and more obvious than others and I do believe there are good reasons out there for people to hate it but I still find some of the criticisms that have been lobbied against it to be unfair. I like Earwig I think shes one of the more interesting and relatable children protagonists in Ghiblis catalogue. The animation and aesthetic may not be up to Studio Ghiblis famously high visual standards but for a CG anime it still looks pretty damn good for what it is. Its well directed funny and has a good sense of humor and comedic timing. The first time I watched it I made the observation that it was like if Coraline were written by Roald Dahl... A dark quirky story that some people might find unpleasant but that I find myself very easily getting lost in. I give Earwig and the Witch a 6/10.