Earwig and the Witch

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Earwig and the Witch drew positive notices from just 28 of every 100 critics who reviewed it. That figure, compiled by the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator from 68 reviews, placed the film in unusual territory for Studio Ghibli. Directed by Gorō Miyazaki and based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, it featured Shinobu Terajima, Etsushi Toyokawa, Gaku Hamada, and Kokoro Hirasawa in its original Japanese voice cast. It was the first Studio Ghibli feature built entirely in three-dimensional computer animation. A pandemic upended the film's premiere plans and stretched its global release across more than a year. What drove a studio defined by hand-drawn imagery to stake a feature on a technology it had never tried? And what became of the attempt when audiences and critics finally saw the result?

• 2. Gorō on His Own

  ›

  On the 19th of June 2020, Gorō Miyazaki released the first images from the production. Gorō described the support he received from the studio's senior figures with notable candor. His father told him to go with it. Producer Toshio Suzuki also offered encouragement. After that, Gorō said, he was left entirely on his own. He built the film with a team of young animators and, by his own account, "didn't consult with the old guys at all." He also said he was the only person at the studio who understood the method of CG animation. The production was a co-production between Studio Ghibli, NHK, and NHK Enterprises. The screenplay was written by Keiko Niwa and Emi Gunji, and they set the adaptation in 1990s England.

• 3. The Orphan's Bargain

  ›

  A witch brings her child to St. Morwald's Home for Children and leaves her there. The matron, finding the name Earwig unsuitable for a child, changes it to Erica Wigg. By the time the film's main action begins, Earwig is 10 years old, comfortable in the orphanage, and skilled at getting everyone around her to do what she wants. She shares the home with her friend Custard and has no interest in being adopted.

  When Bella Yaga and Mandrake arrive to take Earwig away against her wishes, her settled life ends abruptly. Bella Yaga is a witch who tells Earwig she was adopted for nothing more than "an extra pair of hands" around the house. Earwig agrees to help, but only if Bella Yaga teaches her magic in exchange. Mandrake seals all the exits from the house with spells.

  Thomas, Bella Yaga's cat familiar, turns out to be able to speak. Earwig also finds old tapes in the house from a band called Earwig. She and Thomas work in the workroom at night. Their first spell makes them resistant to magic, neutralizing Bella Yaga's punishments. Their second conjures a literal extra pair of hands on Bella Yaga's body. Bella Yaga responds with magical worms, but Earwig's resistance makes them harmless.

  In the chaos that follows, Earwig breaks into Mandrake's room. There she discovers that Mandrake and Bella Yaga were once members of the band Earwig, and that the band's singer was her own mother. Using her new power, Earwig takes over the household. She invites Custard to visit for Christmas, and on the day he arrives, her mother also appears. The music written for the film would grow into its own body of work, extending well past the original broadcast.

• 4. Sound and Songbook

  ›

  Satoshi Takebe composed the score and assembled a specially-formed band to perform the film's theme songs. The group included Sherina Munaf on vocals, Hiroki Kamemoto of Glim Spanky on guitar, and Kiyokazu Takano of Mrs. Green Apple on bass. Kavka Shishido played drums, and Takebe handled keyboards. The band performed the lead theme "Don't Disturb Me." The film's original soundtrack album was released on the 6th of January 2021.

  Remi Matsuo and Hikaru Yamamoto joined a second project released more than a year later. Titled "Earwig and the Witch Songbook: 13 Lime Avenue" and released on the 26th of January 2022, the album was attributed to the film's fictional band rather than to the real performers. Matsuo is the vocalist of Glim Spanky; Yamamoto is a support musician for Yoasobi. Miyazaki had approached Glim Spanky specifically because he was a fan of the group.

  "The House in Lime Avenue" drew on Irish folk music and the recorded work of English singer-songwriter Nick Drake. For "A Black Cat," Matsuo's vocals were shaped by the gospel harmonies of Aretha Franklin. The rhythm of that track was drawn from the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil." By the time the Songbook appeared in early 2022, the film had already traveled a complicated path to reach audiences across multiple countries.

• 5. A Disrupted Path

  ›

  The 2020 Cannes Film Festival had been set as the film's world premiere. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Cannes to cancel, the premiere moved to the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon. It screened there on the 18th of October 2020. The film then aired on NHK General TV on the 30th of December 2020, reaching a Japanese audience for the first time. Toho announced on the 11th of February 2021 that the film would open in Japanese cinemas on the 29th of April 2021. The theatrical cut included scenes not present in the television version. Six days before that planned opening, on the 23rd of April 2021, the film was removed from the release schedule as pandemic restrictions intervened again. It finally reached Japanese cinemas on the 27th of August 2021.

  GKIDS, Studio Ghibli's North American distributor, announced it had acquired the North American rights on the 7th of July 2020. A limited theatrical run in the United States began on the 3rd of February 2021. Two days later, the film appeared on HBO Max. It was released digitally on the 23rd of March 2021 and on Blu-ray and DVD on the 6th of April 2021.

  Wild Bunch handled international sales. On the 11th of September 2020, Wild Bunch confirmed it had taken over French distribution rights from the previous distributor, Disney. The British and Irish rights went to Elysian Film Group, a company founded in February 2020. The announcement came on the 3rd of December 2020, and the acquisition was Elysian's first. That also made it the first Ghibli theatrical in Britain and Ireland not distributed by StudioCanal UK since Princess Mononoke. Elysian opened the film on the 28th of May 2021 on over 100 screens, presenting only the English dub. The home video edition, released on the 27th of September 2021, also included the Japanese audio and English subtitles. Netflix acquired worldwide streaming rights outside Japan and the United States on the 13th of October 2021. The film appeared on Netflix on the 18th of November 2021. Pony Canyon released the DVD and Blu-ray edition in Japan on the 1st of December 2021. That made it the first Studio Ghibli film since Whisper of the Heart not distributed on home video by Walt Disney Japan. Walt Disney Japan did release the film the same day, under license from Pony Canyon. It appeared as part of a box set of Ghibli features made without Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. By the time the film finished its journey, critics had already reached their verdict.

• 6. The Critics' Verdict

  ›

  David Ehrlich, writing for IndieWire, awarded the film a C-. He described Ghibli's visual signature as "suffocated inside a plastic coffin," with the studio's characteristic lush worlds replaced by "lifeless backdrops." Ehrlich compared the outcome to a widely mocked botched fresco restoration, noting that even that disaster had "the human touch" its creator left behind.

  Aja Romano, writing for Vox, gave the film three out of five stars. Romano observed a few shots that preserved something of the usual Ghibli manner, including slow landscape pans and stills of nature. But these felt, in Romano's words, "like pale imitations from a director who knows what Ghibli films do, but not why." Romano also cited "the muted, flat palette of the film's CGI" as a reason the animation felt absent.

  The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus identified both the story and the animation as failures, calling the film a near-total misfire for the studio. Metacritic calculated a weighted average of 46 out of 100 from 21 reviews, placing it in the mixed or average band. In the English dub, Earwig's mother was voiced by the musician Kacey Musgraves.