EARWIG AND THE WITCH MOVIE REVIEW

For animation fans, it’s always a big moment when Japan’s Studio Ghibli drops a new film, even more exciting when the name Miyazaki is attached to it. Their latest project dropped in America on HBO Max, and it’s not from studio founder Hayao but his son, Gorō, who previously did for the studio “From Up on Poppy Hill” amongst other projects. And it’s not that intensely gorgeous, painstakingly hand-drawn style the studio is synonymous with, but their first experiment with CG animation, albeit aping the style of their other films. Which leads us to just some of the problems with this project about a young wannabe witch and her abductors…er, foster parents, who just want a servant but aren’t ready for young Earwig’s precocious determination. Listen to big Ghibli fans Chris, Matt, Robert, and Tessa conjure up the broken spell that is “Earwig and the Witch”.

WATCH HERE

DIRECTED BY: Gorō Miyazaki

STARRING (English Voices): Taylor Paige Henderson, Vanessa Marshall, Richard E. Grant, Dan Stevens, Kacey Musgraves, JB Blanc, (Japanese Voices): Kokoro Hirasawa, Shinobu Terajima, Etsushi Toyokawa, Gaku Hamada, Sherina Munaf, Yuji Ueda

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, in 1992 Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas, where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this paradise you see before you. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.

 

Matt Foster (Screener Squad)

Matt Foster is a stand up comic, podcaster, and movie critic currently living in the greater Salt Lake City area. His lifelong love of genre film began early, when he realized they freaked out his mom. He performs (epidemics permitting) regularly on Dungeons and Comedy, a DND live play with standup comedians, and is the slightly less mustache-y half of the Nighthawks Podcast, a cinema-centric discussion cohosted by Trevor T. Trujillo.

 

 

Robert Garza (Screener Squad)

If it weren’t for sad music and scary stories I wouldn’t be as well-adjusted and cheerful as I am today. Moonlighting as a musician off and on since adolescence, I am as big a fan of scores and needle drops as I am of slow zooms, production design, and third act exposition. Just about all of my screen time is spent on international horror, drama, and hour long episodic. Big fan of genre, and the biggest fan of supernatural horror and dark sci-fi with meaningful representation and narratives that use trauma, grief, and grace as more than surface-level content. Also, I read a ton of modern horror novels/comics and sta...