![]() Unlike the other kids, Erica (voiced by Taylor Henderson) has no intention of being adopted. The baby is renamed Erica Wig and grows up to be cheerfully brattish, wrapping everyone at the orphanage around her little finger. I’ll be back for her when I’ve shook them off. It begins on the doorsteps of an English orphanage where baby Earwig is left by her rock star mum along with a note: “Got the other 12 witches all chasing me. Like Howl’s Moving Castle, the script is based on a classic children’s book by Diana Wynne Jones and just like Kiki’s Delivery Service the heroine is a plucky young witch. ![]() To be fair, Earwig was made for Japanese TV, but there are so many echoes here of Ghibli films past that it’s impossible not to compare and despair. More painfully still, the film-maker responsible is Miyazaki’s son, Gorō Miyazaki (who previously directed the pretty decent Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill). Now Studio Ghibli has made its first ever fully CG feature, and it’s, well, erm … The politest thing to say about Earwig and the Witch is that it’s not a patch on Ghibli’s hand-drawn output, with plasticky-looking characters and an aimless plot. ![]() E ighty-year-old animation legend Hayao Miyazaki once described computer-generated imagery as “thin, shallow, fake”. ![]()
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