An orphan girl, Earwig, is adopted by a witch and comes home to a spooky house filled with mystery and magic.... (Full plot summary below)
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An orphan girl, Earwig, is adopted by a witch and comes home to a spooky house filled with mystery and magic.
Leave your thoughts about Earwig and the Witch.
| Little White LiesLillian CrawfordDoing his part to keep his father’s work alive and relevant, Gorō Miyazaki steers the Ghibli ship even further away than Yonebayashi dared, resulting in the studio’s most cheerily radical film to date. |
| The Irish TimesTara BradyIn common with My Neighbour Totoro, there is no menace here, only strange fun aimed squarely at younger viewers. |
| Time OutNick DentThe way Earwig (which was actually made for Japanese TV) sacrifices Ghibli’s visual USP is less of a problem than the way it surrenders the studio’s accustomed emotional beats. |
| EmpireJohn NugentIs this what Studio Ghibli’s future looks like? Probably not. But what Earwig lacks in animation elegance, it makes up for in sparky, kid-friendly adventurousness. |
| Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarIf pitted against other entertainment aimed at young viewers with much less panache, “Earwig and the Witch” wins, at least in conceptual adventurousness. Even if far from being top-tier Ghibli, it’s not without its fantastical pleasures. |
| The Film StageJared MobarakIt will entertain kids and adults alike with humor and magic before it fades away later that day. |
| VoxAja RomanoThere are some moments early on when there are still shots of nature, or slow Ghibli-esque pans across landscapes. But these isolated shots don’t connect to a larger overall mood, characterization, or thematic idea. They feel like pale imitations from a director who knows what Ghibli films do, but not why. |
| PolygonTasha RobinsonPurists could well complain at how far Howl’s Moving Castle departs from Jones’ terrific story in order to wedge in Hayao Miyazaki’s longstanding personal obsessions, like flight, the destructive and horrific nature of war, and the way courage conquers evil and love saves lives. But at least the film has a point of view, and the benefit of its creator’s highly specific and recognizable voice. Earwig, by contrast, often feels generic. |
| RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsThis may be Goro Miyazaki’s most eccentric feature yet, but it’s also his least engaging. Earwig and the Witch doesn’t move the way it should, and that’s lethal when your last name is Miyazaki. |
| The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenDispiritingly generic in both appearance and tone. |
