Earwig And The Witch Dubbed Review

 

Anime fans Studio Ghibli is perhaps one of the few animation studios not just in Japan but in the world that still uses traditional 2D hand drawn animation. Well it seems that that has now changed since Studio Ghibli has just released their first every fully 3D CGI animated film and well I honestly had no idea that it was being released on a streaming service let alone when the film was going to be released and so join me as I review "Earwig And The Witch" enjoy.

Now I would normally tell you what the plot of the film is here and give you my thoughts on the films story at this point in the review. However the film has chosen to do me a favour and not include a story or plot which if i'm being honest is the films major issue since if the film doesn't have a story then we the audience have no reason to care for any of the films characters and without a story it also means that the film has no reason to exist.

Now then since the only version of the film that I could find is the dubbed version of the version of the film I have no choice but to base this review of the dubbed version of the film. As such starring in the film is Taylor Paige Henderson as Earwig , Dan Stevens as Thomas , Kacey Musgraves as Earwig's Mother , Richard E. Grant as The Mandrake , Vanessa Marshall as Bella Yaga , Logan Hannan as Custard and Pandora Colin as Matron.

Studio Ghibli films be they dubbed or subbed have always had good / solid acting in them and the same is true for this film as well. Since all of the actors in the film do a good job portraying their respective characters and what helps the actors and thus the film in my opinion is that the script gives the characters alot of personality and as such the actors are able to elevate the script since without the actors doing the best that they can this film really does fall flat in my very humble opinion.

As mentioned this film is the first fully 3D CGI film produced by Studio Ghibli with Studio Ghibli also providing the film's animation. I have to say for their first time doing a fully 3D CGI film the animation that's in this film isn't that bad however it's clearly not Studio Ghibli at their best which makes sense since alot of the animators at Studio Ghibli aren't trained to do fully 3D CGI films the animators at Studio Ghibli are instead trained to do traditional 2D hand drawn animated films but like I said for their time doing a fully 3D CGI film the animation is alot better then it really had any right to be in humble opinion.

I don't know how put this put this film lacks that special something that all Studio Ghibli films have and for the life of me I cannot think of what that special something is. All I know for sure is that this film lacks that special something which is a shame because the film really does feel like it's missing something that all the previous Studio Ghibli films seem to have and because of the fact that the film is missing that extra special the film isn't as good as other Studio Ghibli films.

This is the first film to be released straight to a streaming service since in America and I believe most parts of the world the film is being released on HBO Max. I honestly had no idea that the film was even being released today (i'm writing this review on February 5th the day of the film's release on to HBO Max) let alone that the film was getting released on a streaming service so to say that this films release caught me of guard would be a huge understatement and I do hope we get to see more Studio Ghibli films be released on to streaming services in the future as it would be a good way for them to attract audiences who at this point in time would be to scared to go and see the film in a cinema.

Another issue at least in my opinion anyways is the fact that there's no bad guy in this film whatsoever which means that the hero of the film has no challenge to overcome. Hell the closest thing that we get to a bad guys in this film is the character of Bella Yaga who even then doesn't present herself as much of a threat to our hero as the hero of this film uses a spell to protect herself from anything Bella Yaga might try to do as such Bella Yaga is just waste and it doesn't help that the hero of the film has no clear goal and as such we audience cannot route for her because we don't know why we should be routing for her.

This film has a running time of one hour and twenty two minuets and forty four seconds which in my opinion is the right running time for this film. I say that it's the right running time for this film because like I said at the start of the review this film has no plot but what it does have is good pacing and very likable characters and as such the film honestly doesn't feel as long as it is hell i'd go as far to say that it actually feels shorter then the one hour and twenty two minuets and forty four seconds running in my humble opinion.

Now then since this is a family film and thus the film does have alot of comedy moments in the film it only makes sense that I now talk about the actual comedy in the film. To me even tho there really wasn't that much comedy in this film whenever there was a joke in this film the joke in question worked really well and I will say that if you live in or are from the UK there's a sight joke about twenty minuets into the film that you will hopefully find funny but i'm not going to spoil what that joke is just because it really is a funny joke in my opinion.

Overall while this clearly isn't the best film that Studio Ghibli has made I cannot say that it's the worst film that Studio Ghibli has ever made simply because i've not seen all of the films that Studio Ghibli has ever made. This film has alot of flaws like i've scratched the service of the flaws that I found in this film with one of those films being the very abrupt ending but the film also has some good things in it as well with the both the good and good and bad things in this film being discussed in this very review and as such this film gets a 4.5 out of 10 from me and as for where I got the images that I used in this review well I got the images that I used in this review from Google Images and since I only went to one website for the images that I used in this review I have no choice but to recommend that you guys use Google Images if you want to use any images from either this film (which in case you all forgot is called Earwig and The Witch give me credit it's taken me until the end of the review to write that title reminder) or any Studio Ghibli film or any film in general but be warned not all of the images are high definiton tho.