We were supposed to have different faces for different times, but it’s like we lost that. We were all supposed to have that strength in difficult times. Isn’t that what’s most missing these days? That strength. She finds a way get through difficulties… Our world is hard to live in, but no matter how hard it gets, you find a crack, and you pry it open. “When faced with animosity, a lot of people emotionally collapse and shrink away. Hayao thinks that audiences could honestly learn a lot from her. ”Įarwig’s characterization really does give the anime a unique charm, as she’s by turn feisty, friendly, diligent, and cunning, but never in a way that seems ingenuine or manipulative. In a way, it’s a picture book that shows how a family forms. Something about that, to me…it’s so ironic, but also truly interesting. She’s flexible and tries all sorts of different methods… there’s humor too. She has a tough, long fight, but it’s not like she’s screaming and shouting. “It would be great if I could express it in words, but it’s its stout heart…Earwig has a strength that doesn’t waver. When asked about the appeal of the anime, he says: It wasn’t the last of what the elder Miyazaki had to say about Earwig’s protagonist either. That appreciation of Earwig’s determined nature is something that Suzuki also spoke of during the anime’s production, likening it to something he sees in Goro’s personality. It really doesn’t matter that he’s my son, does it? It being CG, not drawn with pencils, set him free. hung on to his determination to make the movie, so it turned out really well. I think it properly conveys the energy of the original work…Earwig’s straightforward determination to not give in, her attitude of ‘I’m staying right here. Not ‘This part of it is interesting,’ but just ‘It’s interesting.’ Being able to say, simply, ‘It’s interesting,’ really is a good thing. With that, he should stop.” Later in the interview, though, Hayao doubles down on the kind words for Earwig, and even has something nice to say about it being a CG anime instead of hand-drawn. That’s surprisingly high praise coming from the elder Miyazaki, who’s said to have reacted to his first viewing of Earthsea with “It’s good that made one movie. And I think they put together a good team.” But despite my thoughts, Earwig turned out to be rather interesting.

“If anything, I thought it would be kind of impossible for him. “I hadn’t been thinking of Goro at all,” Hayao says. Given the generally unfavorable reception of Goro’s directorial debut, Tales from Earthsea, and the below-Ghibli-average response to his next project, From Up on Poppy Hill, Goro, whose relationship with his father is well-known to be complex and sometimes strained, was a bold choice. Suzuki, in turn, ended up tapping Miyazaki’s son, Goro, to direct the project. “So after that, I left the matter up to Suzuki.” “I’ve been made to carry the destiny of only making feature-length theatrical works, so I thought ‘I can’t direct Earwig,’” he explains. ▼ Trailer for Earwig and the Witch’s theatrical releaseīut despite his enthusiasm for an adaptation, Miyazaki didn’t direct Earwig and the Witch. While the most direct translation is “interesting,” when talking about media the word can also convey the ideas of “fun,” “funny,” or “entertaining.” Note: Throughout the course of his interview, Miyazaki uses the Japanese word “omoshiroi” several times. But with Earwig, it’s short, and very trenchant… I thought ‘Ah, this is something we could make into animation.’” “With Howl, once we got into actually making it, there were difficult parts. “When I read it, it was very interesting,” Miyazaki recalls. Miyazaki is credited with “planning” for Earwig and the Witch, and it was his personal fondness for the source-material novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones (who also wrote the original Howl’s Moving Castle novel) that got the ball rolling. On August 27, an enhanced version with additional footage will play in Japanese theaters, and ahead of its release Ghibli’s legendary co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has given an interview with distributor Toho with his thoughts on the studio’s first foray into entirely non-hand-drawn animation. Last December, Earwig and the Witch, Studio Ghibli’s first-ever CG anime, aired on Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Studio Ghibli legend also says what modern children are missing that kids had back in his day.

Earwig and the witch