My Thoughts on Mary and the Witch's Flower
This was a pretty good movie. It feels a lot like a Studio Ghibli film even though it's not actually produced by Ghibli, and that's not too surprising when you learn that it was created by Studio Ponoc, which was founded by ex Studio Ghibli staff in 2014 during Ghibli's temporary shut down. Most notably the director of the film, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, was a former Ghibli director and worked with the studio for many years. While one of the lesser known directors from the more famous studio, since he's not Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, he clearly took all the right lessons from Ghibli as nobody could ever be blamed for thinking that this wasn't directed by Miyazaki himiself if they watched it without any context or information, without having done any research. With Ghibli Hiromasa is most notable for The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. That second one happens to be one of my favorite Ghibli movies, one of my favorite anime moives, one of my favorite animated movies, and one of my favorite movies in general. He's also done key animation for Ghibli even after forming his own studio, and has done key animaiton outside of Ghibli on a few select anime like Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the Ballroom, so he definitely has a worthwile pedigree in the industry.
The first and most notable similarities this movie has with Ghibli's style is the visuals. The character designs, general scenary art, technical animation quality, and animation inventiveness, all all boxes that have been checked that Hiromasa very clearly brought over form his time at Ghibli. This film looks absolutely beautiful in every single frame from start to finish, there's no doubt about that. In particular I felt it was reminecent of movies like The Secret World of Arrietty, which as I said before Hiromasa directed, and also Spirited Away, whihc is my favorite Ghibli film, although that has more to do with the story and characters rather than the visuals. As for the story and characters of this movie, I don't think it beats Ghibli's best, but it's better than Ghibli's worst, and even the ones in the middle of the road in Ghibli's catalouge. This is coming from somone who's not a huge, hardcore fan of Ghibli either by the way, I'm of the opinion that they have occasional masterpieces but they're mostly just kind of okay. Although Hiromasa directed another one of my favorite Ghibli films, When Marnie Was There, so I had every reason to have extremely high expectaitons for this. And it does not reach those heights if you ask me, but it was still a fun watch that I was able to get emotionally invested in well enough.
It's about Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her aunt and her aunt's housekeeper. Her parents are away on some kind of work thing I think, but it's never fully explained. One day she spies a cat which seems to keep changing color every time she sees it. Curiosity gets the better of her and she follows it into nearby woods. Deep in the forest, the cat takes her to a clearing with dead trees and brown grass, where the only sign of life is a cluster of mysterious blue flowers that Mary has never seen before. The gardener of the estate later tells her that the rare species is called "Fly-by-Night," and is said to be sought by witches for its incredible magical power. She learns magic and then fights to stop the villains from completing a plan that to be honest is kind of vague, but thankfully that's not the main point. The point is the charm in the visual style and directing and the likability of the characters. Mary herself is very cute and likable, and so is the the main male character that joins her on this journey, Peter, albeit to a lesser extent, and one of my criticisms that he isn't characterized quite as well as her, which is something that Ghibli films that have a male and female protagonist don't usually suffer from, but he's not bad. They are a fine pair of protagonists, and they made the movie enjoyable to watch.
The first and most notable similarities this movie has with Ghibli's style is the visuals. The character designs, general scenary art, technical animation quality, and animation inventiveness, all all boxes that have been checked that Hiromasa very clearly brought over form his time at Ghibli. This film looks absolutely beautiful in every single frame from start to finish, there's no doubt about that. In particular I felt it was reminecent of movies like The Secret World of Arrietty, which as I said before Hiromasa directed, and also Spirited Away, whihc is my favorite Ghibli film, although that has more to do with the story and characters rather than the visuals. As for the story and characters of this movie, I don't think it beats Ghibli's best, but it's better than Ghibli's worst, and even the ones in the middle of the road in Ghibli's catalouge. This is coming from somone who's not a huge, hardcore fan of Ghibli either by the way, I'm of the opinion that they have occasional masterpieces but they're mostly just kind of okay. Although Hiromasa directed another one of my favorite Ghibli films, When Marnie Was There, so I had every reason to have extremely high expectaitons for this. And it does not reach those heights if you ask me, but it was still a fun watch that I was able to get emotionally invested in well enough.
It's about Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her aunt and her aunt's housekeeper. Her parents are away on some kind of work thing I think, but it's never fully explained. One day she spies a cat which seems to keep changing color every time she sees it. Curiosity gets the better of her and she follows it into nearby woods. Deep in the forest, the cat takes her to a clearing with dead trees and brown grass, where the only sign of life is a cluster of mysterious blue flowers that Mary has never seen before. The gardener of the estate later tells her that the rare species is called "Fly-by-Night," and is said to be sought by witches for its incredible magical power. She learns magic and then fights to stop the villains from completing a plan that to be honest is kind of vague, but thankfully that's not the main point. The point is the charm in the visual style and directing and the likability of the characters. Mary herself is very cute and likable, and so is the the main male character that joins her on this journey, Peter, albeit to a lesser extent, and one of my criticisms that he isn't characterized quite as well as her, which is something that Ghibli films that have a male and female protagonist don't usually suffer from, but he's not bad. They are a fine pair of protagonists, and they made the movie enjoyable to watch.
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