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Features
All Eyes on Ghibli’s First CG Heroine Director Gorō Miyazaki discusses his buzzy new movie Earwig and the Witch and the reasons he opted for a 3D CG look. By Charles Solomon
O
ne of the most-anticipated animated films of 2021 is Gorō Miyazaki’s Earwig and the Witch, based on the juvenile novel by Diana Wynne Jones (the author of Howl’s Moving Castle), which debuts February 5 on HBO Max. It’s Studio Ghibli’s first 3D CG feature and Miyazaki’s first theatrical film since the hit From Up on Poppy Hill in 2011. Miyazaki recently talked to Animation Magazine about the film in an interview via Zoom from Studio Ghibli(with Yuriko Banno translating). Early on in our conversation, he noted that Earwig had a very different genesis from Poppy Hill. “Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa wrote the script for From Up Poppy Hill, handed it to me and said I should make a film of it,” he recalled. “Although I changed a few things along the way, the script was already there before I started the film. This time, Hayao Miyazaki read the original novel and said, ‘This is a very interesting story, why don’t you make a film out of it?’ So I worked with Keiko Niwa and Emi Gunji to create the script.” His decision to make the film in 3D CG instead
‘I hope that people won’t stay away from the film just because it’s the first 3D CG film from Studio Ghibli and doesn’t have our traditional cel look. I just want people to give it a chance.’
www.animationmagazine.net 16
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— Director Gorō Miyazaki
march 21
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