‘Aya And The Witch’: Studio Ghibli Debuts Images From Its First-Ever Fully CG Animated Feature
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Studio Ghiblihas built a reputation as being the last bastion for 2D animation, one of the final holdouts of that warm, whimsical, hand-drawn style before the entire animation industry succumbs to to the ease of CG animation. But the venerated Japanese animation studio, which has long stood in the shadow of co-founderHayao Miyazaki, even closing its doors when the animation legend “retired” in 2013, needs to innovate too.
Ghibli has dabbled with 3D animation over the years, with Miyazaki using CG to animate the more intense sequences inPrincess Mononokeand even creating a CG short film in 2018,Boro the Caterpillar. So a fully CG-animated feature film was only the next step for Studio Ghibli. But it wasn’t Hayao Miyazaki who would direct Ghibli’s first CG feature, but his sonGoro Miyazaki, with the upcomingAya and the Witch,based on the novel byHowl’s Moving CastleauthorDiana Wynne Jones. So what could Ghibli’s first fully CG-animated film look like? See for yourself with the firstAya and the Witchimages below.
Aya and the Witch Images
I have to say that these images (viaComic Natalie) aren’t exactly what I expected to come from Studio Ghibli, which has only ever held the highest standard for its animation (mostly due to Miyazaki’s famously meticulous process). There’s a shiny gloss to the character designs that reminds me of the overly ornate style that is becoming popular inChinese CG animation, but some of the details like the hair or the clothes, are almost too simple or flat. But it does seem like Goro Miyazaki is attempting to capture the classic Ghibli designs in 3D, with the exaggerated looks for villains and the simple, cherubic expressions of the child protagonists.
Regardless, I’m anticipating Goro Miyazaki experimenting with his own style, after working for so long under the shadow of his famous father. His first two films,The Wizard of EarthseaandFrom Up on Poppy Hillfelt like they owed too much stylistically and thematically to Miyazaki’s beloved films, butFrom Up on Poppy Hilldid feel like Goro Miyazaki was making efforts to make his own mark, with a film that felt a little quieter and light-hearted than typical Ghibli fare. Perhaps by leading the charge to adopt CG animation for Ghibli, Goro Miyazaki can finally establish himself as a promising director in his own right.
Goro Miyazaki is adapting Diana Wynne Jones' 2011 children’s novelEarwig and the Witch,presumably renamedAya and the Witchfor Japanese audiences, which is his second adaptation followingThe Wizard of Earthsea, a dramatically different take on Ursula LeGuin’sEarthseanovels. Here’s the book’ssynopsis,though the final film will likely be very different:
Not every orphan would love living at St. Morwald’s Home for Children, but Earwig does. She gets whatever she wants, whenever she wants it, and it’s been that way since she was dropped on the orphanage doorstep as a baby. But all that changes the day Bella Yaga and the Mandrake come to St. Morwald’s, disguised as foster parents. Earwig is whisked off to their mysterious house full of invisible rooms, potions, and spell books, with magic around every corner. Most children would run in terror from a house like that… but not Earwig. Using her own cleverness—with a lot of help from a talking cat—she decides to show the witch who’s boss.
Aya and the Witchwas originally set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, but it will be broadcast on Japan’s NHK general TV inwinter 2020.There’s no set U.S. release yet.
