This was an advance screening (for the UK market) of the Ghibli spin-off, Studio Ponoc.
The film starts well, with a bit of vital backstory, the theft of the seeds that grow into the eponymous Witch's Flower ("fly-by-night"). This showcases the rather glorious animation of the watery powers of the villains of the tale, which throughout the film have a slightly ominous fluidity. Think Hexxus, if you've seen Ferngully.
But our main character is Mary Smith, a young girl who is living with her Great Aunt Charlotte, ready for the new school year, having travelled to the area ahead of her parents. Being a young girl in a house with a broken television, and the only source of entertainment being fights with Peter, a Granville-like delivery boy, there's nothing more obvious to do than wander into a mysterious misty forest after Gib and Tib, a couple of troublesome cats.
Which is where she finds and picks the Witch's Flower, and finds herself thrown into a secret world of magic, a situation worsened when, helping Tib look for the missing Gib, a thunderstorm drops her and her newly found broomstick off at a Hogwarts equivalent (called Endor. Yes, like the Ewok planet). Here, she shows herself to be wildly impressive at magic, and the jealousy of the staff members of her power drives the rest of the film's conflict.
There are some nicely subtle moments of horror in the film, like the chefs you see for only a couple of seconds, and a few background events (why are they all wearing masks?) and the constant side-eye provided by Tib never gets old. The cat is easily the most engaging character, even if it doesn't get any dialogue.
The conflict and the plot built around it isn't the most clever I've ever seen. There's a middle arc and finale which both have effectively the same story arc, both in terms of source of tension and resolution. This is presumably pulled over directly from The Little Broomstick, the book by Mary Stewart it is based on, but a bit of judicious editing may have helped.
There are a fair few moments where even the disbelief I'd suspended to allow intelligent cats and magical fantasy felt a bit strained. I mean, I'm still not entirely sure what the villains of the piece expected to get out of their evil plan.
Still, as a spectacle, it obviously delivers. The animation is in line with what you've seen previously, very smooth, nicely fluid, and as I mentioned previously, the magical effects are rather nice. Voice acting reasonable, especially Zebedee, the springy gardener, and the soundtrack is pretty damn good. Never really got me emotional, but well fit to any scene it's used in.
A nice presentation, but suffers from a weak plot.
Tagged: Film Animated drama Adaptation Fiction Cinema