Studio Ghibli has joined the 3-D computer-generated animation genre with its trailer for Earwig and the Witch, which features Miyazaki storytelling in a way it hasn’t been seen before. The film joins the ranks of the Pixar films that pioneered the style as it tells the story of a headstrong orphan named Earwig; her adopted mother turns out to be a selfish witch who promises to teach her magic in exchange for her help around their mysterious, cluttered house. The English-dubbed version will feature the voices of Richard E. Grant, Dan Stevens, and — ah! — the queen of country-pop herself, Kacey Musgraves, who also recorded the English version of the theme song. Goro Miyazaki, son of Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, directed the polarizing project, which pulls Studio Ghibli away from the hand-drawn animation style it became known for in films such as Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. While the film is set for release in Japan next week, American viewers will not see it in its entirety until early 2021.
For those who may not be fans of Studio Ghibli’s new animation style, you can keep yourself busy fighting with other fans on Twitter until the release of Hayao Miyazaki’s next film, How Do You Live?, his first since his 2013 so-called retirement for real. Father Miyazaki has promised his return to the fantastical, 2-D, hand-drawn animation style he is renowned for with this film, which, after facing delays in production because of the coronavirus, is still a few years from release.