Review of Earwig and the Witch

I consider myself a huge fan of all things Studio Ghibli. The worlds they create and characters they design for them are almost always well thought out and exciting. However, that doesn't mean that everything they produce is a masterpiece. The director of this movie (Goro Miyazaki) is the same who did the 2006 "Tales from Earthsea", which I consider to be one of the most lack-luster studio ghibli movies. However, that's not to say that I don't like either of these films. I simply understand that they are different from some of the other Studio Ghibli movies (like Howl's Moving Castle) and I should use a different lens for viewing them. The things that I enjoy most about Studio Ghibli movies were still here: fun characters, great music, sound desgin, and (many will disagree with me) the art design. The biggest red mark on this movie for me was the use of 3D animation. One of my favorite things about the older Studio Ghilbi movies was that every scene looked like a beautiful work of art. I don't feel like this movie caputured that with it's art style, but I still felt the underlying attention to detail was there. I loved the look of the house and especially the potion room (all are shown in the trailer). I think this movie could have been a lot better if it was done with the traditional 2D animation style, but the 3D did not all together ruin it for me. Whether or not you enjoy this movie is up to you, but go in with an open mind.