Review | Film review: Mary and the Witch’s Flower – Studio Ghibli veterans’ solo debut pales next to its animated classics
Despite having all the hallmarks of a film by Studio Ghibli, whose seminal animations include Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, this tale about adolescent awakening fails to live up to the magic of its predecessors
2.5/5 stars
The debut feature from animation house Studio Ponoc adapts Mary Stewart’s novel The Little Broomstick, in which a young girl discovers a magical flower that powers a seemingly ordinary broomstick, whisking her off to a mysterious school for witches.
Mary and the Witch’s Flower bears all the hallmarks of a Studio Ghibli film, creators of such seminal animations as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, which is unsurprising; Ponoc’s founder, Yoshiaki Nishimura, and the film’s director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, are both Ghibli veterans.
Yonebayashi in particular honed his craft under the tutelage of master animator Hayao Miyazaki, and it was only when Miyazaki announced his retirement, and Studio Ghibli decided to move away from feature animation, that Ponoc was born.