You won’t have to wait all that long to see if they’re open, hopefully.
GKids formally announced that it had acquired the distribution rights to Earwig and the Witch today, confirming that the film would receive a theatrical release in the U.S. in early 2021. No further details were announced, presumably as announcing movie release dates right now, even for 2021, is fraught with uncertainty thanks to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, but Earwig will make its debut in Japan this winter, broadcasting on the NHK TV network, before coming stateside early next year.
Directed by From Up on Poppy Hill‘s Goro Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki, and featuring input from Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki ” who is hard at work on coming out of retirement (again) to direct one more feature for the animation studio ” Earwig and the Witch is an adaptation of the 2011 children’s novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, whose work has been previously adapted by Ghibli in 2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Following the titular orphan Earwig, the story sees the young girl ” unaware that she, like her birth mother, has vast magical powers ” taken in by a selfish witch, and forced to confront both her strange new living situation and her magical heritage.
While Earwig is not the first time Ghibli has dabbled with CG animation entirely ” Miyazaki himself famously delved into the medium to create the short film Kemushi no Boro, or Boro the Caterpillar ” it marks the first time that the studio, renowned for its focus on traditional animation, has produced a feature-length product entirely in 3D CG. We’ll bring you more on GKids plans for Earwig and the Witch as and when we learn them.
Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for a confirmed Australian release date for the film.