For the first time in six years, American audiences will get to see a brand-new Studio Ghibli feature in theaters next year. Earwig and the Witch will be released in early 2021 by Gkids, longstanding distributor of the studio’s works.
The film follows Earwig, a young girl who has grown up an orphan, unaware that she’s the daughter of a witch — and ends up being adopted by a witch, no less. Ghibli’s first fully cg-animated feature, it is directed by Goro Miyazaki, who has helmed two features at the studio: Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill. The first images, released last month, mark quite a departure from the house style.
Goro’s father Hayao is credited for the movie’s “planning,” which suggest that he was pivotal in the narrative development, while longtime Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki is once again producing. NHK and NEP (NHK Enterprises) are co-producers. Earwig and the Witch was one of four animated features selected as part of Cannes’s official line-up this year.
