Good evening all, thank you for stopping by and taking a look with me at Earwig and the Witch or Aya to Majo.
Earwig and the Witch is about a young girl named Earwig, left at an orphanage's door as a baby, with just a note and a cassette for the orphanage staff. The note said that the baby's name was Earwig.
Much to the displeasure of the Matron, who decides to rename Earwig Aya.
Aya is now a 10-year-old who is more than happy to continue living her life at the orphanage and without having a 'normal' family. Aya has the whole orphanage wrapped around her finger, including all of the adults.
Aya's life is soon turned upside down when, on adoption day, Aya is picked by a very odd couple, Bella Yaga and Mr Mandrake. On first impressions, there is something rather strange about Mr Mandrake but no one else can see it in the orphanage except Aya.
This starts the next phase of Aya's life with a family and away from the orphanage; however will she cope?
Year of release: 2020
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Genre: Supernatural, Funny
Movie run time: 1 hour and 22 minutes
Age rating: PG
My rating: 7.5/10
After Aya has packed her bag and left the orphanage, it is a short walk to her new home which is a lovely little brick cottage. It really does look lovely and pretty.
But this is where the niceness stops.
Aya soon finds out that she has been adopted for the sole purpose of being an assistant to Bella. Who I will add is an actual witch!
Bella hasn't even considered that Aya would be her adopted daughter, she just sees Aya as her slave, that she will work hard.
There is one rule, never ever, under any circumstances, is Aya to disturb the Mandrake.
Aya has the challenge of winning over the Mandrake and Bella, but it won't be an easy task. Aya has never backed down from a challenge though, so she jumps in head first and gets into all sorts of mischief!
Overall, the story is quite entertaining, lots of worms are mentioned throughout 😅
Earwig and the Witch is the first film that Studio Ghibli has done in full CGI. It is a huge change in art style for them, and wasn't well accepted by their fans.
It is a change of pace for them and I do felt that their effort was of a high standard considering their first attempt.
The film was meant to be released at the Cannes Film Festival 2020, but was then delayed due to COVID-19. This pushed the premiere back to the Lumiere Film Festival 2020.
The film even inspired a children's cookbook, which sounds pretty cool.
Now we get to the exciting music part of the posts.
This is the main song of the film, Don't Disturb Me, by the fictitious band Earwig. It's quite a lovely song that's rather catchy.
The electric organ is great and fits the song perfectly.
The rest is just your usual background music you have in all films, still a nice soundtrack that suits the film really well.
Here's the trailer for you in case you can't be bothered to look it up 😅
Images from imbd
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