Studio Ghibli and its newest movie Earwig and the Witch will get its shot at an Oscar next year with the announcement that an English-language version would be released through GKids. The dubbed version features some Oscar-nominated and Grammy-award winning talent behind the microphone doing voice overs.
Earwig and the Witch releases in Japan on December 30 with a North American release date slated for 2021. Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant lends his voice to the movie along with six-time Grammy award winner Kacey Musgraves. Actor Dan Stevens, known for his work on the television show Legion and Downton Abbey, will also be on the cast. The English adaptation qualifies Earwig and the Witch for the Oscars some 19 years after Studio Ghibli released its last Academy Award-winning movie Spirited Away back in 2001.
The style of Earwig and the Witch is a departure for Studio Ghibli, which has bucked the trend of blockbuster computer-animated movies started by North American studios like Pixar and Dreamworks. Goro Miyazaki, son of Spirited Away director Hayao Miyazaki and now head of Studio Ghibli, is the one behind this movie. After taking over the studio from his famed father, Goro Miyazaki has pushed for CG films to be more mainstream in Japan and is the driving force behind its first foray into CG movies.
While Earwig and the Witch now has a shot at an Academy Award, the circumstances of its release are different than in 2001 when Spirited Away was released. For one, the movie is coming out in the midst of a global pandemic, which has made a mess out of theatrical releases worldwide. The other is that Earwig and the Witch has been overshadowed (at least in Japan) by a different anime movie, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train. The reception for that movie was historic, smashing box office records to the point where it is slated to overtake the box office crown currently held by Spirited Away.
Box office numbers do not decide Academy Awards, however, and Earwig and the Witch does have the distinction of being a 2020 Cannes Film Festival selection. The film’s story is an adaptation of a children’s novel by Daniel Wynn-Jones whose books also inspired another Studio Ghibli movie: Howl’s Moving Castle.
The movie will have to overcome a bit of skepticism from the fans that normally watch a Studio Ghibli movie. Part of the appeal of their animated movies is the fact that their 2D animated movies all had a beloved style all their own.
Earwig and the Witch releases in Japan on December 30, 2020, and 2021 in North America
Source: IndieWire
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