Mary und die Blume der Hexen

Mary and The Witch's Flower is the debut anime film from Studio Ponoc and directed by former Studio Ghibli animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie Was There). Based on the novel "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stewart, it is a nice first offering from the relatively new animation studio and features some truly beautiful animation.

On her Great Aunt's estate, young Mary Smith (voiced by Ruby Barnhill) lives a bored existence as she tries to pass the time before her parents join her. One day, while venturing out in the nearby woods, Mary stumbles upon a mysterious blue flower, believed to have been used by witches for their magical powers.

Naturally, the film has taken some strong influences from its Ghibli roots, particularly that of Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service, but also from the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, with its overall magical tone and setting. The story does unfortunately play it safe one too many times, especially during the final act, and this does affect the overall enjoyment at times, whether this is how things are in the original novel I am unsure. Needless to say though, the animation is simply gorgeous and is up there with some of Studio Ghibli's best films. The attention-to-detail on every frame is exquisite and the use of colour makes the film great to look at. The performances of the English dub cast is solid, particularly that of newcomer Ruby Barnhill (Disney's The BFG) as the title character. However, as likeable a protagonist Mary is, her character seemed somewhat generic from a storytelling perspective and most of the supporting cast felt underdeveloped and one-dimensional. I have yet to see the original Japanese dub but I plan to do so in the not-too-distant future.

I rate it 7.5/10

It's not bad as far as children's movies go. It's very cute and charming and the world looks very interesting. The story seems a bit flat as they don't go into character motivation, dip too deep into world building or even tell the rules of how their magic works. I enjoyed it but was a little bummed they didn't show more of the school life.

Nothing compares to studio Ghibli. Disney, Pixar. Nothing. They still did classic animation and did it beautifully. Let this wonderful little film stand on its own merits. Yes, it's obviously influenced by Ghibli. So what? It's fun and fast and deserves to be seen.

Just came back from the one time only screening of this movie in Austin TX. I'm a bit confused by the super-negative reviews of this film. I guess people were expecting a film on par with past Studio Ghibli movies? Lets be real here, as sad as it is, the age of Studio Ghibli is over, unless Hayao Miyazaki decides to return to the directors seat and make another full-length feature film. Which at this point seems unlikely. The fact that we have a studio like Ponoc to carry on the torch of 2D animated projects in the style of Gibli should be celebrated I think.

I went into this movie not expecting it to be on par with any of Studio Ghibli's past works, yes it's no Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away. I did enjoy Mary and the Witch's Flower more so than Miyazaki's last two films, The Wind Rises and Ponyo. The only other Hiromasa Yonebayashi films I've seen was Arriety, never saw When Marine Was There. I do think this film is better than Arriety was.

Mary and the Witches Flower looks like a Studio Ghibli film, the character animation is really great, the backgrounds, while reminiscent of past Ghibli works are nice, but not on the same level of detail, which was fine to me. The characters and the story is good, again, not as solid as past Ghibli works, but I enjoyed it overall. The biggest thing lacking to be was a musical score from Joe Hisaishi, but he has never done music for a Hiromasa Yonebayashi film. The last film he composed music for was The Princess Kaguya, which was a big deal.

I'm getting off-track here, but the last I will say is that is if you are a fan of Studio Ghibli, and are yearning to see a full-length feature film in traditional 2D animation, go see this film if you are able to, just don't go in expecting it to be as good as one of the Studio Ghibli classics.

Studio Ponoc, heir apparent to Studio Ghibli, makes a decent start with Mary & the Witch's Flower.

Animation is lush and gorgeous to look at, and is very reminiscent of the work we're used to from Studio Ghibli - and as anyone who's familiar with Ghibli's work can tell you, that is a pretty high bar to meet. I saw the English dubbed version, and the voice acting was excellent as well - especially Ruby Barnhill as Mary. Background score was quite good too.

Story, however, was a bit disappointing. Not saying that it was bad, it just felt a bit devoid of heart and there were quite a few plot holes which were hard to overlook. Character motivations were hard to explain, and the wizarding world Mary stumbles into feels empty, though it is supposed to be a thriving world. Then again, I complain because I was expecting something of Ghibli standards.

It was a fun movie to experience, and I'm glad Studio Ponoc exists - not only because I expect bigger and better things from them in the future, but also because something as beautiful as the tradition of Ghibli animated movies needs be kept alive.

7/10