Mary And The Witch’s Flower: Hayao Miyazaki’s Influence Is All Over Studio Ghibli-Inspired Film
25 JUL The brilliant Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki may have retired from feature filmmaking but his influence is evident in every frame of Mary And The Witch’s Flower. Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi worked with Miyazaki on several Studio Ghibli titles (among them Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle) and the new film is very much in their vein. This is one of several Japanese animated features with western stories and settings. Based on Mary Stewart’s 1971 book, The Little Broomstick, it’s about a little, red-haired English girl, Mary (voiced by Ruby Barnhill), stuck for the summer in the countryside with her kindly great-aunt Charlotte. No other children are around. Her parents are far away and she is profoundly bored. Mary is impulsive but self-conscious and accident prone. The only child of her own age she encounters is a local boy called Peter, who is working in the village. He teases her constantly. Great-aunt Charlotte’s home is on the edge of a big forest. Ma...