Quick Hit: Earwig and the Witch (2020)

Earwig and the Witch (2020, Japan, animated) from Studio Ghibli. Distributed by GKids. Directed by Goro Miyazaki. Currently on HBO Max. 

Some of us have been looking forward to Earwig and the Witch, as it is the first CGI film made at Studio Ghibli. I know I was. Given the quality of films from the Studio, it was going to be interesting to see how they handled it. We'll get back to that.

The film begins with a woman on a motorcycle being chased by a yellow car. Dodging other traffic, she takes some of her hair and throws it back at the car, causing it to crash. The woman pulls up at an orphanage and drops off a baby on the front step, along with a note and a cassette tape with the word Earwig on it. She tells the baby she'll be fine there as the rooms are clean and have large windows, brightly lighting the place. It also has the best shepherd's pie in the world. Here, I should point out that this takes place in England. The baby is taken in. The note states that the mother, the woman on the motorcycle, is running from twelve witches and that the baby's name is Earwig. This is ignored and the girl is named Erica Wig. 

Flash forward about ten years. Erika (Earwig) has grown into a budding con artist that allows her to do all sorts of things without much repercussions. Her best friend is a boy named Custard. He is not as brave as Earwig, but follows her everywhere. Keeping with the British theme, we could call the boy a cowardly custard. 

BellaYaga

The Mandrake

Things change when a very tall man and a very large woman adopt  Earwig, something she doesn't want. Turns out, the woman, Bella Yaga, is a witch, and the man, The Mandrake, is some form of demon. Bella needs help to make her potions that she makes her living selling. 

From there, Earwig tries to get her way. We learn more about those who adopted her; there are some smaller demons flying around (look for the Totoro Easter Egg); and there is a black cat (ala Kiki's). 

I'll leave the rest for you to discover.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room, the CGI. Backgrounds are gorgeous. They are everything we expect from Ghibli. The buildings and gardens are very British in design and do not disappoint. The characters are a different story. Although interesting, they lack the fluid motion that we are accustomed to from the Studio. Further, their design is more reminiscent of the TV show Reboot, rather than something like a studio like Pixar would produce. 

The story is linear through the last scene in the film. The ending credits are lovingly dotted with drawings of the characters in situations seen in the film and after the ending. Sadly, many of the future scenes are incongruous to the end of the film. It was as if they changed their minds about the plot after they did the closing credits. 

Although I did enjoy the film, I found it below the standards that we are accustomed to coming from Studio Ghibli. But we also need to remember that this is a first effort and hopefully will be looked upon as starting point, rather than what we should expect from now on.  We shall see. 

Summer Wars

I am honored to participate in The Home Sweet Home Blogathon, brought to you by Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews and Rebecca at TakingUpRoom. Thank you for the invitation and a chance to discuss one of my favorite animes, Summer Wars (2009).

Summer Wars begins in Oz. Not the L. Frank Baum Oz, but the worldwide virtual world of Oz. It is the online community where hundreds of millions have accounts. 

We see Kenji and Takashi in their high school dorm room, which is loaded with computer hardware. The two have part time jobs working in Oz. It is a low-level position, but the two seem more than able to do their work. Enter Natsuki ("the hottest girl in school" Takashi will later say). She needs someone for a job. Having little info, Kenji volunteers. The two travel to Natsuki's Great Grandmother Sakae's house for a family reunion centered around her 90th birthday. Here Kenji finds out his purpose: He is posing as Natsuki's boyfriend and fiance! The string of lies paints the boy as a college student who was studying in America. And the family eats it up!

Kenji meets Kazuma, a young boy who spends much of his time in front of a computer screen. Watching him, he finds that Kazuma's avatar is none other than King Kazma, the greatest fighter in Oz. 

Things go well until the middle of the first night. Kenji is awakened by a text message containing lists of numbers. Kenji looks over the code and is able to quickly decipher it and send the solution back to the origin. In the morning, all hell breaks loose.

It is found that the text allowed someone or something to gain access to the inner workings of Oz, causing disruptions in many of the everyday uses of the network. Worse yet, Kenji is named as the person behind the attack! His face is plastered on the news. All the family members see it. All the lies crash down around Kenji and Natsuki. Kenji is even carted away by the local police, but returns when the traffic is so messed up that no one can get anywhere. 

Great Grandmother Sakae immediately springs into action, spending much of the day on the telephone, bolstering her family away from the party and others she knows into action to help get things back to normal. She is very well connected. 

The family is surprised by the appearance of Wabisuki, the "black sheep" of the family, who no one has seen in ten years. He also happens to be Natsuki's favorite uncle. As the crisis ebbs a bit, he admits that he developed the Artificial Intelligence, named "Love Machine", that is causing the havoc. Although he did not set it into motion, he did sell it to a foreign government (the United States), who decided to do an experiment to see what it could do. After a confrontation with Sakae, he leaves, angry.

Sakae's efforts have not gone unnoticed. Love Machine has found out about it. In the morning, Sakae has passed away. The doctor found that his online monitor of her conditions had been shut down. The family grieves. Natsuki gets her uncle to return. While the women of the family prepare for the funeral, the men use their connections to bring a supercomputer, a power-generating boat and a satellite uplink station to the house to combat the AI. 

This almost works. The group sets a trap and King Kazma is used as the bait. However, the computer overheats, and Kazuma's Avatar is taken by Love Machine, who has stolen more that 400 million accounts. After this, a countdown appears on the screen. In about two hours, the Arawashi Probe will come crashing to Earth, into a nuclear facility, causing death and destruction. 

Per Sakae's final request, the family and Kenji have dinner together. Kenji has an idea of how to destroy Love Machine. As the AI is playing a game all the time, he feels that playing for the accounts held by Love Machine is the way to defeat it. The card game Hanafuda is the family game and Natsuki is the best player. 

Everything is set. The challenge is put forth. The game begins, with nuclear disaster in the balance. 

Mamuro Hosoda

The writer/director of the film is Mamuro Hosoda. Hosoda-san is an amazing storyteller. How fitting that he should be spotlighted for this Blogathon, as most of his films deal with families. Not only Summer Wars (2009), but Wolf Children (2012), The Boy and the Beast (2015) and Mirai (2018), all highlight varying types of family, whether they can transform into wolves, have an orphan human being raised by a bearlike adult or a time traveling sister helping her brother to grow. 

I believe that Hosoda's philosophy can be summed up in some the beautiful words left behind by Great Grandmother Sakae:

"Remember, never let go of fellow family members. Never let life get the best of you. And always eat together as a family, even during difficult times because being hungry and being all alone are the worst things that can happen to anyone."

And we see this through family meals, filled with arguments and laughs. Kenji tells Sakae how grateful he is being included in the celebration. His parents are both busy people and he spends a good deal of his family time by himself. He doesn't have their type of family. He'd obviously like to have that.

One of the most striking scenes is the slow pan of the characters set against a blue sky, each mourning the loss of Sakae. It culminates with a focus of Kenji fumbling to hold hands with Natsuki, giving her comfort. It reminds me of Frank Capra's focus on Jimmy Stewart's hat and his feelings showing through his handling of it in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington."

Hanafuda

Somehow, I am drawn to films with cards in them. This is no exception. Here is a thumbnail of the game of Hanafuda.

According to Wikipedia, playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century. Between then and the late 19th century, they were banned a couple of times, for being a Western influence and for promoting gambling, mostly, until 1889 when a company called Nintendo began production of the cards nationally. (The entry says little of how this affected this Nintendo company, or whatever became of it. It's a mystery.)

The cards are made up of twelve suits, one for each month, four cards per suit. The game play involves eight cards placed, face up in the middle. Each player attempts to match cards in their hand to the card face up. Points are awarded for matches with some cards being of higher value than others. When one has reached a winning total, the player can call 'Koi! Koi!', allowing the game to continue for an even high point total. 

At least, this is how I read the rules. 

Thank you for looking in on my entry to the Home Sweet Home Blogathon. Please take the time to explore Gill and Rebecca's sites and visit as many of the wonderful writers and their entries to the Blogathon. You won't be disappointed.

Koi! Koi!

The Part of 2020 That Wasn't So Bad

There are many words in my vocabulary. Some, like "was", I use too often. Some, like various obscenities, I use rather sparingly. This year, I found the words "dumpster fire" were put together and expressed by me for the very first time. Those two words have become the embodiment of 2020. 

I won't go into detail about the parts of the year that took on the scent of burning garbage. They're there. I know them. I don't wish to give them more importance than they deserve. Instead, I wish to talk about the opportunities for viewing movies and television series that I have had over the last nine months.

My film diary took up more pages this year than in others. Having access to multiple streaming services, online Film Festivals and a knack for YouTube and Vimeo has been an enormous help. Being home for the last nine months was also an important factor.

Let's begin with my "long suit" - Animation. I must have seen more features and shorts in this genre than anything else. Some of these were seen on line. Some, I have the blu-ray. All were enjoyed. They might not be classic, but they were a fun watch. These are in no specific order.

Ride Your Wave (2019, Japan)

Pom Poko (1994, Japan) Disney+

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020, Japan)

The Addams Family (2019) Epix

Children of the Sea (2019, Japan) Netflix

Terra Willy (2019, France)

A Whisker Away (2020, Japan) Netflix

Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon (2019, UK) Netflix

The Little Vampire (2017, Netherlands) Amazon

The Willoughbys (2020, Canada) Netflix

Soul (2020, Pixar) Disney+

Over the Moon (2020, China) Netflix

Some of the highlights: Lurch singing "Everybody Hurts" in "The Addams Family", the overall beautiful look of "Children of the Sea", the numerous sight gags and Easter Eggs in "Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon", the tear inducing scenes in "Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna", and the sarcastic dialog of "The Willoughbys". 

No, I have not seen "Wolfwalkers" yet! I expect that to be the year's best.

Hard to believe, but I did see some Live Action Features. They ran the gamit, from 1920s Silent Films to 2020 Zombies Running Amok. Here are the best of the lot!

One Cut of the Dead (2019, Japan) Shudder

Colossal (2016, Canada) Amazon

Chestersberg (2019, UK) Sohome Horror Film Fest

Inhumanwich (2017) YouTube

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016, New Zealand) Hulu

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016, UK) HBO

#Alive (2020, Korea) Netflix

Dead (2020, New Zealand) Sohome Horror Film Fest

The Oak Room (2019, Canada) Sohoho Horror Film Fest

Witness Infection (2019) Sohoho Horror Film Fest 

The Night Eats the World (2018, France) Tubi

Of course, there are five Zombie films on the list, all well done. The only film that isn't in the horror genre is Taika Waititi's wonderful "The Hunt for the Wilderpeople", which is a definite must see. "The Oak Room" was a 'secret film' for the Sohoho Horror Film Fest and stole the show. If you can find it, it is very different and worth your time. Laughs can be found in "Inhumanwich", "Chestersberg", "Dead" and "Witness Infection". "One Cut of the Dead", well, I can't say enough about this film. As a matter of fact, I can't say anything without spoiling it! I had a 30 Day Free Trial for Shudder that gave me access to it.

Anyone who knows me, knows my love for short films. I don't always go looking for them, but they do find me! Most of these were courtesy of the Soho Horror Film Festivals, and many are now available on YouTube and Vimeo. If there is an "X" next to the film, click on it and you can see it. And yes, most are horror films.

In Sound, We Live Forever (2019) X

Melvin and the Microphone (2020)

Post-Mortem Mary (2017, Australia) X

Quaranstein (2020) X

Finley (2019) X

Don’t Know What (2019, Austria) X

Spiritual Practice (2020)

The View from Here (2019) X

Meta (2020) 

Poltergays (2020)

Stagnant (2020) X

We Got a Monkey’s Paw (2018) X

Floor 9.5 (2017, UK) X

Crop Dust (2018) X

Blood Oranges (2017) X

Burrow (2020) Disney+

Canvas (2020) Netflix

Shaun the Sheep in The Farmer's Llamas (2020, UK) Netflix

Sandwitch (2018, Netherlands) X

Some things to consider: both "Spiritual Practice" and "The View from Here" are by one of my favorite directors, Patrick Rea; expect to see "Canvas" and "Burrow" nominated for Best Animated Short; "In Sound, We Live Forever", is one of the best short films I've seen in a long time; "Quaranstein" is a unique film and needs your attention; you'll laugh out loud with "We Got a Monkey's Paw", "Blood Oranges", "Sandwitch" and, of course, "Shaun the Sheep"; and, yes, "Crop Dust" is what it says it is.

 

I usually don't invest in TV series. I'm not really a binger. But if you have to binge, here are some suggestions.

Perry Mason (HBO Max)

Digimon Adventure (CrunchyRoll) 

Hilda (Netflix Season 2)

Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts (Netflix All 3 Seasons)

Camp Cretaceous (Netflix Season 1)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO Max)

Upload (Amazon Prime)

The Owl House (Disney XP Season 1 parts 1 & 2)

The Hollow (Netflix Season 2)

DuckTales (Disney XP Season 3 Episodes 1-7)

 Yes, most are animated. "Hilda", "Kipo", and "The Owl House" are incredible examples of story telling. "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" is the hunt for the Golden State Killer and it will keep you up at night. I wasn't sure about the reimagining of "Perry Mason", but Matthew Rhys' performance just won me over. Speaking of reimaginings, "Digimon Adventure" is up to episode 30 and continues to entertain. And "Camp Cretaceous" has dinosaurs. Who needs more? 

Special Notes. "DuckTales" has been cancelled. The rest of Season 3 will be all there will be. Season 2 of "Camp Cretaceous" premieres on 22 January. "Kipo" was cancelled after Season 3 but completed its story arc.

So, the final tally for 17 March to 31 December is - 

Feature - 143  which includes Animated (47) and Zombies (14)

Short Films - 153  which includes Animated (25) and Silent Films (7)