Underneath Earwig and the Witches jarring almost uncanny 3DCG, a self centered main character, the tuneless score outside of the music occasionally provided by the fictional witchy rock band, Earwig, is a somewhat decent story.
The daughter of a witch rockstar and now a lifelong resident of an orphanage, Erica Wigg, finds a new home with her mother’s ex band mates who happen to be another witch and a Mandrake. It’s never explained whether this adoption was a mere coincidence or not, and the abrupt ending does nothing to tie things up. The final 1/4 of the movie isn’t terrible but it clearly rushes to the finish line rather anticlimactically.
It would’ve been much better as an October release with its spooky premise. And while I’m on the topic of spookiness, it reminds me a lot of how I felt about Monster House and it’s unique animation at the time. I hated it when it came out but the movie and it’s aesthetics grew tremendously on me over time. I’m just not sure Earwig and the Witch will be so lucky to receive this sort of appreciation in the future considering it’s nothing groundbreaking other then for Studio Ghibli. There are certain sequences where this particular 3DCG looks amazing but its hit or miss. I’m not sure I can ever think of the movie without picturing those cursed kids YouTube videos made by gods knows who.
It somehow captivated my youngest cats attention, where she sat at the end of my bed with her gaze entirely on the TV for the back half of the movie so there’s that.
The Spectators' Odyssey 