Earwig and the Witch(アーヤと魔女)

Slashfilm by Hoai-Tran Bui

Earwig and the Witch feels like a film going through the motions, but not understanding the emotion behind the big narrative beats it’s trying to pull off. It’s a film matched by its flat animation style: incomplete and uninspired.

The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak

It will entertain kids and adults alike with humor and magic before it fades away later that day.

Slate by Karen Han

Gorō is a talented director. The individual shots of Earwig are beautifully composed, the characters are delightful (the tiny demons who wait upon Mandrake seem destined to become merchandise hits), and the film’s flimsy plot isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the visuals sink the entire enterprise.

The New York Times by Maya Phillips

For one, it’s the abundance of red herrings in this fleeting 82-minute feature; connections and relationships are implied (and a plot point about a witchy rock band flies by) but end up leading to dead ends, making the journey feel incomplete. But the most regrettable part is the animation.

The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen

Dispiritingly generic in both appearance and tone.

Variety by Peter Debruge

Something’s clearly missing, and the most obvious answer is magic, both on-screen and in the project’s conception.

Austin Chronicle by Richard Whittaker

Combined with the glacially slow and uneventful narrative, the end result feels like a feature by a small, cheap animation studio in 2010 trying to make a Miyazaki-esque cartoon.

RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams

This may be Goro Miyazaki’s most eccentric feature yet, but it’s also his least engaging. Earwig and the Witch doesn’t move the way it should, and that’s lethal when your last name is Miyazaki.

Slant Magazine by Steven Scaife

The problem with Earwig and the Witch has more to do with its confused plotting than its more or less serviceable animation.

Polygon by Tasha Robinson

Purists could well complain at how far Howl’s Moving Castle departs from Jones’ terrific story in order to wedge in Hayao Miyazaki’s longstanding personal obsessions, like flight, the destructive and horrific nature of war, and the way courage conquers evil and love saves lives. But at least the film has a point of view, and the benefit of its creator’s highly specific and recognizable voice. Earwig, by contrast, often feels generic.