The latest feature-length film of Studio Ghibli, Earwig And The Witch, is a massive departure from the previous projects of the legendary animation studio, using computer-generated animation rather than the traditional “2-D” style that Ghibli has been known for and the director of the movie, Goro Miyazaki recently sat down for an interview where he explained this new approach! Goro Miyazaki, for those that might not know, is the son of the legendary creator Hayao Miyazaki and has followed in his father’s footsteps by joining Ghibli and producing a number of his movies of his own!
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With Earwig And The Witch being released late last year, Ghibli is moving to its next project which will be an adaptation for the popular Japanese novel known as “How Do You Live?“, though it has yet to be revealed whether or not this new film will use the new animation style or return to the original that put the studio on the map.
Goro sat down with the entertainment outlet known as Deadline to dive into how the Studio approached this new style of animation for them for the story of the orphan Earwig and the witches that bring her into their world to learn a new way of living:
“With a lot of the animation created here in Japan, the way they use CG, the quality is always based on the approach that was done with hand-drawn animation. So, they’re just kind of replacing the process of what they used to do manually, to having the computer do that for them.”
The son of Hayao Miyazaki also dove into the challenges that Ghibli was presented when trying this new style of animation for them, holding their original style via this new leap:
“One was that I didn’t want to make visuals that would alienate the people who love Studio Ghibli films. We didn’t want to go too far away from what the studio’s aesthetic has always been, so we were always thinking, what can we do that would stay true to the Studio Ghibli aesthetic, but still in 3D CG?”
What do you think of the new animation style used by Studio Ghibli? Do you prefer the animation of Earwig and the Witch to the two-dimensional style used by Ghibli in the past? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Ghibli!
