The protagonist, for example, is an adventurous young girl who doesn't take crap from anybody; there's also a playful magical familiar and a demonic figure who actually isn't as scary as he looks.
At long last, Studio Ghibli turned away from the hand-drawn animation that made it famous and tried making a film with 3D CGI animation and the results are not great. Based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones (the same author as Howl's Moving Castle), Earwig and the Witch possesses some of the Ghibli hallmarks we all know and love. The protagonist, for example, is an adventurous young girl who doesn't take crap from anybody; there's also a playful magical familiar and a demonic figure who actually isn't as scary as he looks. But in Earwig and the Witch, these familiar tropes feel like they're suffocating under a plastic-looking sheen that doesn't allow for much personality or expression. As fun as it is to hear Kacey Musgraves singing in a Ghibli movie, Earwig and the Witch just lacks magic. — C.H.