Mary and the Witch's Flower

Mary and the Witch's Flower

Starring Ruby Barnhill, Louis Serkis, Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent

Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi

The Story:
After a witch steals a mysterious flower, it blooms in a deserted forest.  Years later, young Mary (Ruby Barnhill) - a girl who finds herself with a severe case of wanderlust - stumbles upon the flower, and is taken to a mythical school for witches led by Madame Mumblechook (Kate Winslet).  They think she's a natural witch, but she only made it there through the power of the flower, and she learns that they want the flower back to complete a ritual that will give their students the ultimate magical power - and will stop at nothing to get the flower back.

The Synopsis:
Japanese animation is a thing of utter beauty.  The animation is lavish, vivid, and detailed.  The stories are beautiful, imaginative, and blends childlike elements with strong adult themes.  They're a delight for the eyes and the ears, and something that can be enjoyed by old and young alike.  In Japan, there's no bigger animation film studio than Studio Ghibli, which has churned awe-inspiring films like "Spirited Away," "Castle in the Sky," "Princess Mononoke," and "Howl's Moving Castle."  Yet, after it was announced that one of their founders - the legendary Hayao Miyazaki - was going to retire, it cast doubt on the future of the studio.

So some of the studio's founding members, including Hiromasa Yonebayashi, split off and founded Studio Ponoc, and "Mary and the Witch's Flower" is the first work from this offshoot company.  If you never knew this bit of information, you'd think you were seeing a true Miyazaki work on screen, but it's instead the work of Yonebayashi, who took the classic 1971 children's book "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stewart and turned it into an opulent work of cinematic beauty.

The concept of the film has all the hallmarks of a Miyazaki film - the main girl who is young, innocent, and full of wonder; a luxurious, magical city high in the sky; blurred lines between who is good and bad; the issue of nature versus man-made progress.

The main character - Mary - is a young girl with fiery red hair (that she hates), who constantly wants to help other people, but ends up bumbling it up.  She wanders off into the woods and finds the flower, which grants her magical powers for twelve hours, and takes her to a witch's college in the sky called Endor (which is interesting because in the Bible, Saul visits a witch of Endor to communicate with the spirit of Samuel the prophet), where she is hailed as a natural prodigy.  Yet, even though the head mistress is sweet as can be, Mary feels there's something off about the school.  When the head mistress learns of the flower, she changes to a more sinister attitude and kidnaps Mary's friend to get the flower back, leading her to once again travel to Endor to save her friend and stop the Madame from doing her evil work.

Or, that's the basic premise of the film, I suppose.  This is the main weakness of "Mary and the Witch's Flower" - one that you don't normally see in a Ghibli film - and that's with the story.  We never know why Mary has an uneasy feeling at the school, and she doesn't give off vibes that she even is uneasy - she just acts a bit off.  When she's told that she's a powerful witch, she doesn't seem to care.  Then we learn of the power of the flower, and the Madame becomes the ultimate bad guy - until she doesn't.  We know she wants to use the flower to enhance the power of her students, but we don't know if it's for good or bad.  If they could change the world for the better, is it really evil?  Or do they plan on taking over the world?  We never find that out either.  There's a lot of motives that are left in question, and we never get a full answer.

Then there's the whole concept of a school for witches that seems oddly...familiar.  Even though the book was released in 1971 - decades before a certain series of books about wizards - we've been conditioned to believe that the entire market has been claimed by that certain series of books and movies, and that detracts from the true magic of the film - if you allow it to.

Still, the animation is as beautiful as ever, the sense of wonder and amazement are still there, and there's some characters that are extremely memorable (Mary for her optimistic outlook, and the cat she has with her just based on its hilarious facial expressions).  It has the shadow of Ghibi, but it still wants to evolve into Ponoc, and "Mary and the Witch's Flower" is a good start in its endeavor to become the next big Japanese animation company.

The Summary:
Although not a Studio Ghibli film, "Mary and the Witch's Flower" maintains several trademarks of the company, resulting in another beautifully animated adventure that's wildly imaginative and filled with wonder and amazement.

The Score: A