Hayao Miyazaki, the head honcho over at Japan’s Studio Ghibli, is the kind of subtle genius who makes great art look easy. His hand-drawn animated fables exude effortless charm – films like Ponyo and Princess Mononoke are so carefully realised, it’s easy to imagine they came into the world without a struggle, fully-formed.
And yet something like Mary And The Witch’s Flower, the new film by Studio Ghibli alumni Hiromasa Yonebayashi, proves exactly how much skill it takes to pull off a heartwamer like Ponyo. Although all the pieces are in place to make Mary work, from a beautiful, colourful art style, to a charming protagonist, to an important message about self-worth, nothing ever quite clicks.
Part of that is surely the fault of the script, which is so overloaded with clichés and coincidences that it always feels moments away from buckling in the middle. You have Mary, your wide-eyed innocent hero, separated from her parents; you have a magical, all-powerful object – in this case the enchanted flower of the title – that has the power to transport one to another world; you have a pair of misguided, mischievous antagonists, the witchy Madame Mumblechook (Kate Winslet in the English dub) and her right-hand man, Doctor Dee (Jim Broadbent); and you have a cute, animal companion (an enjoyably grumpy cat.)
It’s entirely thanks to lacklustre plotting and hastily drawn motivations that nothing about the film ever truly surprises, or properly engages. In its predictability, Mary’s quest zigzags from the uninspired to the tiresome, and the final act feels more like a methodical clean-up of loose ends than a climax.
Not that the film is entirely frustrating. The animation is spellbinding – as he proved with his debut feature, The Secret World Of Arrietty, Yonebayashi knows how to make a world feel rich and full, and even if Mary and her mates never feel particularly nuanced, they sure look impressive. After all, there is a singular, if fleeting joy, to watching precisely drawn characters moving through space, and Yonebayashi relishes in making his heroes dash and fly about the screen. From the very first scene, as a young woman escapes an inferno, it’s clear Yonebayashi is determined to show off the skill of his animators – it’s just a shame he couldn’t hold his writers to as high a standard.
In that way, Mary will work best amongst younger audiences, who will surely be won over by its anarchic humour, and colour, and movement. It’s just a shame that, unlike Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces – or even Yonebayashi’s first film – Mary works best as a method of distracting children on a rainy afternoon and very little else.
Mary And The Witch’s Flower is in Australian cinemas this Thursday January 18.
