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Earwig is based on a Diana Wynne Jones fantasy novel, just like one of the studio’s most successful films, 2004’s
Howl’s Moving Castle. Like
Howl’s Moving Castle and many other Ghibli films,
Earwig centers on a young girl who’s unexpectedly transported into a magical world one she quickly has to learn to navigate with the help of a few magical friends. And like most Ghibli films, it’s dripping with a heady combination of gorgeous baroque detail and surreal thematic elements.
Ghibli films are often closer to moving portraits than films; that is, their character explorations and aesthetic sensibility are frequently more important than the plot. Ghibli fans love the studio’s catalog in large part because Ghibli films are so good at drawing you into their atmosphere, their setting, their landscape, and their sensory details.