Watch the magical trailer for Mary and the… | Little White Lies

Trailers

Watch the mag­i­cal trail­er for Mary and the Witch’s Flower

27 Feb 2017

Words by Little White Lies

The first fea­ture from Japan’s Stu­dio Ponoc bears all the hall­marks of Stu­dio Ghibli.

Hayao Miyaza­ki may be com­ing out of retire­ment, but our imme­di­ate atten­tion is turn­ing to Stu­dio Ghibli’s unof­fi­cial sis­ter com­pa­ny Stu­dio Ponoc. Found­ed by Yoshi­a­ki Nishimu­ra, the acclaimed ani­ma­tor whose cred­its include Howl’s Mov­ing Cas­tle, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There, Japan’s newest ani­ma­tion house qui­et­ly opened its doors in 2015. And now its first project is almost ready to be released to the world.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Ponoc’s first fea­ture film, is based on the 1971 children’s book ​‘The Lit­tle Broom­stick’ by Mary Stew­art, which tells the sto­ry of a young girl who dis­cov­er an enchant­ed broom­stick that trans­ports her to a fan­tas­ti­cal world. A team of ani­ma­tors includ­ing sev­er­al for­mer Stu­dio Ghi­b­li employ­ees have been hard at work on the film for the past two years, with Yoshi­a­ki Nishimu­ra once again tak­ing on direct­ing duties.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

From the looks of this mag­i­cal first trail­er, the film will be a treat for fans of tra­di­tion­al hand-drawn ani­ma­tion, filled with charm­ing char­ac­ters and gor­geous visu­als. And even though it looks to have more in com­mon with the director’s own Arri­et­ty than any of Miyazaki’s mas­ter works, it’s great to see that the Stu­dio Ghi­b­li torch appears to have been passed on so seamlessly.

Two illustrated book covers depicting a smiling Black man wearing a hat and tie, with a city skyline in the background

LWLies 107: The Sin­ners issue – Out now!

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