Earlier this month, the talented 'toon types at Studio Ghibli revealed that they had been officially working on an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' Earwig And The Witch, retitled Aya And The Witch for the film. The first images from the movie are now online, and you can find a selection in the gallery below.
Aya And The Witch Images
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Jones' original story follows Earwig, an orphan girl living in St. Morwald's Home for Children. She's adopted by a woman named Bella Yaga, who turns out to be a terrible witch and brings Earwig to live in her home of supernatural trinkets. With help from a talking cat, the girl must use her wits to survive... Prime Ghibli material right there.
Given that this is the first fully CG feature length film for the company, it worked alongside another team to produce the imagery, which is a little shocking given how it attempts to blend the look of Ghibli characters with the cleaner style of CG. Studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is already busy making a new film, and this one comes from his son, Gorō Miyazaki.
Aya And The Witch, which had planned to debut at Cannes, will now premiere on TV in Japan. There's no word yet on when it might arrive in the UK. For more images, head to Cartoon Brew's site.