{"id":118438,"date":"2021-03-04T08:21:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T08:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=118438"},"modified":"2021-03-05T10:26:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T10:26:27","slug":"mary-and-the-witchs-flower-flashback-taking-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/dvd-and-bluray\/mary-and-the-witchs-flower-flashback-taking-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary And The Witch’s Flower Flashback: Taking Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studio Ponoc takes its name from the Serbo-Croatian word pono<\/span>\u0107<\/span>, meaning midnight, the beginning of a new day.<\/span> The studio is a new beginning for two ex-Studio Ghibli stalwarts, and their first film is Mary And The Witch\u2019s Flower.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who was an animator at the studio for 20 years, was trusted enough to direct not one but two features for Ghibli,\u00a0Arrietty<\/strong><\/em> and When Marnie Was There<\/strong><\/em>, so in teaming up with producer Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya, Howl\u2019s Moving Castle<\/strong><\/em>) they make a formidable duo with plenty of experience. For their inaugural feature they looked to a children\u2019s story, The Little Broomstick<\/strong><\/em>, by British novelist Mary Stewart, perhaps best known for her Merlin<\/strong><\/em> trilogy and romantic thrillers featuring \u2018anti-nambi-pamby\u2019 heroines. So far, so promising.<\/p>\n

In Mary And The Witch\u2019s Flower<\/strong><\/em> a restless, headstrong girl runs off into the woods, picks a flower and finds an unruly broom that whisks her off on a dizzy adventure involving mutant animals, magic-hungry witches and a boy who needs rescuing. Hiromasa Yonebayashi explains, via a translator, why they are launching their studio with this particular tale: \u201cI made When Marnie Was There<\/strong><\/em> before this and it\u2019s about an introspective girl and her internal journey,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, when we were bringing the first creation from Studio Ponoc into this world we wanted to make something totally opposite \u2013 action-packed, lots of emotion, fantasy focused \u2013 and so we read a lot of children\u2019s books to find the appropriate work and came across this wonderful story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mary And The Witch’s Flower<\/strong><\/em> was inspired by Mary Stewart children\u2019s story, The Little Broomstick<\/strong><\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, what can we read into this choice of material \u2013 will the studio build on themes of nature and feminism, will they focus solely on children\u2019s stories? \u201cWe both made a lot of films prior to this and they were inspired by children,\u201d Yonebayashi concedes, \u201cso we wanted to carry on those kind of films. Both of us have small children and thought that this would be the last opportunity to make films that our own kids can enjoy right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But rather than set out a mission statement this early on, the duo prefer to remain open to pick and choose their next projects. \u201cWhen we were working for Studio Ghibli there were things we couldn\u2019t realise,\u201d admits producer Yoshiaki Nishimura, \u201cand we always wanted to make films for children. Although at Ghibli we made films that children could enjoy, as time went on they became more grown-up in nature as those at the studio got older, and so we set up Studio Ponoc. Whether we choose protagonists of a certain gender, or use a certain animation technology, we would like to approach that on a film-by-film basis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Studio Ponoc was founded in 2015, at a time when it looked like we\u2019d seen the last of Ghibli \u2013\u00a0Hayao Miyazaki had announced his retirement and the company was lying dormant, so Studio Ponoc appeared to be taking up the baton. But with Miyazaki now un-retired (again) it\u2019ll be interesting to see what Ponoc does next. With their first feature they\u2019ve chosen to remain faithful to the 2D, hand-drawn Ghibli style, and fans will recognise many artistic nods to favourites such as Kiki\u2019s Delivery Service<\/strong><\/em> (although Mary is a very different kind of witch) and Spirited Away<\/strong><\/em>. \u201cThe film that directly inspired me to join Studio Ghibli,\u201d explains Yonebayashi, \u201cwas Whisper Of The Heart<\/strong><\/em>, and after joining as an animator, the film I found a strong affection for was Ponyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mary is a very different kind of witch to Kiki…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When asked about the anime he most admires, Nishimura chooses My Neighbour Totoro<\/strong><\/em> and Grave Of The Fireflies<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 both men are clearly proud of their Ghibli roots.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they\u2019re keen to point out that Mary And The Witch\u2019s Flower<\/strong><\/em> is a new kind of magical fantasy adventure \u2013\u00a0one for modern audiences. \u201cMagic is used in the film, but we asked ourselves how we could portray that in a different way,\u201d says Yonebayashi. \u201cThe modern world is very judgmental, with so much information, gossip and pressure to perform that people are controlled by this pressure. Normally in films that show magic it fixes all the problems, but in The Little Broomstick<\/strong><\/em> magic is denied, and Mary herself tries to solve problems without using it \u2013 we wanted to empower children and show that they should rely more on themselves than outside forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what did Miyazaki think of his prot\u00e9g\u00e9es\u2019 new work? \u201cMr Miyazaki hasn\u2019t actually seen the film yet, but he was keeping an eye on our progress and was very supportive from the start,\u201d says Yonebayashi. \u201cWhen we first launched Studio Ponoc we went to chat with him and he gave us advice and told us what to expect. When we were making films at Studio Ghibli there were lots of people all working to realise Mr Miyazaki\u2019s ideas, so when we set up our own studio we had to find our own people and it was hard, and this delayed production on the film. Mr Miyazaki heard about this and visited us one day with some bread from his local bakery that he knew we loved. And then when we completed the film he was very happy for us.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

With the hard work of setting up the studio now behind them and a new film under their belts, Yonebayashi and Nishimura have proved themselves determined and passionate, have stepped out of the shadow of the legendary Miyazaki and can now look to the future \u2013\u00a0rumour has it they have more literary adaptations in mind, but for now they\u2019re focused on making a few short films. Whatever direction Studio Ponoc takes next, by combining their traditional sensibilities with a modern voice there should definitely be room on the broom for more than one anime powerhouse.<\/p>\n

Mary And The Witch\u2019s Flower is available on DVD<\/a>. Read our review here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2018 director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura told us about Mary And The Witch\u2019s Flower and life after Studio Ghibli…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":102793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2617,7],"tags":[5949],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mary-and-the-Witchs-Flower.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}