ANI-MOVIES, *Mary And The Witch's Flower

Studio Ponoc was off to a good start with their first movie when founder Studio Ghibli alumni, producer Yoshiaki Nishimura and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi adapted the Mary Stewart childrens novel, The Little Broomstick. Ponoc's efforts are clearly influenced by prior Ghibli works, especially Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away, as there are several visual hints in what this might on its own be a precursor to Harry Potter which wouldn't be released until another twenty years later.

Mary is a young redhead moving to her great aunt's home while waiting for school season to start up. She finds a special flower called a fly-by-night which temporarily imbues her with magical abilies, and activates a nearby abandonned broom that flies her away to a school for witches and warlocks. Mary makes the administrator Mumblechook and resident mad scientist Dee believe she is really looking into going to their school, but the ambitious lead witch discovers that Mary got her powers from finding the flower that was stolen from them years prior by Mary's great aunt after she quit being a witch. The troublesome ginger girl must now return the flower in order to save her neighbor Peter who Mumblechook has kidnapped to use the flower's power to transmutate several of the students into magical animals.

Mary And The Witch's Flower is so far Studio Ponoc's first full-length movie, followed by an anthology collection of animated shorts titled Modest Heroes, but you can tell that they pulled several tricks from their years with Ghibli as various different kinds of magic are utilized such as energy barriers made of liquid. Although the plot tends to suffer somewhat from filling the Ghibli tropes checklist as a lot of the minor aestheitics of the characters' backstory can't be explained as their motivations shift along with the ever-changing narrative. On its own, the movie is one of the best animated fantasies created within the last decade, and an enjoyable all-ages fairy tale feature.