Mary and The Witch’s Flower; The Pacing Just Isn’t Right

Studio Poncoc’s first animated feature, Mary and the Witch’s Flower was discussed at length on Episode 12 of ‘What Do You Wanna Watch?‘ by Ashley, Dylan and Ciaran. None of them had seen the film beforehand and went in with their minds open, but they all left with a similar feeling. Pacing issues.

Was the looming knowledge of who was involved in the movie affecting their opinions? You be the judge and let us know what you thought of the film. 

Ashley: This is the 2017 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by (struggles to pronounce) Hiramatsu Yonebayashi. 

Ciaran: You can do it. 

Ashley: Based on ‘The Little Broomstick‘ written by Mary Stewart which I thought was a bit … that’s a bit interesting. 

Dylan: I looked up the book after I watched the movie. Looks interesting. I think the book looks more interesting than what the movie ended up being though.

Ashley: Yeah but for a Japanese place to adapt–

Dylan: Something based on an American book? 

Ashley: Yeah that’s a bit– I haven’t seen that very often, you know, animated by Studio Ponoc as well… 

Ciaran: (laughing) Studio Ghibli pretty much 

Ashley: Yeah. 

Dylan: Well this is their first movie and it’s a bunch of ex-Studio Ghibli people. 

Ashley: Yeah. Dylan, you picked this movie this week. Why? And what do you think of it? 

Dylan: Why? Because I knew of it and I wanted to watch it because it’s the new studio from ex-Studio Ghibli people. (laughs)

Ashley:  (laughs) Yeah. 

Dylan: I think that’s the reason most people watched it I guess. 

Ashley: Yeah. 

Dylan: I think my poignant and ‘Nick’s mini-review’ is: it looks beautiful, it definitely has that Studio Ghibli Esq animation — colours, you know of everything going on. Visually it has a lot more going for it than it does plot and story wise, I think. I think they– I would love to read the book now just to see what stuff they’ve changed — because I think when they’ve changed some stuff, some plot elements, from what I did with a quick lookup of the book to see what they changed, I think they changed stuff for the worse cause they just didn’t… The script is just not all there. It looks a lot better than it is behind the scenes, is what I would say. 

Ashley: For me, it just felt like the pacing was off all over the place. 

Ciaran: Yea, the pacing just didn’t feel right the entire movie. 

Ashley: They took long periods of time setting it up and then they just rushed like the rest of the movie.