So today I decided to watch Mary and The Witch's Flower on the good ol' Netflix. I had been skimming through and I thought it looked interesting and decided to watch. I've never heard of Mary and The Witch's Flower prior to today but apparently it had great ratings when it was released.
If you're familiar with Studio Ghibli's works such as Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, then you should know that one of the animators from Studio Ghibli, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, had directed Mary and The Witch's Flower. Yonebayashi had previously directed The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There and now takes on Mary and The Witch's Flower which is based on a book by Mary Stewart called The Little Broomstick. Mary and The Witch's Flower is a Studio Ponoc film which, for those of you who didn't know, is founded by former Studio Ghibli lead film producer Yoshiaki Nishimura.
I'm not sure if I would call this review early or late to be honest, I initially wanted to move my Movie Night time to Friday since that was my day off but I think I'm so used to it being 'Sunday Movie Night' that I had forgotten. Thankfully I was able to get this review in by the end of this week but I think I need more time than I thought to write everything down. I'm fighting between immersing myself in the movie and making a good, quality, in-depth review. So if any of you could tell me your preference or opinion on what I should lean towards, do comment down below! :)
Mary and The Witch's Flower
Jumping straight into the action, the movie starts out with a fire that had consumed what looks to be a giant floating tree. A young red-headed girl, which I presumed to be Mary, had been trying to escape with a bag full of seeds wrapped around her wrist. She was being chased by these beings wearing what looked like hazmat suits... with a divers helmet...? They follow her to a large branch on the end of the tree and corner her. One of them takes out an electrical rope, ready to subdue her. She holds the bag of seeds closely to her, a look of defiance in her eyes. Right as it seems as she has nowhere to go she summons her broom and escapes into the night sky.
The leader of the bunch ordered her troops to follow after the girl, and they quickly transformed into what seemed like alien birds. They chase after her, and two giant hands made of water attempt to clamp down on her, missing by a hair. Carefully dodging the newly transformed water birds, she looks back at the island she had escaped from, now giving off a bright blue light that reaches for the sky. The light suddenly implodes on itself, creating a large explosion that sends her broom flying and you watch as she spirals down towards land. The birds get caught up in the flames from the explosion, ceasing their pursuit.
The girl escapes the blast but passes out as she spirals towards a large forest. Falling off her broom, the bag that held the bag had escaped her wrist and was now plummeting towards the ground along with her. An interesting change happens to her hair, turning from red to light brown. The seeds actually escape the confines of the bag, somehow, and sprinkle themselves onto the ground. The seeds quickly take root into the ground, creating a bright blue light, the same as the explosion from before. The surrounding trees and animals grow quickly grow at an unrealistic pace, hatchlings turning into full-grown birds, and saplings growing into large trees. As a result, they trap her broom in their branches.
So far I'm very invested in the story and want to learn what the heck just happened. Many questions stir in my mind as I wait for the story to be unfolded in the following events of the movie. No words had been spoken from Mary so far, only from the odd beings that were chasing her, leaving more to the mystery of who she is and what part she has in the plot. The opening did a good job on leaving you intrigued and wanting more.
Turning back the clock, we're introduced to what looks to be a younger, more naive Mary; full name Mary Smith. She's staring out the window of her house, a week until school starts, exclaiming her immense feeling of boredom in a very British accent (to my American ears). Greeting her great-aunt Charlette downstairs you're given more ideas of what kind of person she is. Optimistic but easily bored, kind-hearted yet unbelievably clumsy, a great mix for our protagonist. "You're meant to look twice before you leap, she hardly looks at all" notes Ms.Banks.
Her aunt and Ms.Banks are her hosts until her parents arrive, still finishing their work. They need to head to a funeral, leaving Mary alone to fight her boredom for a day. Walking outside into their garden she tries to help around but thanks to her clumsiness she only makes it worse. A neighboring boy, Peter, makes fun of her endeavors, rudely calling her a red-haired monkey, which she shows a great deal of dislike towards that name.
Mary then goes out into the fields to eat the lunch that Ms.Banks prepared for her, and crosses paths with a black cat. She feeds some of her sandwiches to it, quickly consuming the rest, and lies down onto the grass behind her. She starts to complain about her life, explaining how odd she is because of her red hair and her lack of friends. She's aware of how clumsy she is and believes that she is unable to help or be productive, but not for lack of trying. She claims to relate to the black cat and everyone's superstition of how it's unlucky. The black cat almost seems bored of her one-sided conversation and leaves. She recklessly follows, likely in hopes of some sort of adventure or something to keep her mind off of the boredom.
The black cat walks away, moving around a small shrub, but comes out a darker shade of gray. She rushes after it, and it slowly comes to a stop in front of an old fence covered in moss, now back to being the black cat it once was. Following it past the fence she goes into a large forest, which is unexplored territory for her. Losing sight of the cat she jumps through a bush and finds herself in front of old, gray, broken trees and dry grass, a totally different scenery from the mossy lush forest she had been in. There she is greeted by two cats, one black and the other gray, named Tib and Gib, respectively. She slowly follows them to a stop where they start growling at these beautiful florescent flowers, the same blue as the magic from before.
She reaches her hand to pluck one, both cats growling and screeching at her for it. I would think that'd be a sign to maybe not pick up the flower, right? But she explains that she's only taking one and recklessly plucks one from its stem. Both cats now look terrified of either her or the flowers, I'm not sure which one, and quickly leaves her to her own devices.
Mary shows her new find to the gardener, Zebedee, and he tells her that the flower is called a Fly-By-Night. It's a very rare flower that only grows in that certain forest and blooms every 7 years. So really, it's a great surprise she even found it. The following night, the stem that the flower had been plucked started to glow, creating a glob of magical blue liquid at the stem. It then wilts away, almost as if it killed itself. Kind of sad when you think about it like that... A fog starts to creep from the forest and pink sparks quickly zap across it in an ominous and creepy way. The way the cats reacted made it seem like the fog was an uncommon thing.
That night, Tib jumps into Mary's room frightened to the bone and without Gib. Mary comforts him, and with Gib missing it prompts Mary to look for her. The following morning, as she makes her way out, her aunt gives her a note with a parcel explaining to deliver something to Peter and warns her to not go into the forest. As per usual, she's already out the door, giving little thought to the warning. After delivering the parcel she goes off into the misty forest, Peter tagging along. He also warns her to not go into the forest on misty days. She rudely accuses him of being a coward and he calls her a red-headed monkey. They have a little argument and she leaves him to look for Gib in the misty forest.
She finds Tib in front of the gate with a Fly-By-Night bud in his mouth. He stares at her for a moment and walks into the forest, she follows. Bringing her to an area in the forest she hadn't been before she finds the old broom that had been wrapped up by branches, now forgotten. After freeing the broomstick out of the trees grasp she finds foreign symbols engraved on its handle. Almost as if Tib knew what to do, he tosses the flower towards her. Fumbling to grab it she accidentally smashes it and it pops almost like a berry. The way she's interacting with it makes it seem like a very sticky substance. The juices are now stuck to her hand and suddenly give off a bright light, imbuing her with its essence and she now has markings on the palms of her hands.
Her broom is also imbued with the Fly-By-Night and its handle begins to thicken and it regains a lively color. The broomstick starts to shake and she tries to stop it by clinging onto it, but it just bounces around the forest, taking her with it in a cute and funny way. Almost as if it's learning how to walk, it quickly learns that it can levitate once again, and that's when the magic begins. Quickly taking off, it speeds up and brings her to new heights.
I think if I were in Mary's position I would pass out. I'm totally fine if I'm confined in a giant aerodynamic metal machine floating in the air (a.k.a. an airplane), but if I'm up too high with no wind barrier I'm utterly terrified. I would need to get accustomed to it in a slow and eased way, so being launched up like a water balloon would definitely not be my preferred way of getting 'slowly accustomed'. I'm sure the beautiful view would be worth it for some, but the only way I'd be awake in that scenario would be if my adrenaline kicks in. x)
The broom seems to know exactly where it's going, which would be heading towards a giant, dark, ominous cloud full of lightning. Yay! The broom abruptly plummets towards the ground (oh gosh, help Mary). It breaks through a thick dark cloud and she finds herself in a beautiful, bright environment with giant floating islands somehow sustainable enough to house birds and deer and even have a few lakes on the top of the islands. Where it's water source comes from, I do not know. Past the bright and sunny floating islands is a large island surrounded by a darker cloud. On top of the island is a large building and a beautiful tune plays in an ominous way in the background as they pan around the island.
Now seemingly a bit lost, or maybe homesick, the broom flies into a clothing line and the roof of the stable that was housing a great number of broomsticks. She's suddenly met by a short humanoid animal, I'm not sure what animal, named Flanagan. He calms the broom down and quickly turns to Mary, lecturing her to learn how to better care for her broom. Assuming she's a witch and Tib is her familiar, he collars him and leads Mary to her 'first class' in Endor College, which I assume is a witch's school. She tries to explain how she's lost and knows nothing of her surroundings, but he assumes she's joking about her not being a witch. He's very energetic and chipper, rushing away as soon as the first bell rings.
The animation for Flanagan himself must've taken a while. He's very energetic and rushes around like that squirrel from Ice Age who wants to find his acorn. He also has a unique way of moving, in confident strides, scrambling like a cartoon, hopping from one foot to another, or almost like a dance move.
I must say, I really enjoy the aesthetic of the majority of the school. It gives a magical yet worn vibe, obviously a very old school by the sounds of Flanagan. The school itself has many dark, faded colors but also some bright and vibrant ones. I love the unique characteristics that it has like the shape of the roofs, each building seems built from a different era.
Flanagan leads her to the front gate of the school to a headstone that listed rules/guidelines in the language that was also found on her broom. The first rule he read aloud to her, something along the lines of - Trespassers will be transformed into something else. Once the gate opened he scrambled away bidding her a quick and short goodbye. Upon entering the school grounds it almost looks like an abandoned carnival with some decorations that would very out of place in a normal school.
In front of the entrance to the school is a giant water fountain and when Mary came closer to it, the fountain transformed into a large woman made of water. She's the headmistress of the school, known as Madam Mumblechook, and accepted her as the new girl in school. After trying to say that she may be in the wrong place Mumblechook tells her that she couldn't be, her red hair tells her otherwise. She then asks Mary if perhaps she may be a trespasser, which then forced her to accept that she's just the new girl in school.
When she enters the main hall of the school you're met by a great number of different things, for one there's a tube in the middle of the room that students can go up and down on almost like an elevator. A few students are on magic carpets, others walking normally, and some floating in large bubbles. There are also a few staircases that would not be architecturally possible in the real world that lead up to different floors of the school. The inside of the school looks very neat and pristine compared to the outside which was more grimy and dirty.
A sigil on the ground forms a cloud underneath their feet that pick both of them up as they head to view the multiple classrooms that would be available to Mary. Mumblechook already speaks quite highly of Mary's broom skills which is a bit surprising. Many of the classes explained sound a lot like normal classes in real life such as chemistry, history, and aeronautics. Although a few were a little more specialized for just magic such as flying and transformation, which is what Endor College specializes at.
Many things at this school are different than your normal college, almost like a school for superheroes. Different buildings are for people who specialize in different kinds of magic, and I especially wouldn't mind trying the food there, also cooked with magic. Mumblechook continues to compliment Mary on her skills of riding, the insignia/markings on her hand, and her red hair that's superior among witches, going as far as to say she's a once-in-a-century talent.
Meeting Dr.Dee a famously well-known scientist she answers a question which turns out to be right and is brought to an excelled class. After surpassing a difficult assignment with flying colors she's covered in compliments and she loses sight of what she came for. She's brought to where Dr.Dee holds his transformation tests and Tib goes wild, bolting towards the opened door. Mary is then brought to Mumblechook's office to sign an enrollment form.
Madam Mumblechook's office is so full of life in a way. I love the design that was put into it, a lot of color and different unique objects, some found in the real world and some aren't. I've always loved when a writer or artist can bring to life a whole new world with a different way of functioning, it's always piqued my interest and left me wanting more. Especially if they're gadgets that were creatively made like from Home Alone to keep the robbers out.
After accidentally opening a painting she finds a book filled with master spells. The painting door closes and Mary is unable to open it back up and Madam Mumblechook comes upstairs to where Mary is. She fumbles around with it and a part of me wants to just yell 'Hide it!!' but she just continues to fumble around with it and Mumblechook is none the wiser until she finally hides it behind her back. After telling her the truth, that her powers came from a mysterious flower, Madam Mumblechook suddenly gets aggressive commanding Mary to show her what's behind her back.
Showing her the note that her aunt gave her she lies and tells her that Peter has the flower and is a much more splendid witch than she. They send her off and create a butterfly to follow her so that she can lead them to where the stolen Fly-By-Nights are.
This is where I'll leave the rest of the movie to your watching :) I'm a bit surprised on how much information I was able to write down from not even getting to the half-way mark. I hope what I've written so far has piqued your interest because it really is an interesting film. I will admit, the story does start. A part of me wishes our Mary wasn't so naive and trusting and a little less reckless, maybe a bit more mischevious or cunning, but you can really only get one or the other. I have to say that the other half of the movie, a part of me really wanted to scream at her for the foolish decisions she made but alas it's but a movie.
Rating:7.8/10
Sources:
Mary and The Witch's Flower
Cornered
Water Birds
Laying Down
Magical Blue Flowers
Zebedee
Fly-By-Night Marking
Flanagan
Endor College
Madam Mumblechook
Madam Mumblechook's Office