Mary and the Witch's Flower

Mary and the Witch's Flower (メアリと魔女の花, Meari to Majo no Hana) is an Japanese animated feature films and produced by Studio Ponoc and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced Yoshiaki Nishimura.

It premiere in Japan on July 8, 2017 by Toho while the English-language dubbed and subtitled version was released concurrently in the United States on January 19, 2018 by GKIDS.

The film began life following the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki and the shutting down of the production side of Studio Ghibli in 2014. Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who directed The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There, and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura, who worked alongside Isao Takahata in The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, had left Ghibli to found Studio Ponoc on April 15, 2015 and this is the first feature film. Additionally, 80% of the staff that worked on this film worked at Ghibli.

It is based on British writer Mary Stuart (1916 - 2014) 1971's children story, "The Little Broomstick". It was originally released in Japan 1975 as "Small Magic Broom" (translation by Kyoko Kakegawa / illustration by Akahoshi Akira Mamoru) and republished as a new edition in 2017 thanks to the release of the film adaptation. It was called "Mary and the Witch's Flower New translation" (Translation by Toshiya Echizen, Yuki Nakata ) and was published by KADOKAWA.

The project officially debuted with its poster visual on December 14, 2016, and its lead voice actor Hana Sugisaki was announced on February 23, 2017. Yuki Amami and six other cast members were announced on May 23. Actors Sugisaki, Amami and Kamiki have had prior experience performing in previos Studio Ghibli works.

Plot
Mary Smith moves into the northern English country estate of her Great Aunt Charlotte. The bored, friendless girl tries to make herself useful through chores, but repeatedly messes up. A local boy named Peter teases her for her clumsiness and wild red hair. Tib-cat and Gib-cat, Peter's cats, lead Mary to some mysterious glowing flowers. The gardener identifies the flowers as "fly-by-night"; legend has it that witches covet the flower for its magical power. The next day, Gib-cat disappears. Tib-cat leads Mary to a broomstick but she accidentally bursts a fly-by-night bulb on it. The bulb releases magical power, making the broomstick come to life and enabling Mary to ride it like a witch. The Little Broomstick whisks Mary away to a complex of buildings in the clouds, known as Endor College for witches.

Head mistress Madam Mumblechook assumes Mary is a new pupil with Tib-cat as her familiar, and takes her on a tour of the college. She introduces Mary to Doctor Dee, the college's renowned chemistry teacher. Mary finds herself able to perform advanced spells such as invisibility. Madam and Doctor Dee become convinced that Mary is a prodigy because of her performance as well as her red hair, which is a distinguishing feature among the best witches.

Mary admits that her magical ability comes from fly-by-night, and that Tib-cat belongs to Peter. Madam's attitude changes then but she lets Mary return home once Mary turns over Peter's address. That night, Madam sends a message to Mary, informing that she's kidnapped Peter, and demands that Mary bring the fly-by-night bulbs to her. She and Tib-cat quickly fly back to Endor with the bulbs, but Madam and Doctor Dee imprison her in their transformation lab. Mary finds Peter locked in with her, and discovers that Doctor Dee has been experimenting on animals, including Gib-cat, transforming them into fantastic creatures. From the spell book she took from Madam's office, Mary uses a spell to undo the transformations and unlock the lab. They try to escape on the Little Broomstick, but Peter is recaptured.

The Little Broomstick takes Mary to an isolated cottage on a tiny island that seems to be alive. Inside the cottage, Mary finds notes on spells and a mirror that Great-Aunt Charlotte uses to contact her. Through visions, Charlotte reveals that the cottage was her old home, and she used to be a red-haired pupil who excelled at Endor. One day Charlotte found fly-by-night on the campus, leading Madam and Doctor Dee to obsessively pursue a project to use the flower to transform all humans into witches. When their experiments failed, Charlotte escaped Endor, taking the flower with her. Charlotte begs Mary to use her last bulbs to return home, but Mary vows to rescue Peter.

Mary returns to Endor and finds Madam and Doctor Dee trying to transform Peter into a witch. The experiment fails again, leaving Peter trapped within a gelatinous monster. Mary gets the spell book to Peter, and he uses it to undo the failed experiment and all of Madam and Doctor Dee's research. Mary and Peter fly home, with her throwing away her last bulb and saying she does not need magic.

Characters

 * Mary Smith
 * Tib, Black male cat
 * Gib, Grey female cat
 * Great-Aunt Charlotte
 * Flanagan
 * Doctor Dee
 * Madam Mumblechook
 * Peter
 * Miss Banks
 * Zebedee

Music
Composer Muramatsu Takatsugu, who also scored Yonebayashi's last film When Marnie Was There, is in charge of the soundtrack for Mary and The Witch's Flower. Joshua Messick, one of the world's leading performers of the hammered dulcimer, participated in the score recording.

Behind the Scenes
The end of 2014, the animation production side of Studio Ghibli had been dissolved following Hayao Miyazaki's retirement. Yoshiaki Nishimura and Hiromasa Yonebayashi decided to produce a new film on April 15, 2015 and established a new company, Studio Ponoc.

Following Miyazaki's method of adapting children's books, Yonebayashi decided on adapting "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stuart. The film's production was composed of 80% of Ghibli's production staff. Much of the film's style and storytelling was greatly affected by Ghibli. Additionally, the ending credits contained a "Thank you" message addressed to Hayao Miyazaki. For this reason, the film is sometimes described as "the second Studio Ghibli" or the successor to Studio Ghibli.

Box office
Mary and The Witch's Flower grossed $2.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $38.6 million in other territories (including $27.6 million in Japan, $3.8 million in South Korea, $2.9 million in China and $2.6 million in France), for a worldwide total of $41 million.

In Japan, the film opened at second place, grossing ¥428 million ($3.9 million) during its opening weekend; this was an increase compared to Yonebayashi's previous film, When Marnie Was There (2014), which had grossed ¥378.86 million in its first weekend.

In the United States, the film held a special Thursday night preview on January 18, 2018 where it grossed $1.2 million from 573 theaters. It then stayed at 161 theaters over the weekend and grossed $329,097, bringing its four-day gross to $1.5 million. Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 69 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mary and The Witch's Flower honors its creator's Studio Ghibli roots with a gentle, beautifully animated story whose simplicity is rounded out by its entrancing visuals." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Shelia O'Malley of RogerEbert.com gave the film a rating of three stars out of four and stated that "the total lack of inner conflict in Mary might be why Mary and The Witch's Flower-as transportive and entertaining as it is-feels a little slight". However, Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times noted that although the film "isn't quite a masterpiece" and "the screenplay needs a polish", she concluded that the film is "a joy to look at: a visual adventure, and a continuation of a remarkable legacy".