Studio Ghibli’s new movie looks like no other before

The first trailer for Studio Ghibli’s latest film is a daring departure from the animation studio’s signature look. From Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro, Earwig and the Witch is based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Instead of traditional animation, Goro boldly took the studio’s look into a computer-generated direction.

The film follows a 10-year-old girl growing up in England in the 1990s, unaware that she’s actually the daughter of a witch. When she’s adopted by a strange couple, she begins to discover her magical powers. The movie was originally supposed to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, but it was delayed with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. First images circulated over the summer. Earwig and the Witch is set to premiere in Japan on Dec. 30.

Studio Ghibli is also slowly working on another film, How Do You Live? This one has no release date, though Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement to work on it.