Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Mary Smith lives with her Great Aunt Charlotte in an English estate. She follows two cats into the woods and finds a strange flower. The gardener tells her that it's the Witch's Flower. It an elusive plant which blooms only once every seven years and he's never seen in person. The cats are neighbor boy Peter's named Tib and Gib. Tib leads Mary to a broom buried in a tree. Tib gives Mary a flower which ignites her magical powers and the broom carries her to Endor College for witches. She is met by groundskeeper Flanagan. The college is run by Madam Mumblechook and Doctor Dee.Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi is the key animator in many of the Studio Ghibli's biggest hits. This movie is infused with many of those flavors. It is very reminiscent of Spirited Away, a girl stumbling into a magical world. It's its biggest advantage and its most distracting. This is a big pot of various stories that have been done before. I also do wish that the characters be Japanese rather than being English. It needs to step away from the Harry Potter comparison. It's an old time English characterization anyways. Mary and Peter have a nice connection. Their self-sacrifices and willingness to save the other is very compelling. They could use a bit more screen time before Mary finds the broomstick. Overall, the sense of wonder from Ghibli is still intact and this is a fine animated adventure.

This got three stars because it does have beautiful animation and they did a really amazing magical land but outside of that nothing about it was that good. The story fell flat and became contradictory. I was waiting for something to happen and to be excited but that feeling never came. There were two plots in the film that we're completely contradictory. First she shows up at the school and the headmistress is like "we have been watching you for a long time now" but also doesn't know she's the niece of the woman who tried to destroy her or that she has never used magic before that day? What?Second being Mary has a set amount of magic? And she's constantly 'almost out' but can still destroy an entire science lab when she's suppose to be completely out? And how does everyone around her know how much magic she has left and not her? And how does she have a limited amount of magic when her aunt is this powerful witch?Music didn't stand out as either amazing or dull just eh.Characters and dialoge was also so flat. Seriously just plain awful at points.

This anime is about trying to capture the magic of a strange flower, which is ironic, considering that it's the same thing that Studio Ponoc wants to do: capture the magic of the Ghibli animation movies. They even use their animator as the director. But just as with Kari-gurashi no Arietti and Omoide no Mânî, both based on books written by anglosaxon writers, something feels a bit off. The original story is not about Japanese values, yet the anime tries hard to make it so. Also, they attempt to use the same recipe: take an innocent clumsy lovable girl and put her center stage, animating the hell out of every emotion that she has; add cats and other animals; make it as close as possible to a coming of age story. And it comes short. It takes a moment to realize that the hero of this story is not the girl, but the cat.Even so, it is a beautiful movie. The problem I had with it was the story, which was not as deep as I wanted and expected from a serious Japanese studio connected to Ghibli. If you ignore the crass simplicity of the story, you will enjoy this. Also, nothing really terrible happens, so it's a good children's animation. Yet in the end it feels more Disney than Japanese. Maybe that's just me.

Mary and The Witch's Flower is the debut anime film from Studio Ponoc and directed by former Studio Ghibli animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie Was There). Based on the novel "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stewart, it is a nice first offering from the relatively new animation studio and features some truly beautiful animation.On her Great Aunt's estate, young Mary Smith (voiced by Ruby Barnhill) lives a bored existence as she tries to pass the time before her parents join her. One day, while venturing out in the nearby woods, Mary stumbles upon a mysterious blue flower, believed to have been used by witches for their magical powers.Naturally, the film has taken some strong influences from its Ghibli roots, particularly that of Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service, but also from the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, with its overall magical tone and setting. The story does unfortunately play it safe one too many times, especially during the final act, and this does affect the overall enjoyment at times, whether this is how things are in the original novel I am unsure. Needless to say though, the animation is simply gorgeous and is up there with some of Studio Ghibli's best films. The attention-to-detail on every frame is exquisite and the use of colour makes the film great to look at. The performances of the English dub cast is solid, particularly that of newcomer Ruby Barnhill (Disney's The BFG) as the title character. However, as likeable a protagonist Mary is, her character seemed somewhat generic from a storytelling perspective and most of the supporting cast felt underdeveloped and one-dimensional. I have yet to see the original Japanese dub but I plan to do so in the not-too-distant future.I rate it 7.5/10