Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)

This is the first and more popular of only two productions by Studio Ponoc, a breakaway from Studio Ghibli. The company was not yet trying to distinguish itself from its predecessor; MatWF presents a lot of the same trope patterns (e.g., goo monsters) and even a similar logo, giving thanks to Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. I suppose if it weren't for the likenesses, I might not have checked this movie out.

It's not clear what decade the story takes place in; the only TV we see operates by dials, but it is in an old woman's (Lynda Baron) rural British house. Judging from the literary source material, Mary Stewart's The Little Broomstick, it might be around 1971. In any event, the woman's tween great-niece, Mary (Ruby Barnhill), has just moved in because her parents are too busy to take care of her. Between summer boredom and concern for a missing local cat, Mary ignores a rule against entering the misty forest and discovers both an old broom and a fly-by-night, a rare flower that blooms once every seven years. Unwittingly breaking a bulb, she gains a day of magical powers and the half-sentient broom flies her to Endor College, a secret school of magic. Headmistress Madam Mumblechook (Kate Winslet) and chemistry professor Dr. Dee (Jim Broadbent) congratulate her on being a prodigy, but when she tells them how she got her powers, they lose their friendly air and become determined to acquire the rest of the fly-by-night at any cost for their unethical pet experiment.

Don't let the opening scene confuse you: It features a girl who looks a lot like Mary but isn't. I thought, "Why is she acting like the previous events never happened? Or was that a glimpse of the future?"

At home, Mary considers herself unlucky, always making things worse when she tries to be of service. I'd say it's more a matter of rashness leading to clumsiness and low self-esteem. Like Anne of Green Gables, she hates her red hair and is slow to forgive a boy (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who calls attention to it, as if that were the rudest thing he'd done. She feels better about it after learning that redheaded witches are the most enviable, even knowing she's not a natural witch.

It's too bad the fly-by-night's effects are so brief, because there's a lot to explore at Endor. You may think, "Eh, just another Hogwarts," but I detect a few interesting differences. For example, some of the magical devices use electricity, and there isn't just one fantastic sport. Mary gets only a whirlwind tour and mostly likes what she sees, until she gets to the area with the aforementioned experimentation. (I won't say what, but I hope competitor schools care more about human and animal welfare.)

Perhaps the filmmakers felt a need to keep things down to 103 minutes for a young audience. Even so, some more details could be fleshed out. I mean, there's only one anthropomorphic animal on screen, and nobody acts like he's out of the ordinary. (The other animals show remarkable intelligence, but they don't talk or walk upright.)

To my surprise, Mary seems to lose all interest in magic once she realizes she can't keep it indefinitely. Oh, she'll use it to set things back the way they were before magical intervention, but she won't even save any extra for a future emergency. I doubt she keeps a single memento. Guess all she needed to change her mind was one bad experience, tho she hardly acts traumatized in the end.

If there's a moral here (and that's a big if), I'm thinking it's that power corrupts -- or at least draws the attention of the corrupt. There may also be a sentiment that ambition is dangerous if not intrinsically amoral. Not a good starting message for a fledgling studio.

That could explain why the public reception is only moderately positive. We come for escapism, and the protagonist nixes it before long. The result is overly simple, with little to offer beyond engaging visuals, some of which pass quickly enough to feel like a tease. It doesn't help that the resolutions border on predictable.

If Studio Ponoc isn't defunct, I hope it tries again with stronger writing, whether in the same vein or another. MatWF may not be a classic, but it shows potential.