based on the novel by diane wind jones and directed by gor miyazaki, son of ghibli's founding father,d the witch follows the adventures of a young girl from a children's home who is adopted against her wishes by a mysterious couple. i'm a witch. great! it turns out they are enchanters, and earwig, renamed erica, who has magic in her blood, is keen to learn, but bella iago only wants her to work. hang on, you actually talk?! of course i do, just not very often. it sounds like fun, and richard e grant lends entertainingly grim gravitas to the english language dub. but having first aired onjapanese tv at the end of last year, this theatrical release is distinctive only for being ghibli's first major disappointment, remarkable for being quite so unremarkable. and the rest is up to you, 0k? the story is surprisingly flat, the animation sub pixar, and the overall tone, breathless without ever being magical. it's a shame not least because gor miyazaki's previous films, the underrated tales from earthsea and the more critically acclaimed from up on poppy hill, both showed great promise and in