Studio Ghibli Reveals First Images From its New CGI Movie!

With Studio Ghibli announcing that they were officially back in the business of making feature animated films last year, we learned not too long ago that two film projects were currently in development. While Hayao Miyasaki would be working on a hand-drawn film, his son Goro would be helming the studio’s first attempt at a full-blown CGI feature.

While the former isn’t expected to release for at least 2 more years, this news was quickly followed up by the (pleasantly surprisingly) announcement that the latter CGI films, ‘Aya and the Witch‘, would be ready to release this Winter!

Well, following a report via Kotaku, while there hasn’t been much concrete news from its development to date, a whole batch of official images released from the feature gives us our first look at the film!

Studio Ghibli Release “‘Aya and the Witch” Images!

As noted above, ‘Aya and the Witch’ will represent Studio Ghibli’s first attempt at a fully-GCI generated film and, based on what we can see here, it certainly looks more than a little interesting.

While no specific details surrounding the film’s plot have yet been revealed, it is known to be an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’ novel ‘Earwig and the Witch’. Not, incidentally, the first time Studio Ghibli has adapted one of her books (Howls Moving Castle). As such, if you’ve read that, you may at least have a better idea as to which characters (and scenes) are being portrayed in these stills.

What Do We Think?

Being a huge fan of Studio Ghibli, whatever they release, I’ll happily devour it. I must admit though, I’m not entirely certain I’m overly keen on the direction in which this animation style is going. I was perhaps hoping for something that looked a bit more ‘Ghibli’ than this. Is it just me, or does this look a little Russian in its approach?

Putting those very minor concerns to one side, however, being a Studio Ghibli film, it’s almost guaranteed I’m probably going to love it!

It should, of course, be noted that CGI films are (generally speaking) quicker and cheaper to produce and, as such, while we all love Studio Ghibli’s traditional style, somethings do occasionally have to change.

While I am, therefore, more than a little excited about what this project may represent, I think I’ll wait until I see the first official trailer before I get too carried away. As for when that will happen, well, given that this is due to release around this December, all going well we should see something in the very near future!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!