Mary and The Witch's Flower (2017)

Mary and the Witch’s Flower feels like opening a storybook where every page is lit from within: the countryside glows, the skies shimmer, and magic arrives with the kind of hush-and-gasp wonder that only great animation can pull off. Hiromasa Yonebayashi crafts a brisk, buoyant adventure that’s easy to sink into, full of whimsical details and a heroine whose clumsy courage makes her instantly worth rooting for. The film’s enchanted school, oddball creatures, and sweeping broomstick flights carry a gentle Ghibli-adjacent vibe—cozy around the edges, but with enough peril to keep the stakes real for kids and adults alike. If you’re looking for a deep, sprawling mythology you may find it lighter than expected, but if you want a beautifully drawn, warm-hearted fantasy that moves like a dream, this is an easy yes.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is clearly aiming for that classic, hand-drawn storybook rush: a lonely kid stumbles into a hidden magical world, gets in over her head, and has to prove she’s more than the “special” thing that found her. The problem is it often feels like a greatest-hits remix of better fantasy adventures, with a script that moves briskly but doesn’t linger long enough for the characters or stakes to really land. If you’re expecting Studio Ghibli-level emotional depth or a richly layered mythology, this may come off as pretty, pleasant, and ultimately a bit slight. Still, the animation is lively and the central setup is charming, so it can work nicely for families or viewers who mainly want a colorful, low-demand magical ride rather than something that sticks with you.