From the mind of Hiromasa Yonebayashi (HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, PRINCESS MONONOKE, PONYO) comes a brand-new Japanese anime fantasy film entitled MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER. Based upon the 1971 children’s book The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, the film centers on Mary, an ordinary young girl stuck in the country with her Great-Aunt Charlotte and seemingly no adventures or friends in sight. She follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest, where she discovers an old broomstick and the strange Fly-by-Night flower, a rare plant that blossoms only once every seven years and only in that forest. Together the flower and the broomstick whisk Mary above the clouds and far away to Endor College – a school of magic run by headmistress Madam Mumblechook and the brilliant Doctor Dee. But there are terrible things happening at the school, and when Mary tells a lie, she must risk her life to try to set things right.
Lending their voices to the film's diverse cast of characters are Ruby Barnhill as Mary; Lynda Baron as Mary's Great-Aunt Charlotte; Kate Winslet as Madam Mumblechook; and Jim Broadbent as Doctor Dee. Directed and co-written by Yonebayashi with Riko Sakahuchi, MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER is being distributed by Gkids, an up-and-coming studio that has earned a total of nine Oscar Nominations for Best Animated Feature since 2009. Among their many films, Gkids is now distributes the majority of Studio Ghibli's highly-celebrated animation catalogue, as well as other top-tier animated features such as MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI, ERNEST AND CELESTINE, BOY AND THE WORLD, A CAT IN PARIS, THE BREADWINNER, and much more.
MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER will open in theaters beginning on January 18th.
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