Like most Ghibli movies, the plot is simple and straight forward, being mostly carried by great art and ost. This is sadly not the case for this film. That said, this wasn't a deal breaker for me. I'll still give it credit because I do like the character designs, and the animation every now and then. It's also Ghibli's first CG film, so I can't really be all that surprised it's a little janky.
I think it would have been a good move to adopt a stop motion-esque visual style, since the character models look extremely plasticky— much like PVC or Vinyl figures. They should have leaned into it fully. Reduce the scale of the material in some fabrics, some lighting adjustments, framerate adjustments, fake seams on characters and limbs. The film's final appearance would be much more visually interesting, memorable, and eye catching.
The biggest problem with this film, is how it just suddenly ends.
I was relatively entertained the whole time, but wow, the runtime is way too short. It's over as soon as we get to the meat and potatoes of what was actually going on. The movie straight up gives up on itself. Earwig's problems are all resolved via the power of the time skip, someone comes home, and then the movie ends. I sat there in disbelief as the credits rolled. "wait, WHAT".
It's just a shame really, because it wasn't terrible. What's there isn't what made the movie bad, it's what it lacked. Things never really got anywhere. It honestly felt more like I watched 3 episodes of an anime that just suddenly got cancelled before the 4th episode. The cover of the movie is an outright LIE. I just don't really understand how anyone working on the film read the script / screenplay / whatever and said, "Hmm, it ends like that? Yeah, that'll be satisfying, lets make the movie!" Animation is such an undertaking, it honestly baffles me when the decision is made to adapt something so... incomplete.
That said, the story was technically correctly adapted, as the author, Diane Wyyne Jones, only wrote that much before her untimely death. I'm a little more inclined to believe this was just a CG test, which would explain the short runtime. But really, who knows.
I wouldn't recommend this movie, unless you enjoy being left dissatisfied.
