The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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Mary and The Witch's Flower
Animation · Adventure · Family · 2017
Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside, follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest where she finds a strange flower and an old broom, none of which is as ordinary as it seems.
Movie details
Mary and The Witch's Flower
“From a single lie, everything will change.”
2017 Animation · Adventure · Family 1h 43m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.2 / 10
Community rating
Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside, follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest where she finds a strange flower and an old broom, none of which is as ordinary as it seems.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Mary and The Witch's Flower?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Secret World of Arrietty
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Welcome to Smelliville
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The Oggly family arrive at the municipal rubbish dump of Smelliville and must look for a new home, but they never feel really welcome anywhere. They stink and are for most humans just a tad too oggly. When Firebottom, the family dragon, crash-lands on the run-down rubbish tip of the small town of Smelliville, the Ogglies at once feel at home. And it's here they want to stay.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Written by
Riko Sakaguchi · Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Yuki Amami
Madam Mumblechook (voice)
Ryunosuke Kamiki
Peter (voice)
Hana Sugisaki
Mary (voice)
Fumiyo Kohinata
Doctor Dee (voice)
Hikari Mitsushima
The Red-Haired Witch (voice)
Jiro Sato
Flanagan (voice)
Kenichi Endo
Zebedee (voice)
Court is in session
Put Mary and The Witch's Flower on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.