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Mary and the Witch's Flower Screening This Saturday on Film4
posted on by Andrew Osmond
Film4 has Tweeted Studio Ponoc's Mary and The Witch's Flower will receive its first network screening on the channel on Saturday March 7 at 4.45 p.m. The online TV guide listing does not specify if this screening is dubbed or subtitled; anime screenings on Film4 in the daytime in the past have tended to be dubbed. Film4 is available on Channel 14 on Freeview.
Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi also directed Studio Ghibli's Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. He both directed and wrote Mary alongside Riko Sakaguchi, who wrote the screenplay for Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Takatsugu Muramatsu (When Marnie Was There) composed the music. Yoshiaki Nishimura is credited as producer. Many former staff from Studio Ghibli joined Ponoc in the film's production.
The BFG's Ruby Barnhill stars in the English dub as the titular character Mary, and Kate Winslet (Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Mountain Between Us) plays school chairwoman Madam Mumblechook. Jim Broadbent, who co-starred with Winslet in Iris, plays Mumblechook's colleague Doctor Dee. Other cast members include Ewen Bremner, Lynda Baron, Rasmus Hardiker, Teresa Gallagher, Morwenna Banks, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis.
The film is based on Mary Stewart's book The Little Broomstick. Studio Ponoc scouted locations in Shropshire, U.K., the setting of the original novel. The Japanese version stars Hana Sugisaki (When Marnie Was There, live-action Blade of the Immortal) as Mary and Ryunosuke Kamiki (The Secret World of Arrietty's Sho, your name.'s Taki) as Peter.
