CTap96

Here I am, 14 years after this movie was released, singing it's praises, and thanking my lucky stars for it, while wishing there was a dozen more just like it - this movie is gold for very young children. I know, because I have been watching it (and rewatching it) via the lens of my three-year-old granddaughter. When nothing, and I mean nothing else will draw her attention and make her willing to chill for a bit, turning on Judy Moody will transform her - she is completely focused and riveted. All the actors are a treat! Regarding the reviewers that hated on this movie, I'd say this just isn't their kind of movie!

My husband and I are impressed with David Jonsson, whom we are watching for the first time. His character is classy, like old school acting we haven't seen in a while.

I am no more a fan of revising classic works than the next Marple fan. I've seen "4:50 to Paddington," with Joan Hickson, more times than I can count. When it was remade some years later, there were some tweaks to the story, but I enjoyed that version too, especially with Highclere as the filming location. As far as other retellings after Joan Hickson's time, I felt some were good and some not.

They never did "Murder is Easy," with Joan Hickson. In my opinion, Benedict Cumberbatch made the version he was in, as he assisted Miss Marple ("not a Miss Pinkerton" - no offense to the wonderful Penelope Wilton) because, frankly, the subject was particularly distasteful.

I am reviewing this before I see the second part of this new "Murder is Easy" because I already know my opinion of what makes watching this version worth at least one viewing: the lovely filming locations, Penelope Wilton, Douglas Henshall, Mark Bonnar, Matthew Baynton, and the old-style charm of David Jonsson, which is why I'm being generous with my rating.

I doubt the BBC cares what fans of British mysteries think of their revisions. There have been some pretty awful re-re-re-retellings of classic titles this past decade, to be sure. The best we can do is not watch what isn't good - but then we can't always know it isn't good until we watch. And maybe that's why the BBC keeps the bad revisions coming? No, they'll do what they want anyway.

We are rewatching Earwig, so I came here to look up the voice actors, and was dismayed to see the disparaging reviews. I count on IMDB reviews, and the score "Earwig and the Witch" received shocks me, even if I am late to see it.

We are huge Miyazaki fans, our favorite being another Diana Wynne Jones adaptation, "Howl's Moving Castle," although it's really hard to have a favorite Miyazaki movie, they are all so wonderful. Before our thirty-something son showed us "Earwig," he said the fans were hating on it, apparently because the animation was different, and Goro, the son, directed it.

However, we fell in love with "Erica" at once. She is a hoot! If we could all be so resilient in our personal trials! The story is quirky and charming and oh so rewatchable, just like all of Miyazaki's movies.

Finally, we weren't in the least "put off" by the style of the animation. It in no way subtracts from the beauty of the hand painting of the other films, it simply highlighted and complemented the tone of "Earwig."