Mary and the Witch's Flower trailer: Studio Ponoc's debut animation is bursting with Ghibli magic

The first English-language trailer for Mary and the Witch’s Flower has been released, offering an early glimpse of the fantasy animation, which features a starry voice-cast including Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.

Based on Mary Stewart's 1971 children’s book The Little Broomstick, it is the first film from Japan’s Studio Ponoc, founded in 2015 by members of Studio Ghibli, the team behind award-winning animations including Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower, out in UK cinemas next year,  follows the story of a young girl who finds a flower which gives her magical powers, and flies on a broomstick to the fantastical Endor College, a school for witches.

“I wanted to make a film that would make children’s hearts race,” Studio Ponoc founder Hiromasa Yonebayashi told the Telegraph last year.

“I have strong memories of watching Ghibli’s early films as a child and feeling my own heart beating faster. I have an eight-year-old, and I would like my child, and all children by extension, to have that same experience I had.”

Ruby Barnhill, 13-year-old star of Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, has been cast as Mary, while Kate Winslet plays Madam Mumblechook, the formidable head of Endor College. Jim Broadbent voices her colleague, Doctor Dee.