What’s New on HBO Max in February 2021
One of the main benefits of HBO Max is that it offers exclusive access to all films by Studio Ghibli, the legendary Japanese directors behind My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away , including the all-new Earwig and the Witch. which will be released in February. 12th of February). This film is significant to Studio Ghibli for several reasons. This is their first feature film since 2014, when Marnie was there; the company even shut down for a while before co-founder Hayao Miyazaki decided to step out of retirement to direct the latest film. But the earwig is not that – in fact, the director of this picture is Miyazaki’s son, Goro, who previously took over the reins of Tales from Earthsea and Above on Poppy’s Hill. It is based on the book by the late British writer Diana Wynne Jones, who also provided the source material for the elder Miyazaki’s Howl ‘s Moving Castle , and marks the studio’s first foray into fully CGI Pixar-style animation. When Studio Ghibli is possessed, I admit I was a little alarmed by the first shots of the CG protagonist, a young girl who, like many fantasy orphans before her, discovers that she has a magical destiny; the style of the house did not immediately move into three-dimensional space. Fortunately, the full trailer looks more promising, albeit a little odd:
I would prefer it to be another traditionally animated Ghibli masterpiece, but for that we will have to wait for Hayao Miyazaki’s next pandemic-delayed production, How Do You Live? due out in Japan sometime this year or 2022. Until then, I’ll take whatever I can.
Plenty of other good exclusives will be streaming this month, including the delayed premiere of Judas and the Black Messiah (February 12) and It’s a Sin (February 18), an acclaimed new limited series. from the creators of Queer as Folk about the early years of the AIDS pandemic. Superhero fans will appreciate the addition of plenty of DC content, including all of the missing Batman movies and the Justice League animated series. And it’s worth noting that science fiction fans earlier this week enjoyed the surprise addition in late January to late January of a full revamped 90s cult TV series Babylon 5. Here’s a list of everything to appear (and go) on HBO Max in February 2021 … Titles with (HBO) next to them are available on HBO and HBO Max; everything else is exclusive to HBO Max.