Director: Goro Miyazaki
Writer: Goro Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa (Screenplay) Ursula K Le Guin (Novel)
Starring: (Voice Talents) Jun’ich Okada, Aoi Teshima, Bunta Sugawara, Yuko Tananka, Teruyuki Kagawa, Jun Fubuki
Plot: In a mythical land, a man and a young boy investigate a series of unusual occurrences.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Not their Best
Story: Tales from Earthsea starts as we see a mysterious fever sweeping through the kingdom of Earthsea with the King being attacked by a young boy who steals his sword, Arren escapes to the wastelands with his prize. Arren saved from wolves by Sparrowhawk who set out on their own adventure.
Captured by salvers Arren finds himself being sold into slavery only for Sparrowhawk to return to rescue him and continue guiding him. As Arren’s powers grow he becomes a wanted boy in the kingdom with Cob leading the chase for both him and Sparrowhawk.
Thoughts on Tales from Earthsea
Story – When you look at this story I can’t help but find that this one doesn’t ever reach the levels of what you have come to know and love from Ghibli’s work. I can’t quite figure out what it is that makes this happen but I think it falls into the dull characters for what you expect in a world that feels too outside the box of what fantasy world’s we have entered before. I could not find myself drawn into this story at all.
Adventure/Fantasy – In what is meant to be an adventure film we only find our heroes on one adventure that just doesn’t feel as peril filled as it should be. The fantasy side of the story enters us into a world of wizards and witches but again like most of this film feels slightly short by the end.
Characters – The characters all end up feeling very bland which is something Ghibli usually always gets correct none of these characters will be remembered once you have finished this film.
Settings – The film does take us to a fantasy world that you can fully believe these characters being part of and can be one of the few highlights of this film.
Animation – The visual look of this animation is brilliant and when it comes to the darker side of the story you can fully believe just how scary it aims to be.
Final Thoughts – I personally see this as one of the weakest stories from the great studio but I can see how people could enjoy parts of this film.
Overall: Not my favorite and I think it could struggle to get near my top 10 from Ghibli.
Rating
