Tales from Earthsea

[Bant Warick]

Watch out for spoilers
Just in case I have let slip.


Went to see this recently. Despite the average reviews it's been receiving I actually found myself enjoying the film. There are moments when it's obvious why it's not as good as previous films. i.e. The plot feels like it's just plodding along sometimes and it all feels very familiar if you have watched most of the previous ghibli films. But still, The film is an good one and you find yourself hoping the characters make it through. Also moments of the film just feel good when watching them, such as Sparrowhawks rescue of Arren or Theru's song (no cheesiness at all). overall it's not going to be the classic that spirited away or princess mononoke are, but it will still fill any gap you have if you haven't seen a studio ghibli film in a while.

 

[Talysia]

I've been a fan of Ghibli for a long time, so I'll be interested to see this one myself when I get the chance.

 

[Siberian]

How does it compare to books, anyone knows?

 

[Melanie Nilles]

I'd like to know how it compares to the books too. Ghibli ripped apart Howl's Moving Castle so the movie and book were two different but vaguely related entities (Or was it Miyazaki who did that?).

 

[Thadlerian]

According to Ursula Le Guin on her website, the movies compare rather poorly to the books. She seems rather displeased with the interpretation of the tone. Besides, the movie seems to take place on one big island, so the "sea" part of Earthsea becomes sort of meaningless.

From what I've seen of trailers, Goro seems to be borrowing very heavily from Hayao, especially from an old Miyazaki manga called The Journey of Shuna.

 

[Overread]

Well it has to be better than the disaster that sci-fi channel produced - white people in the cast - did they even read the book? (wait silly question american producers never read the source material)

 

[Azure]

It's better than the Sci-fi channel one but not by that much. Everyone is still white, and the plot is very incoherant being a combination of two of the later books(Farthest Shore & Other Wind) . I suspect if you haven't read the books you'd get confused,and if you have you'd get annoyed.
It's OK but not top Ghibli at all.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I bought the four disc version in the Worldcon dealers room, it was the only thing apart t-shirt I bought as there were only two American dealers one with the con t-shirts & one with a very small quantity of books, suitcase size.

Only Worldcon where I have not bought any books because there was virtually none in english,found out there are not normally big on dealers rooms in Japan,and there was me making plans to have them shipped back.

 

[GOLLUM]

I got a copy from the Dealer's room too. I've seen this film and actually liked it quite a bit. I gather Le Guin still wasn't pleased with the outcome but still better than that TV hash they made over in the states!