Tales from Earthsea (2010)

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I like both Studio Ghibli films and the Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books, but this film did little for me. While the backgrounds and 'set pieces' were striking, as expected in anime from this studio, the realisation of the characters left a lot to be desired, especially Ged who was bland and Cob, who was oddly androgynous. I also found the voices used in the English version either dull (Timothy Dalton's generic 'gentle English lord') or silly (Cheech Marin's hodgepodge of accents). The biggest weakness, however, was the story, which was just boring – by the time things began to happen, I'd stopped caring and was just waiting for the film to end. Pity: LeGuin's Earthsea book could make a fantasy movie to rival the Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter series, but so far, all we have is a second rate anime and an awful made for TV 'sword and sorcery' romp.

Although not as remarkable as Studio Ghibli's finest works while also lacking the magic, simplicity & dazzling quality of his father's films, the first feature film by the son of the great Hayao Miyazaki still manages to leave a positive impression and despite being marred by its convoluted plot & lack of direction, offers a cinematic experience that's much better than what its critical reception suggests.Tales from Earthsea follows Arren, the young prince of Enlad who kills his father, steals his sword & flees from the kingdom but his journey soon crosses path with a wizard named Sparrowhawk who's investigating the cause of the unexpected change in the world's balance. The two take refuge at an acquaintance's farm where Arren meets a young girl named Therru who shows him the value of life.Co-written & directed by Gorō Miyazaki, the vast size of the canvas is undeniably overwhelming for an inexperienced filmmaker and it is evident here as the film lacks both composure & patience, the two aspects whose proper execution have made so many Ghibli films stand out over the years. The plot takes too many turns, is unsure of where it is heading, and the end result of that is a fractured narrative.Tales from Earthsea nonetheless manages to score high in the technical category. The hand-drawn animation is truly stunning & brings its fantasy world to life in splendid detail while the efficient use of colour palette gives its images a resonant look n feel. Uplifting the whole experience by further notches is its background score that's definitely mesmerising but is also highly reminiscent of epic tales.On an overall scale, Tales from Earthsea is flawed but it is certainly not as bad as it is made out to be. The film deals with the themes relating to life, death & the necessity to keep nature in balance but it fails to address it in a more accessible manner. For a directional debut, Gorō Miyazaki does bite off more than he can chew but what he puts up on the screen is still a fascinating sit, if not an emotionally rewarding one.

When I first heard of this film I didn't know what to expect. I was shocked to find out that there was a Ghibli movie dubbed bad by people. At first I thought there must have been some bias hatred against the movie, but then I remembered that this is a Ghibli picture. Unlike most animation studios, Ghibli usually gets some of the most fair and honest reviews from people and critics alike. So I thought to myself what makes this movie so bad. That's when I came up with the idea to go watch it and see for myself. Dear god were my expectations destroyed. This isn't just a bad film; this is a legit disgrace to the studio's name. Now don't get me wrong, I won't judge a film by its company's reputation. That's just unfair. I understand that tales from earthsea is the directorial debut of Gorō Miyazaki, but that doesn't mean I'm going to excuse all the crap that this flick pulled like a ton of other people have. I also should note that I haven't read the book this is based off of so I'm only going to talk about the film itself. However from what I keep hearing the movie didn't do a good job in respecting the source material.I think the best place to start the review is at the intro. The first 7 minutes are utterly atrocious for what they are. This is mainly due to how the animation is presented. Now before I go on ranting and raving I would like to say that the animation quality is not bad, far from it. It's amazing that the animation looks and feels as well as it does. The animators aren't to blame here the director is. The amount of ambiguousness and rushed pacing makes the intro come off as totally pretentious. It appears that Gorō tried to handle a scene that was beyond his current abilities at the time. Overall that's how the directing of this movie is. There are too many moments that try to feel bigger than they actually are. Thankfully not every scene is this way. At the 23 minute mark there's an impressive sword fight; it's brilliantly choreographed and utilizes the animation better than any other scene in the film. After watching the scene I had suspended my disbelief for the second time on the movie. Never before have I done that with any film. That's when I came up with the theory that Miyazaki must be holding back the good animation for later moments in the movie. That's a common mistake for first time directors. Unfortunately as the movie went on I soon found out that I was dead wrong about this as well. I respect all of the effort the animators put in, but even with all of their hard work the reality is that a good chunk of their effort is wasted to due to lots of the animation being barely utilized. The story was beyond confusing. It had a good amount of plot holes and unexplained story elements. Why are dragons significant? What does mean to have a true name? Why does the girl Therru near the end of the movie turn into a f@#king dragon?! What's with the magic sword deus ex machina? Why does Therru show romantic feelings towards a boy she spent a good amount of the movie hating on? I thought Ghibli was against that stereotype. This movie raises way too many questions than needed and never tries to explain them or any of the interesting mythology of the world around it. It was hard to care about any of the characters because of how absurdly written they were. The only people I liked were Sparrowhawk; the badass wizard, his old friend Tenar, and the highly intimidating yet soft spoken antagonistic wizard Cob. However near the end of the film they ruin all of these characters. They turn the courageous Sparrowhawk into a weak old man. They drained Tenar of all her spunk and passion. But worst of all they turned cob into a pathetic freak of nature. And no I don't think it adds to his character in any way. Gorō decided to make the 3 best characters worthless so I would have no choice but to focus on Arren and Therru during the finale. I don't think a film should force me to focus on people I don't have a connection towards. Instead they should've written their characters interestingly. The music and sound effects are phenomenal, but ultimately aren't too effective in their use. In some scenes the music really adds some life, but in many others it needlessly shows up. The voice work is mediocre at best. Some actors put up some effort while others barely try. But considering what they had to work with I don't blame all of the actors on their performances. How is it in Japanese? To be honest I don't care to watch this movie a third time to find out. Watching it twice to see if there was any re-watch ability was challenging enough. What I'm about to say is going to sound overly harsh, but I promised myself I was going to be blunt in this review. Tales from earthsea the movie is a complete joke. It's one of the worst movies I've ever watched to completion. Don't waste your precious time on it like I and many others did. Do yourself a favor and go watch Howl's moving castle, a good Ghibli adaptation of a book. Animation 6/10 Story 3.6/10 Pacing 4/10 Music and sound effects 6/10 Characters 4/10 Re-watch ability 4/10 Voice acting 5/10 FINAL SCORE 4.7/10 The movie's budget was 22 million dollars

You could say that Gorō Miyazaki had impossible shoes to fill, but I didn't consider his ancestry when going in. Studio Ghibli has other directors, and they've generally pulled off solid work. Sadly, Tales from Earthsea is a clunker in animation, story, and character.I have watched almost all of Studio Ghibli's English filmography. While some are better than others, they all share a sense of adventure, magic, sometimes childhood innocence. Earthsea fails in all of these aspects. The animation is good, but is rarely used on anything interesting. The first two-thirds of the film introduce us to a fantastical world, but slows down to the pace of slice-of-life anime, without the character. No strange beasts, no malicious spirits, no feats of wizardry...not even a simple tale of growing up, like Kiki's Delivery Service. Earthsea is a boring film...until the end.The last third is almost worth it. Sure, the villain is flat, but the unexplained plot points collapse on themselves. Me and my sister were laughing on our couch until the credits were rolling. But its probably not good for Bad Movie Night, due to the first plodding two-thirds.I'd only recommend it for Studio Ghibli fans who want a good laugh. Even then, you might be frustrated by the slow, poorly written plot. Nobody is perfect, so I'm not angry at Studio Ghibli for this one. Even Gorō showed he could do better, with the slice-of-life From Up a Poppy Hill. If you're looking for animated masterpieces, you can skip this one.P.S. - The poster, although technically true, is entirely misleading. When you realize the actual context, it just adds to the accidental humor of the ending~