Has anyone else seen the most recent Studio Ghibli film Tales from Earthsea (TfE)? I watched the Japanese-release DVD this weekend. It had both English subtitles and dubbing. The movie itself will probably never be released in theaters in the US, and it’ll be a long wait for an official US DVD release. However, if you know where to look, it’s possible to find import DVDs (and of course other less licit versions can be acquired).
The art is good, typical Ghibli quality, but not as good as in Spirited Away (SA), which I consider the exemplar to compare against. The animation quality is below average. They must have really cut corners and it shows. As a point of comparison: look at the “blob” creatures of both SA and TfE. The difference in quality is enormous.
I am disappointed. Studio Ghibli has held the banner for superior two-dimensional cell animation and they need to keep it up. Perhaps they need to outsource to Korea more.
The direction is not good. Pacing started out slow. While I appreciate building up to a good story, there is no build up. The end just comes. The characters or the world are not well developed. In SA (or any other good Ghibli movie), by the end of the movie I feel like I know the world and what it would be like to live there. Not so with this one.
I believe this is Miyazaki Goro’s (son of legendary Miyazaki Hayao) first full length animation. It shows. He is not the master his father is. I sincerely hope that he improves, but I can be happy rewatching the old Ghibli movies.
A note on the story. I am a huge fan of the original LeGuin Earthsea trilogy. It’s a classic and I highly recommend it. She develops a whole world in three short books. Do not read the books that come after the originals, they will mar your enjoyment of the first.
This movie is only tangentially related to the books. Except for some character names and a few concepts, there’s really no relation. I would recognize a few plot elements here or there, but used in ways different from the books. I don’t hold this against the movie. However, the story they did use is not particularly good. There’s character development, but it feels forced. I felt some marginal empathy to the characters by the end, but not much.
Since I doubt many Americans will have seen the movie, I ask that any spoilers be boxed.
