Dir. Goro Miyazaki, Japan, 1006, 115mins
Cast: (Voice) Timothy Dalton, William Dafoe, Matt Levin, Cheech Marin
Review by Matthew Rodgers
When the story behind a film is more eventful than the tedium of viewing it then you know you have a turkey on your hands. The shocking twist in this tale comes from the fact that said movie is from Studio Ghibli, the Oscar winning animation genius’ behind Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Grave of Fireflies to name but a few of the near faultless back catalogue.
Tales From Earthsea is directed by Disney-esqe animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro who, until now, has had no experience in animation. Working on the film as a spectator he soon moved into the role of director on this adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s sprawling fantasy novel, generating criticism from the author, Ghibli fans and even his own father. The resulting film led to only middling box-office success in Japan and a scathing critical response. It’s sad to report that this tale is indeed justified because Earthsea is a nonsensical jumbled mess of a fable that shows very few glimpses of the otherworldy beauty of the studio's best.
Warring dragons begin a cycle of events that lead the world of Earthsea to lose its balance, or some mumbo jumbo along those lines. In the midst of this medieval mayhem an old wizard, or Lord Archmage to his friends (voiced by Timothy Dalton) sets out on a quest to discover the cause of the disturbances. It’s whilst undertaking this less than epic expedition that he is joined on his journey by Arren, Prince of Enland, a boy who holds his own secrets and is pursued by androgynous baddie Cob, given a superbly evil drawl by William Dafoe.
The first problem with Earthsea is the ridiculous plot. "But this is Studio Ghibli film" we hear you shout, "purveyors of such wondrously ludicrous creations as My Neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso". The difference is the care with which the characters are created. Rushed into the muddled landscape with little introduction, the struggle to condense Le Guin’s novel is obvious in the uninvolving personalities and uneven pacing. Goro still maintains Ghibli’s tentpole themes of eco-disaster and the fragility of mortality but they seem shoehorned into an already failing ambitious vision.
That vision is also blighted by some animation that wouldn’t look out of place on children’s television, in particular and early wolf pack chase scene that has no depth to it, thankfully it is not consistently bad and some sequences such as the final castle top showdown briefly raise the pulse above comatose.
One of the disadvantages of viewing a Ghibli offering is having to see the English language dubbing version, it is competently done in this instance – Timothy Dalton brings requisite gravitas to the Sparrowhawk role – but it doesn’t allow complete submersion in these pastel painted environments in the way it was intended.
Tales From Earthsea has one redeeming factor and that is that at the age of 66 Hayao Miyazaki remains the master of his own magic kingdom and is a long way off handing over the paintbrush to his less talented offspring.
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