Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Casina
It was the worst anime I've ever seen, and I watched Bible Black (also not recommended for many reasons, even if you're just horny). At least in BB the creators knew what they wanted to do. Otherwise there was no plan or idea for this movie other than what they already had from the book.
Character sucks, story sucks, character's designs most of them sucks, main villain sucks. At least the backgrounds where nice but it's only good things in this movie. Atmosphere sucks. I love fantasy and they ruined it.
I do not recommend, even if you had to choose between watching it or watching the paint dry on the wall
Read at the sourcelamaraptor
This movie does a great job of feeling like just a small part of a much larger fantasy epic. Not many of Stuido Ghlibli's films go for a full high-fantasy feel. Most of them are at least grounded in reality in that they take place in a post-war Japan. The few ones that take place in a completely different world stand out as special because of the sheer imagination on display. It really does feel like an entirely new world has been created here and we get just a peak into it.
The magic system is always a huge part of what makes a good fantasy setting. They seem to have used a soft magic system where the inner mechanics are not fully delved into, and what we as an audience know is possible with that magic is only what's shown to us. I like this approach when it's important to the story to m…
Read at the sourceNintendoSakamoto
Writing a good fiction requires a good level of imagination, character development, and an engaging plot. Goro Miyazaki's Tales of Earthsea fails at several of these points. It is flat, not engaging. It felt like a chore to watch.
The film starts off with a huge negative action: the main character's balance is already stacked heavily against him. In order for the plot to progress, he must overcome that negative balance and progress to a positive balance. Vices must be overcome with virtues, past actions forgiven, lessons learned, etc.
Even as the main character goes on a journey (part of the Hero's Path) the main character never really progresses. There is no remorse or guilt. There is no character development: he remains as he was at the beginning: wimpy, despondent, and fatalistic. H…
Read at the sourceKitsune-Yuki
Honestly, the only thing I can really say about this movie is that it's... average, and definitely subpar when compared to other Ghibi films. Like any Ghibli film, the art is amazing, and the overall quality of the film is good, but as far as the story and characters go, nothing special. I just rewatched it, and yet I can barely remember it. It's very forgettable, and the story is very hard to follow, the characters are bland, and motivation for many of the biggest plotpoints are completely ignored and overlookedOverall, I'd give it a pass, unless you really want to see every Ghibli film.
Read at the sourceQwertY_Mr
The movie tries to stay true to the book in "tone" and also tries to convey many of the main themes apparent in the books and people who have read the books I think will appreciate that and feel very comfortable with this movie. However for this review I will assume that most of the people who would want to watch it aren't familiar with Le'guin's world.
You will not understand the majority of the plot here if you haven't read the books. There is so much material crammed in here (from 3 books) that you will be left wandering what is going on and why do the characters do the things they do.
However, apart from the almost incoherent story all the other aspects of the movie are great. The art style and soundtrack are superb and albeit some characters not looking faithful to their in-book de…
Read at the sourceSouphead
This is probably my least favorite Ghibli movie. I feel as though this movie would have been wonderful if it were not for a few wasted and unneeded scenes. At some parts, I was holding my breath to wait to see what would happen......and then, minutes later, let it out and laugh a little when I realize that I had been led on.
+ The Art+
Of course it was great. Particularly when Arren was wandering around in the market by himself. It was absolutely wonderful to see the old stone buildings (some of the run-down houses even looked like Howl's castle), the water fountains, the vendor, the flowers, trees up-close. And then, in the very end, when those stones crumble, the ripple effect before they finally fall was pretty amazing.
+The Story+
Plot holes big enough to fly a dragon through.....it…
Read at the sourceMeg-nyan
Tales from Earthsea seemed to me at first like an interesting movie. The DVD was given to me by a friend and the design for the cover very much intrigued me with the beautiful dragon and background. However, I later found out that the movie had been adapted from a series of books and was directed by Goro Miyazaki, not Hayao. Still, I watched it with an open mind and hope for a good film. Sadly, I was let down.
Story: 3/10
The plot of Tales from Earthsea really throws the entire movie down. From the beginning to the last 20 minutes of the movie, I had honestly no understanding of the plot, why things happened, or even what was happening. This may be contributed to the fact that I haven't read the books that the film was adapted from, but even so I still should have had a grasp of the hap…
Read at the sourceobtrice
Tales from Earthsea is the debut work from director Goro Miyazaki (From Up on Poppy Hill), son of renowned director Hayao Miyazaki, so naturally you might expect great things. Sadly, the film lacks the magic and sense of wonder of many of its Studio Ghibli predecessors, and fails to deliver much of a story at all in the nearly two hours it spans. Although it starts out strong, featuring an action-packed dragon battle in the skies, a good king trying to determine the source of the strange events in the world, and a shocking murder, it soon becomes slow and uneventful, dedicating nearly an hour to a handful of minor plot advancements and weak character development. When it finally picks up again with the entrance of the villainous Kumo, the chain of events is painfully cliche. The story’s so…
Read at the sourceanimelambie
Tales from Earthsea is adapted from a series of novels written by Ursula K. LeGuin. It was also Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro's, directorial feature debut. I'm loathe to call any Studio Ghibli film a half-baked mess but that's exactly what this film is. Miyazaki felt his son lacked the experience to direct a feature length film-- especially one as ambitious as Earthsea-- and it's a shame that he was proven right (and that it damaged the relationship between father and son). While the animation quality is on par with some of the other Ghibli movies, it just fails.
The mediums of literature and film are completely different; adaptation from one to the other is extremely difficult to do, and even harder to accomplish well. Earthsea apparently failed as an adaptation; the author commented that…
Read at the sourceJTurner
Even a prolific animation studio like Ghibli can turn out a lesser effort. Hiroyuki Morita's THE CAT RETURNS was my personal least favorite Ghibli movie, but that film, simplistic and shallow as it was, seems to have much more accolades than 2006's TALES FROM EARTHSEA, arguably one of the first productions from the studio to split audiences and critics alike.
Ironically enough, the controversy actually began prior to the film's release. It has been stated that Hayao Miyazaki had expressed interest in directing a film based on Ursula K. LeGuin's famous fantasy novels, but the author, displeased with previous attempts, declined... until the success of Miyazaki's HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (arguably one of the director's least excellent but still brilliant efforts). However, it was ultimately deci…
Read at the sourceEnterThought
Hayao Miyazaki is considered to be not only one of the greatest writer/directors of animation but of all time. I've seen my fair share of his movies and I would agree with that sentiment. Spirited Away is one of my top 5 favorite animated movies of all time, I thought Ponyo definitely should have been seen by more people and My Neighbor Totoro is one of the most enjoyable films you and everyone in your family can watch. Did you know though that before his first film in the Studio Ghibli canon, Nausicaa Valley of the Wind, he was interested in adapting another project? Ursula K. Le Guin had been asked by many directors to have her Earthsea trilogy adapted into films and she had refused every single one including Miyazaki-san when he first approached her. However when he won an Oscar for Spi…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Back in my review of Kiki's Delivery Service I talked about how much I love Studio Ghibli and mentioned that their films generally range from good to excellent. This is not only the third exception to that I've found but also the very worst Studio Ghibli film I've seen.
Let's start with the story. The balance of a planet is being destroyed, a prince murders his father for unknown reasons and joins up with a traveling wizard. And all of this has virtually no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Yes, these scenes are mentioned later, but nothing gets done with them. Well, except for the part about the prince joining a traveling wizard. After several long minutes of walking scenes the pair end up in a town with an active slave trade and an evil wizard. From there you can probably guess the main…
Read at the sourcesen_mcgrath
I have not read the Earthsea novels, and have only seen this film once, so I am going by first impressions, and while admitedly this may not be particularly thorough, first impressions do count for a lot.
I did not enjoy this movie as much as other Ghibli, or anime films in general. Most of this was because I felt that many questions I had about the film and the world in which the film was set were left unanswered. This may have been because I did not read the book, however, I believe an addaptation should be able to stand on its own without needing to be familiar with the source material. For example, Gankutsuou still makes sense to those who did not read Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Christo and can stand alone as it's own piece of work. The Earthsea movie for me left too many qu…
Read at the sourceselvania
I suddenly have heard many things about people who didn't enjoy this movie...and frankly I don't know why :(
I am both an Earthsea and a Ghibli fan, with Ghibli being my favorite movie studio (hayaoi miyazaki my favorite director) and Ursala LeGuin being one of my favorite authors, no-one need say that I expected much from this movie. While it is true that I had not yet got to the fourth book (which this is based off of, those who do not know earthsea) of the series, I enjoyed recognizing the characters and the world.
Naturally, a few thigns were changed, and another few adapted, but honestly, I dont think that Goro's father could have done a better job! He was able to capture both the breathtaking atmosphere as well as the bittersweet, and sometimes somewhat terrifying, aspects of Earthse…
Read at the sourceYakuri
I had great expectations for Earthsea, mostly because I loved the song by Terru and the beautiful poster with the dragon. I'm disappointed to say the movie did not live to my expectations. You can't really sympathize with any of the characters, and even though the art is outstanding at times it's also plain. I couldn't believe how unimpressed I was with the town, the most colorful part of the movie.
The thing that really drags this movie down is the most important part: the story. Things happen with little to none reason (and those reasons are either stereotypical or absurd), the pace is dreadful; drags and drags you to hastily tie all the knots at the end. They show the unbalance of the world and almighty dragons at the beginning, but all that gets easily forgotten by the characters' con…
Read at the sourcemakimagic
Having only just finished watching Gedo Senki: Tales from Earthsea which was done by Miyazaki's son I have a few things to say. I am a Ghibli fan, and I was curious as to how Goro Miyazaki would make his first movie.Since I had already read the accompanying book "The Earthsea Trilogy" by Ursala K. Le Guin I expected to be disappointed, but I was curious as to what would disappoint me.
The story takes place some time after certain events in the book, but before the final events. So an audience that's never read the book will never find out why magic is failing, why the crops and animals are still dying, etc. Which is interesting because this is brought up in the begging, but then the story drifts off to the main plot. There was a lot more violence, dismemberment, and death in this movie t…
Read at the sourceinternetotaku
Gedo Senki isn't a horrible movie by any means, certainly not. However, it is severely lacking. Given that this is Goro Miyazaki's first time out it is somewhat understandable how this turns out. The movie is absolutely beautiful to look at....and thats about it. The movie takes much too long to even get near even beginning the plot that by the time it decides to, the plot has to be mashed together haphazardly and nonsensically. What we're left with is that is full of beautiful scenes that ultimately amount to little or nothing. Nice looking but with a weakly executed story.
Read at the sourceinoneoutheother
I realize that many people might not agree with what i'm going to say about this film, but please hear me out..
first of all.. i think too many people expected it to be like other miyazaki works.. but the worst thing you could do is assume it'll have the magic and light-heartedness of other studio ghibli films.. after all, it was miyazaki's son that directed it.. and for a first film, i don't think it could've been any better.. i suppose it's tough to keep this in mind, as the art style is the same as other ghibli films.. but please try..
that being said..
Story-i loved the story.. that might be partially because i really enjoy this genre.. a sort of medieval setting with fantasy elements.. dragons and sorcery.. but none of the fantasy elements are too over-bearing.. the film focuses in…
Read at the sourcePhill-z
Let me explain first that I am not a Studio Ghibli fan. I find when I watch their films that I am constantly seeing the same recurring characters. Not the same TYPE of characters, just the same art. That greatly bugs me. I saw many of the same archetype characters that i've seen in every Ghibli film in this one as well.
Story: Adapted from Ursula K LeGuins Earthsea series. I've never read the series myself but from watching the anime I might just pick up a couple. I want to ask what part of the story inspired Goro Miyazaki to want to direct this. There's nothing in here that really justifies creating an anime. The major problem I find is that all the times they could be doing alot of character scenes the characters are really doing nothing. This takes way too long and there are entire sce…
Read at the sourcedollie_mixtures
An epic story of a young prince with a dark side, a wise old wizard and a mysterious, scarred girl. I was so full of hope for this one.
At a first look, it looks like what you would expect; the art is very familiar, especially the character design; the detail of the latter Studio Ghibli movies present, with grandiose scenery and breathtaking settings; the music appropriate, ushering us into the right mood; yet... something is missing.
This is very serious movie, gone is the usual playfulness and humour; there is a strong lesson being taught throughout, not unlike in Mononoke Hime, warning us about how we treat the Earth and our lives. However, that plays almost a second fiddle to the characters, saving of the world doesn't seem as important as their own adventure.
Oh, I'm so torn. I'v…
Read at the source