Tales from Earthsea Review

Rating: 2/5

I love Hayao Miyazaki. I love every single one of his movies. I've seen each one, I go to see the new ones when they come out, and I love them. I love the animation, the stories, the characters, everything. I even loved Ponyo, which most people didn't.

Hell, I even love the non Miyazaki-directed Studio Ghibli movies, like The Cat Returns. When I heard that Miyazaki's son's debut film was FINALLY being released in America, I got excited. My mom bought the tickets, I opened my reeses pieces, and I went to see it at my favorite theatre, The Landmark in LA.

Now to be honest, I didn't expect young Goro to live up to his dad. But what I did expect, was a coherent plot, good voices, beautifully detailed animation, and original storytelling. I got none of these.

Don't get me wrong, Tales From Earthsea isn't horrible. Salt is horrible. This is just mediocre in every way. Besides Willem DaFoe, the actors just phone it in. The story doesn't make any sense, we know nothing about the world it's set in, and there's no real point.

Now don't get me wrong, the animation at times is gorgeous. There just isn't a lot of it. In Porco Rosso, when the planes fly across fields, you see individual blades of grass blowing along with wind lines. In this, you just see wind lines across a painted field. There's one scene when the main character Arren is offered a piece of bread. Suddenly, the film cuts to Arren eating. If Hayao had done the movie, Arren would've reached, then hesitated, then grabbed the bread and began eating it. My point is that the detail I've come to expect from Ghibli is absent.

Now, this is the 5th paragraph, and you guys should be out seeing Scott Pilgrim or the Expendables, so I'll wrap up. Earthsea has no environmental message like the rest of the Ghibli films, instead it tries to pack in patricide, rape, child abuse, psychopathic tendencies, slavery, death anxiety, abuse of power, disease, and multiple personality disorders in one bag, and it doesn't work. It's a mediocre mess and a huge disappointment from Studio Ghibli, even if the director is inexperienced. Overall, if you're into mediocre, generic fantasy anime, check this out, but otherwise, catch the next dragon to a different movie.