What is it?
The 2006 Japanese animated (anime) fantasy film Tales From Earthsea (Gedo Senki).
What is it about?
This is how Rotten Tomatoes describes this animated (anime) movie:
From famed Japanese animators Studio Ghibli comes “Tales from Earthsea,” a sweeping adventure set in a mythical world filled with magic and bewitchment.
An epic tale of redemption and self-discovery, the story follows the journey of Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk (voice of Timothy Dalton), the master wizard, as he searches for the force behind a mysterious disturbance that has caused an imbalance in the land of Earthsea-suddenly crops and livestock are dwindling, dragons have reappeared and humanity is giving way to chaos.
Along the way he rescues Arren (voice of Matt Levin), a troubled young prince who has fled his home and is being pursued by an enigmatic shadow.
Arren joins Sparrowhawk on the quest and, moving closer to their intertwined destinies, they cross paths with Tenar (voice of Mariska Hargitay), a former priestess, and her disfigured adopted daughter, Therru.
With Sparrowhawk’s magical powers dissipating, all of them must band together to defeat the evil Cob (voice of Willem Dafoe) and his henchman Hare (voice of Cheech Marin) before Cob’s mania to find immortality destroys Earthsea.
— (C) Disney
My Thoughts
My brother GC and I finished watching this movie yesterday, this movie is often considered the worst Studio Ghibli movie so far, and so we decided to watch it to see if it is really that bad.
We liked the first third of the movie, the second part of the movie started to drag at the farm and it became average, and the last part of the movie went on too long and became generic and confusing and was not so good.
This animated (anime) movie is not as bad as some people think it is in my opinion, but it should have been better and would have been better if Hayao Miyazaki had directed it instead of letting his son Gorō Miyazaki direct it (I am sorry Gorō, but your dad is a better director than you).
Overall I did not like the English dub of this film, especially for the characters Tenar and Cob (which would have been better if he spoke louder) and Therru/Tehanu, and so I wish that I would have watched the Japanese dub instead.
The end,
- John Jr
John Jr's Blog 