Honestly. I liked this movie, It wasn’t boring nor stupid. The only thing that shocked me, was when the kid cutted of the hand of main antagonist. It was very detailed, and the fact that there previously wasn’t any scene like this (no blood) was a big shock. The music was beautiful, also the story, characters were great. Besides that, it was nice to have happy ending, not like in most of ghibli’s movies. I enjoyed this movie, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most underrated movies from ghibli studios. Regards
Wtf are you talking about the latest Disney films have been creative and unique stories about family trauma and breaking Cycles just because its Disney doesn't mean their are not passionate people working for them and Disney's latest movies have been absolutely beautiful
Sorry to burst your bubble but Hayao Miyazaki intervened in the production of that film, especially with the characterisation of its female protagonist. Not saying that Goro didn’t contribute good to that film, I’m sure he did, but without the corrective hand of his father he often misses the mark. It’s unfortunate that their relationship is the way it is, I’m sure under the right tutelage Goro could do even better.
Seriously I cannot understand good opinions about that movie. It was boring, confusing but in the wrong way, and drab for me. And the chemistry between the protagonists? Sorry but it felt forced, uncomfortable and cringey. Tales of Earthsea, in my opinion, is 100 times better.
Is it possible Hayao saw himself as the king and his son as the prince: He did say upon walking out from the screening that you shouldn't make a picture with your emotions. The dragons might be prolific animators, and an idealized version of his father. Probably not, but if I were Hayao and I felt even a shred of guilt, I probably would've seen that lol
This was barely a decade after Mononoko, 5 years after Spirited Away and 2 after Howl's Moving Castle. Ghibli won a crapload of awards from three consecutive wins, so expectations were high... and Earthsea is an adaptation of a classic novel series, you KNOW fans will inevitably whine about the movie being "different" (not good or bad, but different...) Remember Miyazaki Sr.'s career starts with a Lupin movie receives complains from fans that Lupin and gang are "too nice", Cagliostro only started becoming a classic in reruns). Honestly feel kind of sad for Goro...
I tried watching this movie and gave up 30 min in. There was 4 openings: the dragons fighting and the ship, the king and his cabinet then the king gets blasted, the old wizard dude, then the kid comes on the scene. I was so confused and frustrated by this point asking "who is even our main character?!?". then Aaron can't decide on a personality and swings quickly between shy/earnest and EdgeLord, None of his actions in the beginning make any sense and its frustrating to watch. Especially when expecting a Ghibli movie. Goro did much better with From Up on Poppy Hill.
Of course it's not because all off the narrative weaknesses, random asspullelery, blunt preaching, abandoned characters and themes. It's because for once someone wrote a character again that is evil and can't be stopped by mere moral preaching or passivity. But that's of course less realistic and human (whatever tf that means). So don't even think about such scenarios. Don't kill your enemies. Don't kill evil. I wonder who would benefit from normalizing this bs way of thinking. And it would have magically solved all the problems in Monoke and all the other films if it had been done thoroughly and early on. All these fractions might not be evil in themselves, fair enough. But at the end of the day it doesn't matter much to those who they inflict damage on. They might still be a danger andd thus bad to other people. You all go with the perspectivism and realitivity routine and then continue to determine the logical conclusion by making it it into some vague pacifist nursery home fairytale bs.
I love mononoke. Favourite film, but ahitaka is too pure for me to relate to well. I relate more with Arren in earthsea. I’m broken (not in an edge lord way) and seeing perfectly moral male princes kinda hurts my heart and makes me feel out of place when engaging redemptive stories like these. I love Earthsea. I admire Goro’s work in the wake of his father.
Ngl I loved Tales of Earthsea. Its great to me. Even the newest movie his son made was interesting to me. It was only the animation that kinda looked weird, but the story was good.
I haven't watched Goro's most recent movie yet but the animation in Tales From Earthsea is pretty good considering how little time they had to make it.
Definitely look more into the history of the production. Goro Miyazaki was a professional landscaper and he was pressured by his father to direct this film. Notice that Miyazaki didn't give a member of his animation team a chance to direct this movie. As Brilliant as a director and animator Miyazaki was, he failed to foster the talents of his own animation team, who would have to leave to found their own studios in order to lead their own projects. He is a surprisingly traditional man who tried to force his son to inherit the family business when that son had never shown a desire or talent for said business. While Studio Ghibli lives on as an IP Holder and doing some animation work, they are not the juggernaut they used to be and it's because there was one room for one master creator.
Man. Tales From Earthsea was the very last film from Studio Ghibli I ever watched for the first time. As I went through the list of movies on my quest to watch them all, I intentionally left Earthsea unwatched because I hadn't heard good things about it. I eventually buckled and sat down to watch it. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but MAN is this a real slog of a film to get through. The movie's opening is intriguing. Dragons fighting to the death and a group of high government officials worried about the state of the world because the "balance" has been upset. Plus, Arren's introduction is quite striking, leading nicely into Sparrowhawk coming to the rescue. I also really like the ways the world tries to tempt Arren into forgetting his problems. The movie's message is decent as well. But good lord, I was just dozing off throughout most of it. For the most part we're meandering around boring, plain-ass Earthsea with these stoic, lifeless fantasy archetype characters. Spending time with this tweaking, unstable teenager is really unpleasant and I barely feel anything for him, especially after he faces no consequences for murdering his dad. Cob barely does anything villainous until the last 20 minutes, leaving him a really pathetic and forgettable villain despite some great performances from both the English and Japanese VAs. The fight scenes have such low energy that I was legitimately bored to tears. Watch Porco Rosso if you want an asshole protagonist who turns good in the end. Watch Princess Mononoke if you want high energy fight scenes and a high stakes plot. Watch Only Yesterday if you want this film's slow pace. Watch Ponyo if you want charming characters, of which this movie has none of. It's not terrible, but I can absolutely understand Miyzaki's dislike towards this film.
It’s really sad because the original Earthsea is a really interesting world. I’m not even convinced Goro read any of the books himself 🥲 If you’re ever bored give them a look, they’re nothing like this movie.
One of the better Ghibli movies I think. Amazing soundtrack and a good relatable story of an angry young man, which most young men are at some point in their upbringing.
I like your discussion on this complicated topic. I watched Goro's "Tales from Earthsea" before I read through LeGuin's series fully years later. Even though I hadn't yet read the books, I had these same issues with the movie, and felt that it had deep flaws keeping it from being a masterpiece of beauty, as Hayao's Ghibli movies have always been. The storytelling and character writing issues run so deep, that despite there being beautiful moments in the story, and gorgeous animation, it ends up feeling incomplete. It takes an entire team to create a movie, and it makes me wish that Hayao could have been there, mentoring his sun and helping him as a director in this project--or if not him, another talented and experienced writer and director. Such aid would have been incredibly valuable, because it takes years of experience to get good at storytelling and editing and refining a story. LeGuin herself spent years honing her craft and learning why things work and why they don't, and she has a very unique and beautiful storytelling sense and style, and worldview revealed in her stories that could have fit Ghibli's style so well. I think part of the problem here might even be one of arrogance mingled with inexperience. Goro clearly put all of his effort into the project, but instead of choosing one of the Earthsea stories to adapt, and staying true to the characters and making the story beats work for film, which is a huge effort and very difficult task on his own, he adopted to take on the Earthsea project but then use the characters and world of the story to tell his own tale. This could work, especially in the hands of someone who is an experienced writer, or someone who is working alongside experienced writers, but I think that the method he chose was in a way, the worst of both worlds. He took beloved characters and reworked and rewrote them like he was writing fanfiction, and made Prince Arren into his own character with a completely different and unrecognizable arc. I think it would have been easier to simply write an Earthsea novel of his own within the world, making up his own characters entirely and perhaps only having them meet important characters like Sparrowhawk/ Ged, but the way that he choose to use the original characters but ALSO change and alter them into often unrecognizable forms to fit his own story binds him to expectation (the expectations of Earthsea fans) and yet also has him breaking those expectations in awkward ways. Hayao Miyazaki took on a similar project with "Howl's Moving Castle," another book that I love and have read. He did change a lot with the novel, cutting out a lot of plot points which wouldn't fit in the story, and adding events and story moments that didn't happen, or reimagining them. What he DIDN'T change was the characters. His depictions of Howl and Sophie are actually quite accurate, in the same way that an actor will bring their own interpretation to the table of a character when bringing them to life for a film, but they are still very recognizable to their book counterparts. There wasn't anything that happened in the film that felt like it betrayed or departed from their characters' core identity or goals. Because of this, though the movie has different focus and somewhat different scenes and conclusions to the book, they end up feeling like they are created in the same spirit and are faithful in a creative, interesting way, adding to the world of the book without betraying it. Hayao Miyazaki actually chose to do an easier thing, in my opinion, than Goro did when it came to adapting a beloved novel--he made sure he really understood the characters, and he stayed true to them and represneted them and their story, while reimagining the events that occur to them in places. Goro, in deciding to essentially write what feels more like fan fiction which departs and recontextualizes the characters and what their goals and personalities are entirely in order to serve a new story with ghosts of its inspirations, chooses a much harder and more difficult path to write a movie's story, and make it solid and good. He has to now come up with entirely new, amazing characters, good solid motives, and sell these changes to an audience who are familiar with those original characters. The changes have to be so good, and so interesting, that even people who love the original character need to enjoy the new character and accept this as an alternate world that they enjoy. Not only that, because the characters are no longer recognizable to their story counterparts, Goro also needed to come up with interesting character motivations and an entirely new storyline, because different characters move through a story differently and make different decisions. I'm not trying to blame or attack Goro as a person at all, this is a critique of his choice as a writer, and within the context of the fact that he was given control of a huge and very prestigious movie studio and also book IP BECAUSE of the success of his father, not because of his own. He hadn't built up his experience working with stories like this, he hadn't failed on his own projects and had to prove himself to others as a writer, director, or artist. He hasn't had to write stories in any way, and he was a fan of the Earthsea series, but he has never adapted his own, or anothers story to screen. Yet he was thrown behind the wheel of this enormous project, given what seems to be free rein and almost no guidance, and he did what most writers do when they are writing their own stories for the first time; he wrote derivative fan fiction, exploring his own characters within the characters of an already existing story, and testing out the themes that interested him. Those themes were fear of death and terror of failing, an powerful father whom the son slays and never has to really come to terms with, and fear of oneself and ones death being a major driving motivation for evil. These are all really interesting ideas that haven't achieved a focus yet, and could have worked well and been explored within LeGuin's current stories, had one of them been adapted, but Goro wanted to explore his own ideas and write his own story, I think, and when given the power to do so, he did. The result is a story which doesn't even come close to matching the excellence of LeGuin's novels, but could have. Nor does it live up to the reputation of one of the greatest and most experienced directors of all time. No surprise. Goro was extremely inexperienced and it shows deeply in his writing. I would like to see more films from him. I just wish the project that had been dropped in his lap to try adapting as a test run with wasn't Earthsea. Its an absolute missed opportunity and wasn't fair to LeGuin. She only accepted having her books adapted (something she had resisted happening in Hollywood for years despite their success, knowing how likely it was to botch it) because she trusted and loved Hayao Miyazaki as a director. To have an entirely new and untested director running the studio and rewriting her book as a kind of fan fiction reimagining is sad to see, when her fans can now only wish it could have been different. It takes so so so many people, so many hours, and so much money to make such a painstakingly animated film. If only the script had been looked over and studied by someone other than Goro, or someone willing to tell him no, or give him suggestions and edits--if even the writer herself had been brought on as a consultant, it could have been so, so much different.
As a huge fan of Earthsea for the last 25 years, I might point out that all the attempts at adaptation (including the horrible tv 2 part adaptation) fail completely to get the basics of LeGuin's messages. There are five huge books and a number of short stories to this world, which describe and detail many aspects of it. The most glaring visual discrepancy is that Ged and all the people from the northern islands are dark skinned, and described with Native American-like features, those from the southern islands (like Arren) are explicitly black and the only whites are the people from the Karg empire (Tenar's home country), who are depicted as alien and "weird" from the islanders point of view - which is why Tenar is gossiped about in her later years in Gont. Also, Tehru/Tehanu is disabled, having half of her body scarred and maimed by having been burned by her bio parents as a child, and this is why the people in Gont (who are ignorant and racist, as we already established) treat her like a monster - and also because she's a dragon, but we get an explanation for that in book 5, it's not just slapped in our face like a level-up. It's such a shame for this beautiful work to be misunderstood in its core themes and general vibe, just to be treated as a common male hero quest against an external evil (there's nothing wrong with that theme, but there's plenty of other stories with that, why bother changing this one?), instead of the existential journey of this particular kind of humanity towards a better society.
I have only read the first book in the series so it's interesting to hear how all the characters from the movie fit into Le Guin's novels! She comments on the skin tone of the characters from this movie in the blog post I referenced in the video. I can definitely understand her frustrations considering that when Earthsea was first published a fantasy story featuring predominantly dark skinned characters was unusual, and this largely remains the case today.
Tales from Earthsea for me is a very good movie, because of its calm visuals and extremely well made soundtrack. Its true that the motivation of antagonist to kill his father is not very convincing but I like this movie anyway. I think I watched it 3 times so far. It was the reason I buyed the book series. Because I didn´t read it before I watched the movie, Ged /Sparrow hawk is like the Comic character european/caucasian looking. When I began to read the books I was kind of repelled by the Introduction of the author herself. Obviously woke feelings or the third feministic wave convinzed her to shade her own first three books, because she "regrets beeing focussed on male characters" . Which I feel is a shame. This caused me to dislike her as an author, because by occasion I am a male reader. I am only at the half of the first book, and so far I like it. But I don't have much sympathy for Ursula K Guin anymore.
The movie is a struggle but I believe it was Goro’s first attempt at a full feature length film. And for all the pressure on his shoulders I thought it was fine. What kills me is that with some encouragement he could have improved and blessed us with more films. Instead he lost his confidence and made From up on Poppy Hill which while charming lacks the risk taking of Earthsea which embraced dark themes of anger and morality. For all the humanity his father displays in his films, I believe he could have nurtured his son better. Remember his father cut his teeth making whimsical childrens cartoons for decades before he even wrote and directed his own stuff. I wish Goro would trust his own voice and make more films but such is Japanese culture.
Having seen it last night, I'd say it's less bad, and more disappointing. It was probably too much for a directorial debut. That said, it might have some of the best music I've heard in a Ghibli film, and that's a HIGH bar.
I'm sure someone has mentioned this in the comments but this movie was not a Hayao Miyazaki film it was directed by his son Goro. Hayao was not a fan of (this) his son's film.
Compared to all animated movies, it's pretty good. It's animation is so good some people would even consider it a banger based off of that alone. But compared to Ghibli movies, which always blow everything else out of the water by a mile, it disappoints.
I didn’t realise it would be so scary and violent, as I was watching it with my young kids 9 and 5. I had to cover their faces with a blanket for most of the ending. Ugh Cob’s eyes and arm being cut off was the worst parts I wish I knew about beforehand.
Yes exactly!!! I couldn’t have said it better. I definitely think there is some fun to be had with the art direction and dialogue, some stuff is so camp and I love it, but it’s definitely very stiff compared to other Studio Ghibli works. I really appreciate your perspective on this as it feels very balanced without doing the polarizing thing that art commentators seem to fall into these days. And I’m intrigued to read the Earthsea books! :)) I’m glad they’re as human as the movie was (unfortunately) unable to be.
Goro Miyazaki pretty much made Ghibli's equivalent to The Black Cauldron both Earthsea and Cauldron are based on one of the novels and are the black sheep of each animation studio (Before something far worse), But afterwards Ponyo saved Ghibli's reputation like Ariel saved Disney's.
Bro, it's never foreshadowed. I just watched the movie for a second time a night ago. She just randomly becomes a dragon at the end for no reason other than assumed magic mastery or something. I wish the villain used his black goo magic more and was a hard fight, it looked like he was evolving at the end.
I think the dragons in Tales from Earthsea are better than Haku in Spirited Away. I tried to read "A Wizard of Earthsea," recently but couldn't as the third-person omniscient point of view was too distant from the characters. I thought Hayao Miyazaki didn't like "Tales from Earthsea," because it disrespects the source material so severely. "Tales from Earthsea," was one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films but now I can see how flawed it really is.
I have found the characters a bit unappealing. The character design is not formidable and they get easily forgotten. Especially the main character, which does not have unique features and clothes.
It would have been much better if they went with the original Wizard of Earthsea novel. Regardless, I still enjoyed this movie. In the end, for a really great version of any of the Earthsea books, it'll need someone like Peter Jackson to make it happen.
I really liked it. First of all the main character is 17 , thank god. I was so tired that every time the main characters are kids. So than the world and the soundtrack are just🔥. Plus the villain is scary lol that was cool too. So yeah it was a really good film
@@aronsmith2688same I just watched a few days ago and I am completely captivated. The story is simple, but the world, soundtrack, and charming characters (specially Arren) make up for it. My only problem was that a lot of the background wasn't explained. Still, I'm buying the novel 😼
@@eapoa4116 Hi, I’ve bought the novel. It has 900 pages lol. Unfortunately, I had to buy it in German because I couldn’t find it in Albanian, which is my mother language. But yeah, reading it in German is a bit weird, but till now I’m liking it. And there are a lot of people who recommend reading it 🔥
Glad you liked it! I debated for a while whether to use a hard G for Ghibli but I ultimately decided to pronounce it soft because it sounds closer to the Japanese pronunciation.
One of my favourite movies. Though the story seems very compressed. It would have been really cool if it was made into a small serie. But the music, beauty and overall vibe of the world were amazing Cant wait to read the books
Glad you enjoyed it! The first Earthsea book is one of my favourite fantasy stories but this movie still had an interesting take on the source material.
The movie felt bad for people because the director did the movie for himself and for the fans of earthsea because the director just take names and characters from the original books and used them poorly. But as a movie is decent, not bad yet not really interisting. As a kid i liked it, but now i feel bad for it
I agree with you on that. I would have loved an adaptation of the A Wizard of Earthsea so I was disappointed when this movie tried to fit elements from several books in the series into a single movie. For Goro's first time directing I wouldn't say its bad though! Comparing him to his father isn't really fair.
Honestly. I liked this movie, It wasn’t boring nor stupid. The only thing that shocked me, was when the kid cutted of the hand of main antagonist. It was very detailed, and the fact that there previously wasn’t any scene like this (no blood) was a big shock. The music was beautiful, also the story, characters were great. Besides that, it was nice to have happy ending, not like in most of ghibli’s movies. I enjoyed this movie, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most underrated movies from ghibli studios. Regards
I agree
There was blood at the beginning when one of the dragons ripped the other's throat out.
Other than that, yeah not much blood.
@@sentinelshoshin4632 yeah, but it was in the very beggining and these creatures were dragons, not humans.
I've been wanting to watch this movie but according to Reddit, a source that I trust, it's... terrible.
Because it's a good movie on its own. its just disappointing adaptation
Studio Ghibli worst movie is better than any Disney movie in 2022
Wtf are you talking about the latest Disney films have been creative and unique stories about family trauma and breaking Cycles just because its Disney doesn't mean their are not passionate people working for them and Disney's latest movies have been absolutely beautiful
@Kelly Marie you do know studio ghibli and Disney are partners....right?
@@alienoutcast7374yeah, but in japan, China and Taiwan only.
@Kelly Marie please tell me how tangled was a dumb movie
The live actions were even worst lmao
I really liked this movie and the theme song omg so beautiful. The world is very interesting and so colorful. And Arren is so handsome 😊
Goro Miazaki has made a good film. That one is From Up On Poppy Hill.
Happens to be my favourite Ghibli film. Although it is written by his father so he still has to learn a little about writing
Sorry to burst your bubble but Hayao Miyazaki intervened in the production of that film, especially with the characterisation of its female protagonist. Not saying that Goro didn’t contribute good to that film, I’m sure he did, but without the corrective hand of his father he often misses the mark. It’s unfortunate that their relationship is the way it is, I’m sure under the right tutelage Goro could do even better.
Seriously I cannot understand good opinions about that movie. It was boring, confusing but in the wrong way, and drab for me. And the chemistry between the protagonists? Sorry but it felt forced, uncomfortable and cringey. Tales of Earthsea, in my opinion, is 100 times better.
Is it possible Hayao saw himself as the king and his son as the prince:
He did say upon walking out from the screening that you shouldn't make a picture with your emotions. The dragons might be prolific animators, and an idealized version of his father.
Probably not, but if I were Hayao and I felt even a shred of guilt, I probably would've seen that lol
This was barely a decade after Mononoko, 5 years after Spirited Away and 2 after Howl's Moving Castle.
Ghibli won a crapload of awards from three consecutive wins, so expectations were high... and Earthsea is an adaptation of a classic novel series, you KNOW fans will inevitably whine about the movie being "different" (not good or bad, but different...)
Remember Miyazaki Sr.'s career starts with a Lupin movie receives complains from fans that Lupin and gang are "too nice", Cagliostro only started becoming a classic in reruns). Honestly feel kind of sad for Goro...
This was a great analysis of the movie, and a robust look into the complexities of morality in our world. Thanks a lot for making it!
Thanks so much for your feedback! I'm still figuring this video stuff out but its great to hear I'm off to a good start.
I tried watching this movie and gave up 30 min in. There was 4 openings: the dragons fighting and the ship, the king and his cabinet then the king gets blasted, the old wizard dude, then the kid comes on the scene. I was so confused and frustrated by this point asking "who is even our main character?!?". then Aaron can't decide on a personality and swings quickly between shy/earnest and EdgeLord, None of his actions in the beginning make any sense and its frustrating to watch. Especially when expecting a Ghibli movie. Goro did much better with From Up on Poppy Hill.
Some of that was because they combined the characters of early Ged/Sparrowhawk, and Arren.
Of course it's not because all off the narrative weaknesses, random asspullelery, blunt preaching, abandoned characters and themes. It's because for once someone wrote a character again that is evil and can't be stopped by mere moral preaching or passivity. But that's of course less realistic and human (whatever tf that means). So don't even think about such scenarios. Don't kill your enemies. Don't kill evil. I wonder who would benefit from normalizing this bs way of thinking. And it would have magically solved all the problems in Monoke and all the other films if it had been done thoroughly and early on. All these fractions might not be evil in themselves, fair enough. But at the end of the day it doesn't matter much to those who they inflict damage on. They might still be a danger andd thus bad to other people. You all go with the perspectivism and realitivity routine and then continue to determine the logical conclusion by making it it into some vague pacifist nursery home fairytale bs.
I remember I drove over two hours to go see it when this first played, 2 hours! 😂
Are we just not counting Earwig & the Witch as Ghibli? Because THAT'S the worst Ghibli movie, by far.
I love mononoke. Favourite film, but ahitaka is too pure for me to relate to well. I relate more with Arren in earthsea. I’m broken (not in an edge lord way) and seeing perfectly moral male princes kinda hurts my heart and makes me feel out of place when engaging redemptive stories like these. I love Earthsea. I admire Goro’s work in the wake of his father.
I just watched my neighbor Totoro. Sucked lol.
Exactly HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Ngl I loved Tales of Earthsea. Its great to me. Even the newest movie his son made was interesting to me. It was only the animation that kinda looked weird, but the story was good.
I haven't watched Goro's most recent movie yet but the animation in Tales From Earthsea is pretty good considering how little time they had to make it.
Are you talking about Earwig and the Witch? Because that movie's story was a mess.
It's actually my favorite movie 😁
Definitely look more into the history of the production. Goro Miyazaki was a professional landscaper and he was pressured by his father to direct this film. Notice that Miyazaki didn't give a member of his animation team a chance to direct this movie. As Brilliant as a director and animator Miyazaki was, he failed to foster the talents of his own animation team, who would have to leave to found their own studios in order to lead their own projects. He is a surprisingly traditional man who tried to force his son to inherit the family business when that son had never shown a desire or talent for said business. While Studio Ghibli lives on as an IP Holder and doing some animation work, they are not the juggernaut they used to be and it's because there was one room for one master creator.
That's really interesting! I knew Goro's focus was not animation but I did not know Hayao was the one who pushed him to work on Earthsea.
@@broadlyspeaking235 Miyazaki made some amazing films. He's still a product of his time and believed that only family could build a business legacy.
Man.
Tales From Earthsea was the very last film from Studio Ghibli I ever watched for the first time. As I went through the list of movies on my quest to watch them all, I intentionally left Earthsea unwatched because I hadn't heard good things about it. I eventually buckled and sat down to watch it.
It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but MAN is this a real slog of a film to get through.
The movie's opening is intriguing. Dragons fighting to the death and a group of high government officials worried about the state of the world because the "balance" has been upset. Plus, Arren's introduction is quite striking, leading nicely into Sparrowhawk coming to the rescue. I also really like the ways the world tries to tempt Arren into forgetting his problems. The movie's message is decent as well.
But good lord, I was just dozing off throughout most of it. For the most part we're meandering around boring, plain-ass Earthsea with these stoic, lifeless fantasy archetype characters. Spending time with this tweaking, unstable teenager is really unpleasant and I barely feel anything for him, especially after he faces no consequences for murdering his dad. Cob barely does anything villainous until the last 20 minutes, leaving him a really pathetic and forgettable villain despite some great performances from both the English and Japanese VAs. The fight scenes have such low energy that I was legitimately bored to tears.
Watch Porco Rosso if you want an asshole protagonist who turns good in the end. Watch Princess Mononoke if you want high energy fight scenes and a high stakes plot. Watch Only Yesterday if you want this film's slow pace. Watch Ponyo if you want charming characters, of which this movie has none of. It's not terrible, but I can absolutely understand Miyzaki's dislike towards this film.
not villainous at all except hes introduced as a sexually harassing slaver???
Definitely agree this movie introduces a lot of strong elements but struggles to effectively build on them as it goes on.
It’s really sad because the original Earthsea is a really interesting world. I’m not even convinced Goro read any of the books himself 🥲 If you’re ever bored give them a look, they’re nothing like this movie.
Exactly this.
Might want to increase your audio bud
One of the better Ghibli movies I think. Amazing soundtrack and a good relatable story of an angry young man, which most young men are at some point in their upbringing.
I like your discussion on this complicated topic. I watched Goro's "Tales from Earthsea" before I read through LeGuin's series fully years later. Even though I hadn't yet read the books, I had these same issues with the movie, and felt that it had deep flaws keeping it from being a masterpiece of beauty, as Hayao's Ghibli movies have always been. The storytelling and character writing issues run so deep, that despite there being beautiful moments in the story, and gorgeous animation, it ends up feeling incomplete. It takes an entire team to create a movie, and it makes me wish that Hayao could have been there, mentoring his sun and helping him as a director in this project--or if not him, another talented and experienced writer and director. Such aid would have been incredibly valuable, because it takes years of experience to get good at storytelling and editing and refining a story. LeGuin herself spent years honing her craft and learning why things work and why they don't, and she has a very unique and beautiful storytelling sense and style, and worldview revealed in her stories that could have fit Ghibli's style so well.
I think part of the problem here might even be one of arrogance mingled with inexperience. Goro clearly put all of his effort into the project, but instead of choosing one of the Earthsea stories to adapt, and staying true to the characters and making the story beats work for film, which is a huge effort and very difficult task on his own, he adopted to take on the Earthsea project but then use the characters and world of the story to tell his own tale. This could work, especially in the hands of someone who is an experienced writer, or someone who is working alongside experienced writers, but I think that the method he chose was in a way, the worst of both worlds. He took beloved characters and reworked and rewrote them like he was writing fanfiction, and made Prince Arren into his own character with a completely different and unrecognizable arc. I think it would have been easier to simply write an Earthsea novel of his own within the world, making up his own characters entirely and perhaps only having them meet important characters like Sparrowhawk/ Ged, but the way that he choose to use the original characters but ALSO change and alter them into often unrecognizable forms to fit his own story binds him to expectation (the expectations of Earthsea fans) and yet also has him breaking those expectations in awkward ways.
Hayao Miyazaki took on a similar project with "Howl's Moving Castle," another book that I love and have read. He did change a lot with the novel, cutting out a lot of plot points which wouldn't fit in the story, and adding events and story moments that didn't happen, or reimagining them. What he DIDN'T change was the characters. His depictions of Howl and Sophie are actually quite accurate, in the same way that an actor will bring their own interpretation to the table of a character when bringing them to life for a film, but they are still very recognizable to their book counterparts. There wasn't anything that happened in the film that felt like it betrayed or departed from their characters' core identity or goals. Because of this, though the movie has different focus and somewhat different scenes and conclusions to the book, they end up feeling like they are created in the same spirit and are faithful in a creative, interesting way, adding to the world of the book without betraying it. Hayao Miyazaki actually chose to do an easier thing, in my opinion, than Goro did when it came to adapting a beloved novel--he made sure he really understood the characters, and he stayed true to them and represneted them and their story, while reimagining the events that occur to them in places.
Goro, in deciding to essentially write what feels more like fan fiction which departs and recontextualizes the characters and what their goals and personalities are entirely in order to serve a new story with ghosts of its inspirations, chooses a much harder and more difficult path to write a movie's story, and make it solid and good. He has to now come up with entirely new, amazing characters, good solid motives, and sell these changes to an audience who are familiar with those original characters. The changes have to be so good, and so interesting, that even people who love the original character need to enjoy the new character and accept this as an alternate world that they enjoy. Not only that, because the characters are no longer recognizable to their story counterparts, Goro also needed to come up with interesting character motivations and an entirely new storyline, because different characters move through a story differently and make different decisions.
I'm not trying to blame or attack Goro as a person at all, this is a critique of his choice as a writer, and within the context of the fact that he was given control of a huge and very prestigious movie studio and also book IP BECAUSE of the success of his father, not because of his own. He hadn't built up his experience working with stories like this, he hadn't failed on his own projects and had to prove himself to others as a writer, director, or artist. He hasn't had to write stories in any way, and he was a fan of the Earthsea series, but he has never adapted his own, or anothers story to screen. Yet he was thrown behind the wheel of this enormous project, given what seems to be free rein and almost no guidance, and he did what most writers do when they are writing their own stories for the first time; he wrote derivative fan fiction, exploring his own characters within the characters of an already existing story, and testing out the themes that interested him. Those themes were fear of death and terror of failing, an powerful father whom the son slays and never has to really come to terms with, and fear of oneself and ones death being a major driving motivation for evil. These are all really interesting ideas that haven't achieved a focus yet, and could have worked well and been explored within LeGuin's current stories, had one of them been adapted, but Goro wanted to explore his own ideas and write his own story, I think, and when given the power to do so, he did.
The result is a story which doesn't even come close to matching the excellence of LeGuin's novels, but could have. Nor does it live up to the reputation of one of the greatest and most experienced directors of all time. No surprise. Goro was extremely inexperienced and it shows deeply in his writing. I would like to see more films from him. I just wish the project that had been dropped in his lap to try adapting as a test run with wasn't Earthsea. Its an absolute missed opportunity and wasn't fair to LeGuin. She only accepted having her books adapted (something she had resisted happening in Hollywood for years despite their success, knowing how likely it was to botch it) because she trusted and loved Hayao Miyazaki as a director. To have an entirely new and untested director running the studio and rewriting her book as a kind of fan fiction reimagining is sad to see, when her fans can now only wish it could have been different. It takes so so so many people, so many hours, and so much money to make such a painstakingly animated film. If only the script had been looked over and studied by someone other than Goro, or someone willing to tell him no, or give him suggestions and edits--if even the writer herself had been brought on as a consultant, it could have been so, so much different.
As a huge fan of Earthsea for the last 25 years, I might point out that all the attempts at adaptation (including the horrible tv 2 part adaptation) fail completely to get the basics of LeGuin's messages. There are five huge books and a number of short stories to this world, which describe and detail many aspects of it. The most glaring visual discrepancy is that Ged and all the people from the northern islands are dark skinned, and described with Native American-like features, those from the southern islands (like Arren) are explicitly black and the only whites are the people from the Karg empire (Tenar's home country), who are depicted as alien and "weird" from the islanders point of view - which is why Tenar is gossiped about in her later years in Gont. Also, Tehru/Tehanu is disabled, having half of her body scarred and maimed by having been burned by her bio parents as a child, and this is why the people in Gont (who are ignorant and racist, as we already established) treat her like a monster - and also because she's a dragon, but we get an explanation for that in book 5, it's not just slapped in our face like a level-up.
It's such a shame for this beautiful work to be misunderstood in its core themes and general vibe, just to be treated as a common male hero quest against an external evil (there's nothing wrong with that theme, but there's plenty of other stories with that, why bother changing this one?), instead of the existential journey of this particular kind of humanity towards a better society.
"something something RaCISt something bla bla" - okay, Karen.
@@candide1065 Its a shame you get triggered by words.
I have only read the first book in the series so it's interesting to hear how all the characters from the movie fit into Le Guin's novels! She comments on the skin tone of the characters from this movie in the blog post I referenced in the video. I can definitely understand her frustrations considering that when Earthsea was first published a fantasy story featuring predominantly dark skinned characters was unusual, and this largely remains the case today.
You ever just confess to a girl who despised you until five minues ago that you murdered your father?
I'm reading Earthsea books and it's a really disrespectful adaptation.
Tales from Earthsea for me is a very good movie, because of its calm visuals and extremely well made soundtrack. Its true that the motivation of antagonist to kill his father is not very convincing but I like this movie anyway. I think I watched it 3 times so far. It was the reason I buyed the book series. Because I didn´t read it before I watched the movie, Ged /Sparrow hawk is like the Comic character european/caucasian looking. When I began to read the books I was kind of repelled by the Introduction of the author herself. Obviously woke feelings or the third feministic wave convinzed her to shade her own first three books, because she "regrets beeing focussed on male characters" . Which I feel is a shame. This caused me to dislike her as an author, because by occasion I am a male reader. I am only at the half of the first book, and so far I like it. But I don't have much sympathy for Ursula K Guin anymore.
The movie is a struggle but I believe it was Goro’s first attempt at a full feature length film. And for all the pressure on his shoulders I thought it was fine. What kills me is that with some encouragement he could have improved and blessed us with more films. Instead he lost his confidence and made From up on Poppy Hill which while charming lacks the risk taking of Earthsea which embraced dark themes of anger and morality. For all the humanity his father displays in his films, I believe he could have nurtured his son better. Remember his father cut his teeth making whimsical childrens cartoons for decades before he even wrote and directed his own stuff. I wish Goro would trust his own voice and make more
films but such is Japanese culture.
Having seen it last night, I'd say it's less bad, and more disappointing. It was probably too much for a directorial debut.
That said, it might have some of the best music I've heard in a Ghibli film, and that's a HIGH bar.
I'm sure someone has mentioned this in the comments but this movie was not a Hayao Miyazaki film it was directed by his son Goro. Hayao was not a fan of (this) his son's film.
Compared to all animated movies, it's pretty good. It's animation is so good some people would even consider it a banger based off of that alone.
But compared to Ghibli movies, which always blow everything else out of the water by a mile, it disappoints.
disappointment. If the maker has grown up yet, should remake the film with more sense in his head.
At least the only film Goro Miyazaki directed that was good was From Up On Poppy Hill.
Im still annoyed why did he kill his father..he should get punished..the movie is so bad
Low budget compared to Howl's Moving Castle, also their character seems dead and they can only afford 4 soldiers lol
Of course the main character seems dead. I mean hello , he just killed he’s father. He’s sad and confused
I didn’t realise it would be so scary and violent, as I was watching it with my young kids 9 and 5. I had to cover their faces with a blanket for most of the ending. Ugh Cob’s eyes and arm being cut off was the worst parts I wish I knew about beforehand.
This movie was great I enjoyed it even tho most say it’s the worst
Tough very love is a strange thing
The worst movie would be "I can hear the Ocean".
Ocean Waves was a nothing type of movie
Yes exactly!!! I couldn’t have said it better. I definitely think there is some fun to be had with the art direction and dialogue, some stuff is so camp and I love it, but it’s definitely very stiff compared to other Studio Ghibli works.
I really appreciate your perspective on this as it feels very balanced without doing the polarizing thing that art commentators seem to fall into these days.
And I’m intrigued to read the Earthsea books! :)) I’m glad they’re as human as the movie was (unfortunately) unable to be.
Goro Miyazaki pretty much made Ghibli's equivalent to The Black Cauldron both Earthsea and Cauldron are based on one of the novels and are the black sheep of each animation studio (Before something far worse),
But afterwards Ponyo saved Ghibli's reputation like Ariel saved Disney's.
This was great, absolute shame on UA-cam's algorithm for making you stay at only 100 subs
Before it was revealed, was it ever indicated or foreshadowed that Therru is a dragon? Did I miss something?
Bro, it's never foreshadowed. I just watched the movie for a second time a night ago. She just randomly becomes a dragon at the end for no reason other than assumed magic mastery or something. I wish the villain used his black goo magic more and was a hard fight, it looked like he was evolving at the end.
I ❤ this movie
I think the dragons in Tales from Earthsea are better than Haku in Spirited Away.
I tried to read "A Wizard of Earthsea," recently but couldn't as the third-person omniscient point of view was too distant from the characters.
I thought Hayao Miyazaki didn't like "Tales from Earthsea," because it disrespects the source material so severely.
"Tales from Earthsea," was one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films but now I can see how flawed it really is.
I think the japanese title of “Ged’s Wartales” also shows the disconnect between Goro and Leguin.
Very insightful video
What about the "Live Action" Series from 2004. I heard people say its not awesome but better than the Anime.
I have found the characters a bit unappealing. The character design is not formidable and they get easily forgotten. Especially the main character, which does not have unique features and clothes.
It would have been much better if they went with the original Wizard of Earthsea novel. Regardless, I still enjoyed this movie.
In the end, for a really great version of any of the Earthsea books, it'll need someone like Peter Jackson to make it happen.
this movie is still really fun. Second worst movie in the bunch still more fun to watch than most modern animation in the west
I was so bored of this movie. There's like nothing happening. Utterly disappointment compared to the book series and other Ghibli movies.
I really liked it. First of all the main character is 17 , thank god. I was so tired that every time the main characters are kids. So than the world and the soundtrack are just🔥. Plus the villain is scary lol that was cool too. So yeah it was a really good film
@@aronsmith2688same I just watched a few days ago and I am completely captivated. The story is simple, but the world, soundtrack, and charming characters (specially Arren) make up for it. My only problem was that a lot of the background wasn't explained. Still, I'm buying the novel 😼
@@eapoa4116
@@eapoa4116 Hi, I’ve bought the novel. It has 900 pages lol. Unfortunately, I had to buy it in German because I couldn’t find it in Albanian, which is my mother language. But yeah, reading it in German is a bit weird, but till now I’m liking it. And there are a lot of people who recommend reading it 🔥
Great video, but too many spoilers from other movies and the book itself.
I love it because nalstogic reasons (from the books)
Ok that's one more book on my list !
Ghibli's Cars 2
Studio JHEEBLEE? 😡 Anyway good content
Glad you liked it! I debated for a while whether to use a hard G for Ghibli but I ultimately decided to pronounce it soft because it sounds closer to the Japanese pronunciation.
If any one wants a good Tales from Earthsea. It’s called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
One of my favourite movies. Though the story seems very compressed. It would have been really cool if it was made into a small serie. But the music, beauty and overall vibe of the world were amazing
Cant wait to read the books
Great video! Loved this content, I had seen this movie so long ago and learned about Earth Sea the books later so never even realized any of this.
Glad you enjoyed it! The first Earthsea book is one of my favourite fantasy stories but this movie still had an interesting take on the source material.
The movie felt bad for people because the director did the movie for himself and for the fans of earthsea because the director just take names and characters from the original books and used them poorly.
But as a movie is decent, not bad yet not really interisting. As a kid i liked it, but now i feel bad for it
I agree with you on that. I would have loved an adaptation of the A Wizard of Earthsea so I was disappointed when this movie tried to fit elements from several books in the series into a single movie. For Goro's first time directing I wouldn't say its bad though! Comparing him to his father isn't really fair.
@@broadlyspeaking235Someday we’re bound to get a decent adaptation 🥲
I just watched this. It was easily the worst Ghibli film I've seen.
You are so underrated honestly! The production of the video and the overall analysis of the movie is of very high quality and on point! Good job!
Thanks a lot! I'm still learning to edit videos but its great to hear that I'm off to a good start.
Who's completely destroyed her reputation? Cant be JK, she's still raking it in from sane people.😁
You are probably an even bigger disappointment to your parents and all your predecessors than Goro is.
Glad he and I can agree