Beautifully Animated Earthsea Hasn’t Any Magic
(NOTE: Thanks to an error on Disney’s part I saw the original Japanese language version of “Tales from Earthsea” instead of the English dub going into limited release today. While vocal actors like Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe and Mariska Hargitay undoubtedly would have brought their own spin to the characters, I still feel comfortable enough to review the film without having watched their version. Just something to keep in mind while you read my take on Goro Miyazaki’s – son of the great Hayao Miyazaki – debut.)
Earthsea is in trouble. The fields are not as fruitful. The catches have not been as bountiful. Livestock is dying. Man is turning on man creating a slave trade to which no one is immune.
A moment of quiet in Tales from Earthsea
Prince Arren has fallen victim to this malaise, doing something evil for reasons he can’t quite fathom. Lost and alone, he wanders the islands of his kingdom searching for a reason to go on, the great wizard Sparrowhawk ultimately saving his life and taking the young man under his wing. Together, their journey becomes even more incredible, the two finally forced into a standoff with the evil Cob, the fate of all Earthsea resting on the outcome.
Based on the beloved novels by Ursula K. Le Guin (of which I was an adolescent fan), Tales from Earthsea longs to be an introspective adventure about the things which make us human. It is about the internal battles, the ones inside us all involving right and wrong, that eternal struggle the one both the characters themselves as well as the land as a whole forced to deal with.
All of which is nice, except for the fact director Goro Miyazaki, son of Ponyo and Spirited Away auteur Hayao Miyazaki, can’t pace his debut effort to save his life. This movie is freakishly slow, taking forever to get from points A to B to C. It is shockingly boring, mixing elements from all three of Le Guin’s original trilogy yet having no idea what to do with any of them. Watching the film was at times like watching paint dry, beautiful, meticulously realized paint to be sure but still nothing more then drying paint all the same.
The filmmaker doesn’t even attempt to try and explain or rationalize much of the mystical goings on. People develop miraculous powers at just the right instant, transforming to such a great extent I can imagine those completely unfamiliar with the source material will be absolutely dumbfounded by it. Much of what goes on makes no sense whatsoever, the ebb and flow of the narrative never connecting in a way that feels genuine, honest or true.
Still, like all of Studio Ghibli’s efforts this one is beautifully animated, full of rich colors and textures that look just amazing when projected against a gigantic screen. There are moments where I did feel my breath leave my body, moments of intensity and/or wonderment speaking to what could have been. Add in Tamiya Terashima’s lovingly realized score and there is plenty here worthy of applause, just not enough to make the finished product worth the effort required to sit through it.
I really wanted to like Tales from Earthsea. I think Miyazaki did a nice job bringing Sparrowhawk to life, and I really enjoyed much of his relationship with Tenar, a woman from his past who has long held an intimate place inside his heart. In the end, however, this movie just left me cold, the sluggish pace mixing with the cluttered narrative to achieve a finished product I couldn’t enjoy. There just wasn’t any magic as far as I was concerned, that fact alone enough to make this Le Guin adaptation nothing less than a sadly misbegotten disappointment.
Film Rating: êê (out of 4)
Additional Links
