Forum - View topicTales from Earthsea -- dilemma.
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Hiro94
 Posts: 300 |
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I was skeptical about buying Tales from EarthSea becuase i have seen that most people hate it and it won some award in Japan for worst film.So i bought it and i actually thought it was really good.What did everybody here think about it.I thought the animation was great and the story telling was fantastic and it was a little more violent then most Ghibli films but i thought it was a nice touch.
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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I'll be the first to say I hated it.
1. The story I found silly. (Why did he spoiler[attack his dad] again?) I thought the whole black-and-white, good-and-bad set up was so corny, and so much cruder than we've been used to in a Ghibli fantasy. 2. This is the most serious point for me: The way scenes developed, and visual ideas, just seemed to be cribbed from other films, including other Ghibli films (e.g. fast swooping shots low over the grass, just as in that great scene in Castle in the Sky). I despised that bit where the slave-wagon was moving through the forest at night, and we were given shots up through the moving trees at the moon above. What did those shots achieve, other than to remind you of other times you've seen something similar done. It was so empty. 3. Sure the production and animation were all very slick. They should be! But I still don't like the way it looks. There's something about the palette Ghibli films use these days that I find lurid. (Though what I've seen of Arrietty looks very pretty.) So, no, I didn't like it. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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A lot of the dislike came from the movie not being a faithful adaptation of a classic book series. Ursula LeGuin's EarthSea series has a poor adaptation history, with SciFi making a live version with lots of promises to her, only to cast a mostly white cast [in the books, most of the people of Earthsea are dark skinned, in a setting that mixes medievial elements with evocations of island cultures- it's pretty fascinating world building, and given the first book was published in the 60's, an important element of the books].
Hayao Miyazaki apparently had been after her to adapt the books different times throughout the years, and after enjoying his films and the bad experiences of the SciFi TV miniseries, she gave Ghibli the rights..... only to have the fiasco of Miyazaki and his son and the board of the directors using her property to work out their bizarro issues. She wrote some of her thoughts her, basically that some bits of it are her Earthsea.... some bits are somethingelse. Ghiblis explanations for the change and character looks are really odd to read about too. http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html BTW- the 4th book, Tehanu, is my favorite, and where some of the plot of the movie comes from, though I'm wierded out by how old Tehanu is in the movie [about the age she is in the 6th/finalfornow Earthsea book]. That book was so lovely, with a strange scarred, orphaned little girl with a fantastic secret bringing new meaning to a now middle aged Tenar's life, and a love story between Tenar and Ged that was totally different from anything I'd read in fantasy/scifi...... The movie looks to have mixed elements of several books- Tehanu and the 2nd book in particular-- [which were all standalone stories, so it would of worked better just to adapt one], which seems sort of confusing to have done. Still might check out the movie, and I'm looking foward to Goro Miyazaki's future films as he does seem talented- I think with this film he had unfortunate task of adapting a classic series while taking on a very public dispute and making the poor choice of not involving the original author in his decisions. The book got optioned just in time to be the tool for the inner workings of Ghibli to use it for their machinations. ps- I love, love love love Ghibli mind you. Just saying this is a wierd unfortunate movie in some ways- probably still entertaining, but with a long, messed up background story. It's Ghibli's Emperor's New Groove [fantastic film, but gah, horrendous history]. edit--- also on a nice note, LeGuin just posted a note to her readers in Japan about the current tragedy going on there .... http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Blog2011.html#ReadersInJapan She has a big following there. I'm guessing the conversation at the time the movie hit in Japan in Japan involved fans of her work discussing the adaptation issues to some degree, curious to what extent, as the whole "Son vs. Father" narrative sort of overtook the press at the time. |
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HyugaHinata
 Posts: 3505 |
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I hated Earthsea.
spoiler[The villain was a cookie-cutter immortality-seeking Orochimaru clone. The dragon-girl valued life, wow.] I found the relatively slow-as-molasses Pom Poko more enjoyable. I haven't read the books, so I don't know how being a fan of the novels would have affected me. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I actually did not mind the film. I cant remember anything from it at this point, but to be fair, I dont think it was so bad that it deserved all the hatred it got. For a first film, I think it was a good effort and I was happy to hear that Goro was going to make another film.
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6580 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I thought it was reasonably good. Visually it's a treat and, not having read the novels, I wasn't offended by the plot (even if it was thin). I was lucky to have caught it at the cinema - it works well in that environment. The scene where the floor of the tower collapses was breathtaking.
I reckon it's marginally better than Howl's Moving Castle which I also saw at the cinema but which was a mess. Having said that, pretty much anything by Miyazaki Snr is preferable to those two films. |
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EVA fiend
 Posts: 314 Location: Somewhere in the UK. |
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Another vote for dislike I'm afraid.
Ged Senki is probably the most underwhelming Studio Ghibli movie I’ve seen, not helped by the fact that I’ve read most of the Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series as a teen. The mangling of the source material could have been forgiven if the other aspects of the movie were handled with the care & zeal I’ve come to expect from Studio Ghibli, but Ged Senki falls well short in all areas. The pacing of the storytelling, the characters & the overall tone of the movie lacks the magic & sparkle that I’ve become accustomed to when watching a Ghibli movie. All previous Ghibli films have never failed to leave me with a sense of wonder, or put a huge smile on my face (Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Ponyo) or left me with tears in my eyes (Grave of the Fireflies); Ged Senki was just boring, I couldn’t wait for it to end so that I could go & do something else. My hubby, who loves Ghibli films & hasn't read the Earthsea books, couldn't stand it at all & walked out halfway through. Lacklustre & very disappointing. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I vaguely remember watching it, I don't remember hating it, in fact I think there were some parts liked quite a bit. I think I remember the climax towards the end, so props for me finishing it.
Again I say that I don't remember a lot, probably partially that I get pretty bored with a majority of Gibli films, I am not much of a fan, of them really. |
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sandpuck
 Posts: 22 |
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I neither hate or like it. It just left me totally indifferent. Which I guess is exactly the reason some people hate it: it's Ghibli (--> high expectations) and it's Ursula Le Guin (--> high expectations again) and it's lukewarm (--> HUGE disappointment). Personally I think the movie had its moments, but overall the story felt like it couldn't find its focus (perhaps a result of mixing stories from several books). It's just a pity that Le Guin ended up providing material for debuting director rather than finally getting real big-time adaptation.
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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For those who don't know, LeGuin is the daughter of Alfred Kroeber, generally considered the "father" of American anthropology. It's no surprise that her stories all pay close attention to settings and cultures. The Dispossessed is perhaps the best example of this. That same attention to world-building appears in Uehashi Nahoko's works, Moribito and Kemono no Sou-ja Erin. She, too, was trained as anthropologist. When I first watched Moribito, it remember thinking it might have been written by LeGuin. My advice to potential Earthsea viewers is to read the novels first. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Knowing that the novels are so much better, I think it would be actually wiser to read them after seeing the film. Like this you avoid a lot of disappointment. I personally dont like when filmmakers make a lot of silly changer to the original stories, and one of the reasons why I was able to enjoy Earthsea was the fact that at the time I had not read the books. |
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CrisGer A.A.
 Posts: 170 Location: 世田谷区 Setagaya Ward |
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I have valued the Earthsea series very highly for many years ..along with the Dispossessed it remains ULG's highest quality creations. I also love Miyazaki's work and that of Studio G very much. However both creators have their personal touch which affects their work deeply. It would have been a remarkable "meeting" to see her story done by him. It was done by son Gozo instead. So the outcome was different.
The movie on it's own has quite a bit of charm and some beautiful parts. It is NOT really the Earthsea of her vision. That is sad.... and the challenges of the Miyazaki family and the Studio affected the outcome as well. We are human, all of us and that affects what we do and how we do it. Read her own words to get the fullest sense of what happened and how it turned out. I am glad they all, she and Miyazaki senior and junior are all still creating each in their own way. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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Oh yeah, LeGuin's peronal history if fascinating- her science fiction works play with that theme too, I've enjoyed the assorted Ecumen-setting books she's done like Lefthand of Darkness and Planet of Exile- hadn't read Dispossessed yet though. I'll have to see if I have it somewhere..... It's fascinating to know the Moribito author was an anthropologist- it definitely explains the attention to detail in the assorted tribes, which gives the series a different flavour. Not sure if how much training she's had in anthropology, but the field has been an influence on Carla Speed McNiel's work as well http://www.lightspeedpress.com Her comics have some rather nifty scif/fantasy world building. |
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