Tales From Earthsea

Tales from Earthsea – Dragons are seen by humans for the first time in centuries, and they are fighting to the death. The balance of nature has been disrupted, and among this confusion a king is murdered by his son, Arren. Arren flees with a magical sword that cannot be drawn until he is stumbled upon by the wizard Sparrowhawk. Together with Therru, a young girl pursued ruthlessness by slave traders, the group must evade the clutches of the evil wizard Cobb, whose spells of immortality are having far reaching consequences.

Tales From Earthsea (2006) – Director: Gorõ Miyazaki

Rating: PG

Running Length: 115 mins

Starring (English Language Dub): Matt Levine, Timothy Dalton, Willem Defoe, Blair Restaneo

Genre: Animated, Fantasy

REVIEW: ‘TALES FROM EARTHSEA’

‘Tales From Earthsea’ is the directorial debut of Gorõ Miyazaki, son of acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo, and many more). Adapted from the Earthsea fantasy series of novels by Ursula K. Le. Guin, ‘Tales From Earthsea’ takes various elements, settings, and characters from the novels and mangles them all together into something vaguely resembling a coherent plot. This haphazard approach, combined with an inexperienced director at the helm, results in a movie that lacks in enough hooks to keep all but the most dedicated viewer continuing.

The problems in the movie are numerous but chief among them is a lack of engagement with protagonist, Arren. For the majority of the movie he is a passive victim of circumstance, seemingly unable or unwilling to take charge of his own destiny. For the English dub Matt Levine portrays him as speaking with a flat and subdued voice throughout, which does not garner any sympathy.

For the first part of the movie Arren languishes around, simply following the calm and confident wizard, Sparrowhawk. Whilst he is clearly haunted by terrible dreams and impulses, this does not imbue the languidly long movie run time with any impetus. He opens the movie murdering his father; a set up that promises much. Does he face justice? Emotional resolution? Does he come to terms with his act? Well, it’s impossible to know because inexplicably Miyazaki drops this point entirely for the rest of the movie. Come the credits, you’d forget it even happened.

Unusually for a Studio Ghibli film there is also a clear antagonist in the form of the wizard Cobb. However, again, the English dub has Defoe mumbling his way through his lines in a sleepworthy way. In addition, Cobb suffers as a villain from being entirely separated from the rest of the plot. Indeed, the movie is in three clearly defined chunks. The first third moves along nicely by exploring the world of Earthsea, something which is feast for the eye in any event. The final third is enclosed within Cobb’s castle and is where the actual action takes place with dramatic oomph. The middle, sadly, comes to a crashing halt when Arren is left at a farm with the maternal Tenar and cautious young Therru. The movie essentially goes Set Up / Character Development / Payoff but by having such solid separations each section drags in isolation of the rest.

It’s easy to be hard on ‘Tales From Earthsea’ even though there is plenty to enjoy scattered around. Sparrowhawk (Dalton in the English dub) is classic Ghibli stoicism. He quietly but firmly works for the best outcomes. And once the action does kick in at the end there is some sublime animation and exciting fights based around revelations of ‘true names’ and the power they hold. But ‘Tales From Earthsea’ suffers from horrible pacing problems combined with generally forgettable or unengaging characters. Anything good here has been done better elsewhere in the Ghibli filmography (try Princess Mononoke or Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind instead), relegating ‘Earthsea’ as one for the completists only.

CONTENT: IS ‘TALES FROM EARTHSEA’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Dragons fight in the sky. There is blood from the injuries they inflict and one bites the neck of the other. It drops out of the sky, apparently dead.

The King is stabbed. A character runs at him from behind with a visible dagger. There is no blood but we see the king gasp as he is stabbed.

Wolves attack a character fleeing whilst riding an animal. Wolves snarl and snap their jaws directly at the camera. One pounces directly at the screen as the character crests a hill. The character stops running and says, “So, this is my death”. However, they are rescued.

There is a slave trade in the movie’s world. One character explains that the traders buy and sell people. We see people held prisoner with metal collars around their necks. They look dirty and dishevelled.

A man pulls a youth into an alleyway and tries to persuade him to eat something called ‘Hazia’. He says the first one is free and that it will take all his troubles and worries away. There are other people in the alleyway who have had ‘hazia’ before and they are all slumped and muttering. This section is a metaphor for drug dealing and addiction.

A young woman is chased by armed slave traders and cornered. The leader calls her ugly and states that she won’t sell for much but that they ‘can still have a little fun’, which implies that they are about to rape her. She bites the leader who slaps her hard with the back of his hand. The guards are interrupted by a character who initially seems afraid but then their face contorts into a maniacal expression. He attacks with a sword still in its sheath. He fights them off.

Arren falls asleep but when he wakes up he is kicked by the same slave traders as before. He is surrounded and there are sounds of thumps. When they part he is unconscious. Arren later wakes up with a metal collar around his neck and surrounded by other kidnapped people to be sold as a slave.

The cart full of slaves is pulled by bulls. The driver whips them to make them move.

Cobb, a wizard character, summons a blue sphere when displeased. He squeezes the sphere which makes someone he is talking to clutch their heart which also glows blue. It is as if he is crushing the heart of the other person, which is coupled with a heartbeat noise.

Arren has a nightmare in which he struggles to walk through swamp water. He sees his friend Sparrowhawk ahead of him and reaches out his hand. But ‘Sparrowhawk’ mutates and his eyes disappear, leaving hollow sockets. It morphs again into a likeness of Arren and moans with a scary voice. Arren is terrified. The camera zooms in through the empty eye socket and then Arren wakes up.

Therru has a scar on her face. Another character states that her parents ‘burned her’.

A character cries after hearing a song and then says “I murdered my father”.

Arren is pursued by a spectre that looks like him. He flees through reed and marsh, panicking.

Cobb leaves his room and closes a glass panel door. We see him through the door in silhouette as her mutates into a bird figure.

A character threatens others by saying he’ll “finish them tomorrow after they have tasted pain and humiliation”

Cobb uses the blue sphere heart squeeze spell again during a climactic battle. However, a character’s arm is cut off. There is no blood. A character’s eyes turn pure white before later becoming black hole sockets and their teeth turn is sharp points.

A character wraps their arm around a character’s neck and then their muscles bulge and distend. The character is slowly being crushed and choked. This lasts around a minute until the character goes limp. The movie’s soundtrack goes silent and the character drops, dead. Matter in the scene develop to cause further action to take place.

CAN I SEE A CLIP

REVIEW: IS ‘TALES FROM EARTHSEA’ FOR KIDS?

Similar to Princess Mononoke, ‘Tales From Earthsea’ is aimed at a more mature audience and has scenes with blood, brief dismemberment, scary villains, and the implied threat of sexual violence. In addition, it has slow pacing and many scenes that are sloth like and filled with mumbled and monotone dialogue. It is therefore unsuitable for younger views and unlikely to be of much interest to those up to the age of 10. However, based purely on content we would suggest it is suitable for children aged 7 onwards.

• Violence: 3/5 (features fights, physical violence, and use of weapons.)
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (Arren spends much of the film contrite or upset at his actions. Therru is often under threat of kidnapping or assault.)
• Fear Factor: 4/5 (Arren’s nightmare scenes and the ‘evil’ transformation of Cobb at the movie’s climax are scary)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (implied threat of sexual violence)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 3/5 (verbal threats, talk of death and murder)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of murder, possession, guilt, the power of knowing oneself, prejudice, fear of death, seeking immortality, the balance of nature, and greed for power.

Words by Michael Record