Film Synopsis
The world is heading towards chaos. Famine, pestilence, and other
hardships run ramped and magic is on the decline. Everything is out of balance.
Arriving on the outskirts of the desert, the wandering wizard known as Sparrowhawk (voiced
by Bunta Sugawara) is on a quest to discover what is happening. In distance, he sees a boy being chased by a pack of wolves.
Panicking
and frighten, the boy is ready to accept his fate. However, just as the
wolves leap in for the kill, a furry of rage fills the young man's eyes; as though he were
possessed. Sparrowhawk intervenes and the boy
falls unconscious.
Upon awakening in a cold sweat, the boy frantically starts looking for
something and is relieved when Sparrowhawk returns what appears to be an old rusted sword.
After calming down, the boy introduces himself as Arren (voiced by Junichi Okada).
Sparrowhawk
and Arren start traveling together and come across a large city where distain for magic users is high. Here Arren
saves a girl by the name of Therru (voiced by Aoi Teshima) from a group of
slave hunters.
This fateful meeting starts a journey to return the world to what it
once was. To succeed, it will require an understanding of the eternal balance between life
and death.Film Positives
Whoa…this
one was bad. Like wow…where did this come from? Not just bad
compared to Ghibli standards, which makes it horrendous, it’s simply a bad
movie.Saying I didn’t like Tales from Earthsea doesn’t feel right. I’m more in shock it exists. The whole film is a little off putting since it looks like a Ghibli production. The animation is amazing and the scenery is breathtaking. None of that even comes close to making up for this nonsense.
The Music
Besides the animation, the music is the film's one redeeming factor; it’s good. It’s a shame there’s nothing to accompany it. There’s a scene which best represents what's happening in this movie. From an execution standpoint it’s amazing. It’s a
beautiful to look at and it adds atmosphere.
Arren is out looking for Therru and finds her in the middle of a field at sunset. Since this is still Ghibli, words cannot describe how gorgeous the setting is and then to round it off, Therru starts singing. Two of the studio’s strongest elements come together once again to create something extraordinary.
The problem
is, there's no point to this scene was. It just shows up about half way
through the movie and only exists to be eye candy. It does nothing for
the story, we don’t hear the song again until the end credits, and it’s a good
chunk of time where nothing happens.
Why does
this scene represent Tales from Earthsea? It’s because the entire film relies solely on flare and nothing on substance?
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| Sparrowhawk |
Film Negatives
Where do I
even start?
 |
| Arren |
The Story
Arren is a
prince who's on the run because he killed his father the king.
Whoa,
spoilers.
 |
| Therru |
Well...I have no idea how it fits with the rest of the story. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure Arren was the King’s son until half way through.
Why did
Arren kill his father? It’s because of the rage inside him. What is this rage? I don’t know, but Arren has it; it’s what he’s afraid. Wait, what's he
afraid of? I don’t know; but it makes him a strong fighter. Does it
trigger when he’s in danger? I don't know; we can keep doing this all day. Nothing in
this story makes any sense.
Apparently
all magic users have lost the ability to use magic. Wish I knew how or why I
should care, but because of this people don’t have the highest of opinions of
wizards or witches. However everyone knows what they look like. I lost count how many times people came up to Sparrowhawk and gave him a dirty look despite
him not doing anything. Seriously, how does everyone know he’s a wizard?There's lore to this universe that you need to have. Otherwise it's impossible to understand what anything is. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the movie’s climax. It’s like a test you didn’t know about.
Arren is
carrying his father’s sword which he took after killing him. The problem is
Arren cannot unsheathe it since it's a blade forged of magic. What
that has to do with anything is beyond me. When facing off against the main
villain, Arren begs the sword to release itself in the name of life...what?
So apparently,
Arren is afraid of death...because who isn’t. But in truth he’s really afraid of life and giving up death is the same as giving up life and I’m giving
myself a headache just thinking about. Whatever in the actual hell any of
this means comes off as pretentious and I couldn’t care any less.
Anyway, Arren
does manage to get access to the sword and it’s all really important, especially
since it doesn’t lead to a damn thing. The true savior of this film is really
Therru who turns out to be a dragon. Oh yeah, there were dragons in
this movie. For like five minutes at the very beginning. But hey look at this
now, there’s a f@#$ing dragon here because why the hell not.
This movie
is a marvel in how little effort it puts into making a compressible story.
Final Thoughts
I just don’t
even know. This movie left me exhausted. Writing this review was such a migraine
inducing effort due to how little sense Tales
from Earthsea was.
Nice
sounding music and pretty pictures are great, but when there’s nothing to
give them meaning or purpose they can only do so much. The characters, the setting,
the problem, the story…oh my god the story is so nonexistent.
I didn’t
care for either Ocean Waves or Pom Poko all that much, but I’d be okay
with watching them again. You’d have to pay a lot of money for me to sit
through Tales from Earthsea a second
time.
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