“Tales from Earthsea” review
by V.E. on August 21st, 2010
filed under anime/manga, recap/review
My sister and I shuttled down to the Landmark last Saturday to see Tales from Earthsea (wiki), a film by Goro Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. (We’d have seen it somewhere closer, but the Landmark is the only theater in the area showing it, so it was there we went.)
Before I go on, let me say that it’s a good movie and you should see it in theaters. Seriously, if you’re in a place that’s showing it (Los Angeles, New York City, etc.), you should just haul your ass to which ever theater is showing it and pay the insane ticket price and see it. Not because it’s a good movie (though it is that, too), but because we as consumers want to encourage American companies/theaters to bring over, translate, and distribute as much anime and manga as possible, and watching Tales from Earthsea in theaters will help show that our money is where our mouths are.
Right, so moving to the actual content, etc., of the movie. Actually, let me preface this (again; will I ever get to the goddamn review?) by saying that I don’t generally like work produced by Studio Ghibli. With the exception of Mononoke-hime, I really haven’t liked anything I’ve seen by Studio Ghibli. I didn’t like Spirited Away, for example, or The Cat Returns, or My Neighbor Totoro. Kiki’s Delivery Service was just eh; I could take it or leave it. I can’t speak for Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, and Grave of the Fireflies because I’ve never seen them, but (most of) the Ghibli films I have seen… well, I didn’t like them. That said, I actually liked this movie.
Since it was in American theaters, it was dubbed into English. I prefer to watch my anime (or anything, for that matter) in its original language with subtitles, but seeing Tales from Earthsea on the big screen kind of made up for the fact that it (probably) just wasn’t as good in English as it would have been in Japanese. (Now that I think about it, actually… that may be at least partially why I dislike Studio Ghibli films in general: because I’ve only ever seen them dubbed, except for Mononoke-hime, which I made sure to watch subtitled because I didn’t want to ruin the potential experience. And which, now that I think about it, is the only one I’ve liked. Hmmm… I may be on to something here.)
Aaaaaanyway… I learned of its opening in American theaters from Inside Anime Expo (where you can find out where the film is playing, by the way) and noticed two of the American voice actors (noted below) who I wanted to support, dubbing or no. The film focused on five major characters: Arren, a fleeing prince; Sparrowhawk, the archmage who takes Arren under his wing (no pun intended); Tenar (Mariska Hargitay), an old friend of Sparrowhawk’s; Theru, a girl being taken care of by Tenar; and Cob (Willem Dafoe), the primary villain whose goal is to find the Fountain of Life and never die. It becomes clear part way through that Arren is the protagonist (though I suppose it could be argued that Sparrowhawk is, at least until the end, or Tehru is) and Cob is quite clearly the antagonist from the beginning, though there are other minor villains working under Cob’s direction to make things more difficult for Sparrowhawk and, by extension, Arren.
I knew nearly nothing of the film before watching it, though I did see the English trailer and thought there’d be more dragons in the films. Not that I’m complaining—it was a good film without an excessive amount of dragons—but I think the English trailer was a little misleading in that respect. (The Japanese trailer is much more well-rounded.)
Honestly, I didn’t understand a lot of the backstory since I haven’t read any of the Earthsea novels, and I kinda feel like I should read everything I can get my hands on and then try watching Tales from Earthsea again (maybe subtitled this time?) and see if I can pick up more from the film that is just brushed over for lack of time and unwillingness to make it too complex in two hours. No matter what I didn’t understand, though, Tehru’s Song was heart-wrenching in both Japanese and English. I think I may have cried when she sang that, just about like Arren did listening to her.
As I’ve read after seeing the film, Hayao Miyazaki (the director’s father, who is also a famous film director) and Goro Miyazaki were basically embattled during production, and in 2006, Ursula K. Le Guin, who wrote the original stories, told Goro Miyazaki that was a good movie, but “It is not my book. It is your movie.”
All drama aside, though, I really would see Tales from Earthsea again if someone wanted to go with me. As I mentioned above, I believe in supporting anime in the United States, and this is a good enough film to warrant seeing it twice. (Also, it passed the Bechdel Test with flying colors; Tenar and Tehru have an entire conversation that doesn’t have anything to do with men about midway through the movie …so that made me a little happier.)
