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Gedo Senki
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Animation - 6.6 |
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Sound - 6.7 |
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Story - 4.9 |
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Character - 4.7 |
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Value - 4.4 |
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Enjoyment - 4.9 |
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Average - 5.4 |
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| This movie is like Laputa, but this time the running around being chased is changed into a a wasted 1st half. The opening part was great, but then it just changed into some kind of star wars movie where luke skywalker was following his master wherever the master went. That pat is so similar, down to the cloak used. Aside from that, the ending did give this anime justice, only that its a bit too late for me.
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0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Tales from Earthsea is a fantasy anime movie based on the Earthsea novels. It is a production from studio Ghibli, and is the first movie directed by the son of the prominent Hayao Miyazaki, whose lack of experience can be noticed in almost every area.
Despite being a studio Ghibli production, for an anime movie produced in 2006, the graphics and animation of Tales from Earthsea falls largely short of expectations. Many scenes lack detail, as can be said for some of the character designs, and the quality of the animation is mediocre. Had this movie been released some twenty years ago, its graphics and animation would have been as noteworthy as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. However, by today's standards, especially Ghibli standards, it's very poor.
Tales from Earthsea features a very famous cast voice actors, famous in the sense that they have had very successful and noteworthy careers in areas other than voice acting. Nevertheless, the quality of the voice overs are good to listen to, and reflect the mood and personalities of the characters quite well at times. But, the quality of the music and songs in Tales from Earthsea is pretty average.
The storyline of Tales from Earthsea somehow doesn't quite feel like a studio Ghibli production. It lacks the touch that makes Ghibli films addictive and special to its viewers, and its characters equally lack spirit. The whole plot feels incomplete, and the development somehow feels strange. I wouldn't say the storyline is slow like many other reviewers have said, but it is definitely lacklustre.
The development of the characters in Tales of the Earthsea, like its storyline, feels strange. Although some of them are developed quite well, and viewers are given plenty of insight into their past, their actions are still unjustified in any way. Sometimes I can't help but think that the characters have been incorrectly introduced to the viewer, or incorrectly developed.
When compared directly to other hugely successful movies by Ghibli, Tales from Earthsea is nothing short of a huge disappointment. It is clear that the son of the famous director Hayao Miyazaki lacks his father's magic which made ground breaking anime such as My Neighbor Totoro and the oscar winning Spirited Away. But, it is his first directed film, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. As for recommendations, Tales from Earthsea is only worth a watch if you are a fan of the Earthsea novels or studio Ghibli.
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| Average |
3.7 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| If you like watching people walking, running, riding, sailing and flying for two hours then this just might be the movie for you. Despite all this movement, nothing in the story really seems to go anywhere and I found myself spending two hours trying to find the plot.
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| Average |
5.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Gedo senki's first half watches like a boring RPG, while the second half is a little more exciting, but a little too late. The lack of interesting characters, the slow progress and the long length of the movie (stuff does not really happen until the last 1/4 of the movie), and just the poor story quality makes gedo senki a bad anime to watch - not just by studio ghlibi standards, but compared to all the sub-standard low quality anime movies out there.
My main complaint is how slow everything takes to happen. The first half of the movie focuses entirely on setting the scene and introducing the characters. However, all that it manages to do is to show that the country is in a state of imbalance. Even the character introductions are boring - all I know about the two main characters from the first half of the movie is that one is a wizard and the other is some boy with a weird past.
Since this is an anime movie, music and animation should be at least semi-impressive. Nevertheless, animation is about the same level as how's moving castle - nice fluid character movements, but very simplistic character design. Probably the worst part of the animation is how the background design is horribly ugly. As for music, there is really nothing memorable in here - nothing that delivers goosebumps.
I've been disappointed studio ghlibi's adaptation of material originating from novels and books. howl's moving castle and gedo senki are two examples of such disappointments. While howl's moving castle at least has a decent cast of characters, gedo senki doesn't have any such attribute to save it. Overall, this movie was quite uninteresting and definitely not worth the 2 hours to watch it.
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0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
4.8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| This movie, directed by Hayao Miyazaki`s son, is based on the 3rd and 4th Earthsea novels, but only very loosely. From what I understand, it contains elements from them, but is in no way a proper rendition.
I haven`t read any of the Earthsea novels but I am vaguely familiar with the plot and a few characters. But I`ll be reviewing this movie as someone who has watched this movie as a stand alone feature, as I`m sure like many others.
Visuals:
There are some brief moments in this movie where some truly great visual sequences occur. But for the most part, it doesn`t live up to most previous Ghibli offerings. In an overall tone, it resembles Howl`s Moving Castle in terms of quality, and does not reach the standard of Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.
For the large majority of the film, the animation is quite choppy, but becomes amazingly fluid for a few seconds here and there when there is a dramatic action scene. There are some lush backgrounds - extremely colourful and picturesque, but these can sometimes feel like just still-paintings, rather than believably being a background in an animé where things are occurring.
Annoyingly, someone could sit down and see this, followed by something Ghibli did in the 90s, and you wouldn`t be able to tell that this was made 10 years later. Such is the lack of progression in the visuals. There are certainly hints here and there - where the animation steps up a notch, the detail increases on the effects, and the colours go crazy - but overall, I was reminded too often of previous animes like Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke without any improvement, or to some degree, without attaining even their same standards.
Tales From Earthsea can certainly look pretty when it puts the effort in, but in part the story doesn`t allow it, and in part is feels a bit lazy and just doesn`t do it as often as it perhaps should.
Sound:
I honestly, can`t fault the sound. I really want to, too. But can`t. It`s top calibre. The voice acting is spot on (however refer to a related character flaw below), and the sound effects are deep and rich. The howling of the wind, the subtle chirping of birds - it`s something you may not notice until later in the movie, but when you do, it`s hard not to appreciate. Lastly, the music is thankfully scored very well. There are excellent atmospheric melodies and a varied but befitting range of them. The movie also uses silence in music to a good effect.
Story:
Oh dear. If ever an anime felt as though it didn`t know what it was doing, it would be... Howl`s Moving Castle. But Tales From Earthsea would rank in second for sure.
The story focuses on a young boy Arren, who after having killed his own father (a king), takes his magical sword and runs away far from his own kingdom. Upon reaching a new town, he is helped by Ged, a middle-aged wizard, who accepts him as a travelling companion, and thus begins a small adventure.
I`ve realised that I could cite the same criticism for this as I did with Howl`s Moving Castle, but I`ll try to relate it as much to Tales From Earthsea as best I can. The story obviously is trying to hint at the world of Earthsea and the books that spawned this particular tale, but unless you`d read them it`s not particularly clear what exactly is going on and why. Nothing is ever properly explained concerning the nature of the world and its magical rules and laws, and so you`re never sure what is considered "possible" or "impossible" - you just have to take whatever it shows as it comes and accept it.
The purpose of some things` "true name" was never properly established, but yet is an integral part to the story. Apparently if someone knows someone else`s "true name", they appear to have power over them. But what a "true name" actually is - that`s never explained.
Many parts of the plot are almost still to the point that the movie seems paused. Nothing is occurring which particularly progresses the story, and I began to feel bored very often. There were only small character interactions and they were mostly uninteresting. What I kept waiting for was a return to the opening scene of the movie - where two awesome dragons were shown in a small action sequence - but the anime ended up being vastly misleading from that scene. Dragons were definitely not something that plentiful in this movie.
Personally, I would say that if an adaptation of an Earthsea novel had to be made, it should have been the first one - where the world could be properly established and brought to life with greater meaning. All in all, this movie furthers my opinion (yes it`s only an opinion), that Ghibli should avoid adaptations, and instead, produce more original work like they have in the past. Tales From Earthsea suffers the same flaw as Howl`s Moving Castle in that it feels as though much has been left out from the original source story, and not enough has been shown to really give it meaning or appreciation.
Characters:
Since the story takes place a few books into the series, there are characters such as Ged and Cob which are present and integral to Tales From Earthsea but have had their origins much earlier in the time line. It`s true, that one doesn`t NEED to know this to understand the movie, but it`s definitely helpful to know their beginnings so that the plot here can be given better context. I don`t mind using my imagination but it makes me extremely curious to know the true origins of these people, especially because I know it IS documented somewhere; but not presented here.
The lead character Arren appears mixed up and confused, and leaves the viewer feeling the same about him. I thought that his Jekyll and Hyde personality wasn`t clearly explained and altogether seemed a bit ridiculous. Ged and Cob are much more straightforward, but suffer from the above mentioned irritations. (Also, Cob is presented very androgynous - from his look, to his voice, which is a massive irritation; I found it needless and just confusing.) These two characters are magic users, but the extent and parameters of their abilities are not shown, so you can never tell if a spell is fully considered weak or powerful.
The girl which Arren comes across on his adventure, is headstrong but appears contrived in being so. I was reminded somewhat of Princess Mononoke, both for her character, and to some extent the corresponding relationship she has with the male lead. But here it felt very forced. Sometimes I felt as though the movie had cut out some important development scenes between the characters. They never flowed together comfortably in my opinion.
Most of the characters in Tales From Earthsea seemed to be taken from other Ghibli efforts - their looks, personalities, relationships with other characters - but they were not rounded out as pristinely as the originals. As a whole, I felt let down by much of the character development, and somewhat restricted path most of the cast seemed to take through the movie.
Value:
I was debating whether or not I would realistically ever watch this movie again. In short, the answer is `no`. However, it`s not such a definite `no` that it would deserve the lowest value score. In fact, I think if I was to read any of the Earthsea novels, I MAY actually sit down to watch this movie over again. Although, I highly doubt my appreciation for it would have altered - more likely, I would dislike it more due to the novels surpassing the enjoyment of the movie, which is almost always the case with adaptations.
Enjoyment:
My enjoyment for this movie began to fade soon after it started, but sparked ever so slightly again at the climax where the visuals came together a bit. The opening gives the impression that Dragons may be featured heavily in the movie, along with attractive, extravagant action sequences, but this isn`t so. Unfortunately most of the movie is a snail-paced rather dull walk through an Earthsea world, with momentary segments of intrigue, but nothing sustained. Overall, it was disappointing for me personally, reminding me of the negative points of KiKi`s Delivery Service and also Howl`s Moving Castle. I can`t help but wonder if Ghibli are loosing their edge, or if it`s just that adaptations simply don`t agree with them. I`d like to think it`s the latter.
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| Average |
3.0 |
| Animation |
3 |
| Sound |
3 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| It is hard to say what is most wrong with “Tales of Earthsea” however one thing is certain, Studio Ghibli should be ashamed of creating this mess of a film.
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furikake |
(2006-08-27 22:54:57) 2006-08-27 22:54:02 |
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| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Since its a Ghibli film you expect something better but still it's an enjoyable movie.
At least it's better than Howl.
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