Tales From Earthsea

Tales From Earthsea is an embellished tale using the books by Ursula K LeGuin as a springboard. It tells the story of young Prince Arren in an archetypical conflict between light and dark with a mentor, magical artefacts and a Dark Lord villain. Familiar storytelling constructs; they are often interesting in use, but all that has ever mattered in these kinds of stories is how well the resultant story is told.

In a vicious opening sequence, Arren is compelled by forces he doesn't understand to murder his father and steal his enchanted sword. He leaves the kingdom and on his journey to nowhere, he meets the traveller Sparrowhawk. Sparrowhawk is a peaceful, humble wizard - he enjoys being at one with the natural world. The smell of "good tilled earth", the simple pleasures of a hard day's work - his scenes are among the best and most interesting in the film.

He appreciates nature's order, which is why he's on a quest to discover why Earthsea's magical equilibrium is out of whack. For reasons best known to him, Sparrowhawk takes the boy under his wing (pardon the pun) and they travel to Hort Town, in which slavery is rife. The residents have forgotten the wizarding conventions and crafts; wizards are despised as charlatans.

Being a non-reader of these tales, I quickly found myself lost among all the thick exposition - my notebook is coated with names, places and a great deal of solemnly spoken quotes - but I trusted that much of this would pay off later on. Not much of it does, and despite much talk, there are matters that are ill-explained. I would say the script employs at least one deus-ex machina. Readers of the books may be able to fill me in, but the movie does not.

The visual artistry is surprisingly weak, following the eyeball-scorching Howl's Moving Castle. Character design is flat and ineffective. The dark wizard Lord Cob is probably the most interesting design, a gothic mixture of witch and androgynous vampire. The rest of them are cut from the usual medieval anime hero/mentor/girl stock of character models. There is nothing fresh in the animation style or skill. The backdrops are lavish, however - brilliantly natural and evocative watercolour washes, detailed with peerless skill. The music is also special - skilfully written melodies for the heroes and grand, large imperial marches for Lord Cob.

However, none of this matters when the storytelling is weak. Tales From Earthsea is a tiresome effort from Studio Ghibli. The script is stunningly confused, testing viewer patience. A dull, humourless wreck of a story, directed with inexperience and lack of respect for the audience. I never dreamed I would write "tiresome" and "Studio Ghibli" in a sentence without an odd number of negatives in it. They are responsible for some of the finest animated movies ever created (Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbour Totoro). Even interesting misfires like Howl's Moving Castle are worth watching for sheer visual splendour.

It is a crushing disappointment for Ghibli's fans.