I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

As soon as I heard "it's based on a novel" an immediate expectation came to my head, now I'm not someone to think movie adaptations of novels are a bad thing in many instances including other Ghibli films film adaptations can be amazing, but by just reading the name a lone 'Tales from Earthsea' I had a feeling that the story told in the novel would be just far too massive of an adventure to fit into one film, the reality of condensing a book into a film is stuff has to get cut out, and the bigger the story the more to cut out.And unfortunately this film pretty much hit that expectation, it is so amazingly clear that there is so much more to this story than what we see, so many side stories and arcs are set up with promising ideas but ultimately full flat due to just straight up not being able to give them the time they need.There is just far too much that seems to happen in the novel to be able to fit into one movie so instead of having one focused fleshed out story, every element is competing for screen time and brushed over in the end leaving you with far more questions than answers, I have no doubt all of these elements are present and very well thought out in the novel however...A movie should be able to stand on it's own, you should never HAVE to read additional content to fully understand what should have been conveyed to you.The most painful thing about this film for me personally is the background art where, in my opinion, is some of the best and most detailed I have seen so far in a Ghibli film, don't get me wrong it's all very impressive but in this film the detail was off the charts.Thus it ultimately saddens me that all that spectacular artwork has gone into what I would say is an 'ok' movie at best and that really sucks.So I suppose if you are looking to see some spectacular background and art this is the number one movie I would recommend, however if you are looking for anything of value, I'm sorry but this is not the place to find it.

I like both Studio Ghibli films and the Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books, but this film did little for me. While the backgrounds and 'set pieces' were striking, as expected in anime from this studio, the realisation of the characters left a lot to be desired, especially Ged who was bland and Cob, who was oddly androgynous. I also found the voices used in the English version either dull (Timothy Dalton's generic 'gentle English lord') or silly (Cheech Marin's hodgepodge of accents). The biggest weakness, however, was the story, which was just boring – by the time things began to happen, I'd stopped caring and was just waiting for the film to end. Pity: LeGuin's Earthsea book could make a fantasy movie to rival the Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter series, but so far, all we have is a second rate anime and an awful made for TV 'sword and sorcery' romp.

Just a brief note, I love Studio Ghibli even as an animation fan. When I heard that his son, Goro Miyazaki, was making his first debut with this film, I tried so desperately to see this in theaters as did my brother. Sadly, our hopes failed until we got this on a DVD copy before we watched it together and later, while I did understood the mixed reception it received from Japan and American audiences, I think that this is a pretty good film. OK, it's not an excellent movie considering that there are some flaws that didn't make it reach the levels of Hayao Miyazaki's works.First of all, I like the concept of the movie and I did read the Earthsea books from Ursula K. LeGuin, but there are some parts that could've been a lot more developed and it lacks something that made Hayao Miyazaki's films much compelling although it did took it's time to develop the characters, which are decent and likable enough. The pacing, however, comes across as painfully slow with some scenes that drag on for bit too long.Flaws aside, there are some things to like about this film. THe music from Tamiya Terashima is solid and enchanting. The animation is breathtakingly beautiful with lovely backgrounds along with some nicely drawn character animation. The action in this movie is also the best part especially the climax between Arren and Cob, the main villain of the movie voiced by Willem Dafoe. In fact, the voice acting's pretty good too with the likes of Timothy Dalton, Cheech Marin, Mariska Hargitay, and such.Overall, Tales from Earthsea isn't an excellent film, perse, and like I said before, I understood the criticism it received when it was first released in Japan in 2006 and America in 2010, but to it's credit, this was Goro Miyazaki's first debut in the Japanese animation genre and I think this is a pretty good film in the Studio Ghibli company that is worth recommended to those who haven't seen it yet.

I just finished watching Studio Ghibli's "Tales From Earthsea" expecting to see, and I quote from JesuOtaku, 'Hands down the worst Ghibli movie ever."It starts out clunky - there's lots of expositing and breaking the "show don't tell rule", it's kinda slow, we don't see much of the world here, most people speak in whispers for no reason,the main character mugs at the camera a lot, and his sword looks humorously phallic.But... it's not a bad movie. Not at all. And definitely not at all the worst Ghibli film. I can name three others that are much much worse in terms of storytelling, editing, and overall craft. I have no problem following the story. I can remember all of the character's names. I genuinely cared about what was happening. The villain Cob is SCARY and COMPLETELY worth your time to watch it. I think the main reason people hate it is because A. It's directed by Miyazaki's son and not him, and B. It doesn't FEEL like a Ghibli film. It is obviously made by very different minds than those who made Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, and Princess Mononoke. And you know what? That's okay!The movie reminds me of the classic 1970's-early 90's fantasy genres. Ladyhawke, Dragonheart, Krull, and Highlander. All of those had lots of expositing (because they didn't have the budget for showing us the amazing lands they were talking about), plenty of mugging/overacting, whispering to make the scenes more dramatic and therefore cheesy, often slow at the beginnings, and had hilarious phallic or otherwise goofy props. They also all have really sugary morals at the end given to us in a speech, just like in Earthsea. And these movies hold a special nostalgic place in my heart. Animation can totally show us these worlds so the reason they aren't shown to us HAS to be a stylistic choice (or the budget was really that low, which is okay). Is this film a love letter to those fantasy movies? If so I can believe it. Tales From Earthsea isn't a terrible movie. Not at all. It's sweet, enjoyable, terrifying at times, and gave me a delicious plate of nostalgia.