Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Latest.asp?I1=ID&I2=74293" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Slashfilm: Disney Releasing Studio Ghibli's "Tales from Earthsea" this August</b></a> <p>Disney will release Studio Ghibli's "Tales from Earthsea" on August 13 as a Touchstone film. <i>Slashfilm </i>offers a brief description of the film.</p>
Originally Posted By mawnck >>This should be good...<< Should be. Isn't. In fact, it's a lousy movie, which I know is hard to believe if you've seen the rest of Studio Ghibli's stuff. We're not just talking "below their usual standard" here. We're talking an honest-to-gosh turkey. The director (Hayao Miyazaki's son) never worked with his famous dad, certainly didn't do so here, and has never been on particularly good terms with him. In fact, he'd never worked in animation before at all, let alone directed it. But he still felt entitled to scramble up the original stories in order to - well, it's not real clear what he was trying to do. All the characters lack personality beyond superficial stock-character stuff, so they just aren't very interesting. And the storyline is a cut-and-paste mashup of the books rather than a true adaptation. It barely makes any sense at all, with characters going through their paces seemingly without thought or motivation. Which if you are familiar with the intricately plotted Earthsea source material, you know is a real tragedy. Even if you've never read any of the Earthsea books, you'll still be wondering "what the heck was that all about?" when the credits start rolling. The fact that it had a low (for Ghibli) budget and a ridiculously tight deadline certainly didn't help either. It shows. I've never been so disappointed by a movie, before or since. The gulf between my expectations and the reality was stunning. Save your money.
Originally Posted By mawnck FWIW, this opens today. Barely. I can find only one theater running it in all of Southern California - The Landmark on W. Pico in LA. By the way ... 41 on Rotten Tomatoes, 40 on MetaCritic. Any questions?
