(L) Tales of Earthsea (Gedo Senki)

[Vancuria]

Originally Posted by Veritas

A few months at least, probably.

A few years, actually. It won't be out here until at least 2009.

[Lord Raiden]

Actually, that's incorrect. It won't be on DVD till 2008, and it's due to show next year here in the states. Check your info via Disney. That's the last info they had on their site.

[Sonhex]

Originally Posted by Lord Raiden

Actually, that's incorrect. It won't be on DVD till 2008, and it's due to show next year here in the states. Check your info via Disney. That's the last info they had on their site.

You're talking about the R1 release correct?

It should be noted that Ghibli will release their own R2 version - with subtitles and possibly English audio - next year. It probably won't surface till the spring at the earliest, summer is more likely.

[martino]

2008?! WTF? That's two years! I think that that's wayyyyy to long...

[nororu]

yup.. looking forward to watching it!!!

[mishka]

Does anyone know the release Date for Gedo Senki? or when it will be available for download?

has anyone seen it yet? I have a feeling it's going to be amazing....

[GHDpro]

"when it will be available for download" is the wrong question to ask in this subforum (was posted in DVD&Licensed)

Afaik in the US the status of Gedo Senki is somehwat uncertain as some company made a mini series of sorts (something anyway) of Tales of Earthsea some while back and they still own all the rights for it. Until those expire or until some kind of agreement is met the anime movie may possible not be released on DVD in the US.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=9667

Considering it's a Ghibli movie however, unlike most anime DVDs it is likely the Japanese R2 DVD will have English subtitles. I couldn't find the movie listed on CDJapan yet, but I doubt it will take much time.

And I have seen it -- in Japanese theaters. I didn't think it was that good, but maybe that's because it was so hyped in Japan (they ran trailers for months). The ending seemed a bit odd to me too. But then again, I haven't read the books and my knowledge of Japanese wasn't quite good enough to understand everything.

Edit:
Amazon Japan lists the DVD with a release date of 2006/12/03. But they list no info about subtitles...

[mishka]

Originally Posted by GHDpro

"when it will be available for download" is the wrong question to ask in this subforum (was posted in DVD&Licensed)

Thank you for the info...and sorry about the download question....I'm new to this whole forum thing.......

[Sonhex]

Some good news, well if you're in the UK that is. Looks like we'll be getting a dvd release of Gedo Senki ahead of the US, where the licensing issues still prevent a release.

According to ANN Optimum Asia, who have most of Ghibli's back catalogue in the UK, will release the R2 dvd with subtitles in Summer 2007.

[Xcomp]

The Japanese R2 DVD next month is going to have English subs. Not sure I want to get it yet though because I've got Falcom's new Legend of Heroes RPG to import ><

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept...id-1004715812/

The special edition will include both the subs and dubbed English voices as well as in other languages too. Not sure I would get it for the extras, though.

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept...id-1004715918/

[Grv]

Just finished watching Tales from Earthsea. Amazing film. I really do love Ghibli stuff and this one just catered to pretty much everything I wanted from a fantasy film.

I had a listen to the dub tracks too, and the English one sounds pretty decent. Definitely recommend people watch this.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Grv

Just finished watching Tales from Earthsea. Amazing film. I really do love Ghibli stuff and this one just catered to pretty much everything I wanted from a fantasy film.

I had a listen to the dub tracks too, and the English one sounds pretty decent. Definitely recommend people watch this.

I was actually plan to watch this until i heard what the Original Author had to say about the film. I am with the camp of "if you can't be faithful to the original material then you shouldn't be adapting it to a different medium"

Full response form the GREAT Ursula Le Guin to Gedo Senki:

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

I was actually plan to watch this until i heard what the Original Author had to say about the film. I am with the camp of "if you can't be faithful to the original material then you shouldn't be adapting it to a different medium"

An ironic complaint, since Ursula-sama herself had this to say:

"Of course a movie shouldn't try to follow a novel exactly — they're different arts, very different forms of narrative. There may have to be massive changes."


You have to understand, LeGuin is a bit of an ornery cuss and legendary for despising any and all adaptations of her work. In that context, I thought her comments on the film were quite favorable and warm, by her standards.

Look, I read and loved the books - the original trilogy, anyway - as a kid. I looked at this movie as an alternate telling of a small part of that massive story, and in that sense I think it succeeds very well. Corners were cut in plot and character development for reasons of time, and that lessens the impact of what happens on screen. Nevertheless, I found it an entertaining and often moving and beautiful film - if not on par with Hayao and Ghibli's very best work, certainly a worthy representative of it. I would encourage any fan of the trilogy to watch the film and judge for yourself - I think it's about as good a job as anyone has done adapting LeGuin's work.

[Sonhex]

My review, should anyone care to read it:

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. I honestly thought it would be horrendous. It's not. It's actually rather good. Though I'm sure the animation prowess on screen is more Ghibli's experienced animation directors and key animators rather than Goro's sparkling talent. Junior has a different directing style than his father that's quite obvious from the start. Less urgent. Less attention to detail. More prone to showing scenes that his father would have trimmed for being superfluous (especially scenes introducing seemingly important characters whom you never see again).

I guess it's much closer to Mononoke Hime that any other of his father's works. Though it does feel like Ghibli's attempt at an animated Lord of the Rings at times, and I saw lots of cinematic influences in Goro's style form that trilogy. I haven't read the novels (I should correct this soon), so I had some problems following the plot as I was certain gaps would have been filled by knowledge of the stories as a whole. However I had some problems with the movie's plotting, chiefly...

Spoiler:

...the sense that the adrogenous Cob was neither that complex or threatening a villain and lacked any real dimension. I also found his bumbling (and understaffed) army almost hilarious. I like Usagi, even if he did look like Kurotowa's younger dimmer brother. Therru's inflitration of Cob's 'fortress' via the backdoor, lol, was also an example of eye-rollingly poor thinking imho. I'd expect that from a parody, not a serious epic like this. Another criticism being the almost complete lack of homour, aside from the wonderfully untrustworthy local gossips who rat on Tenar. It could have done with a few more laughs I think.

Therru being a dragon, also seemed a little predictable - I guessed as much simply because the dragons were entirely absent from the film after the opening and that dragon in the poster had to come from somewhere

Voice acting was top notch, Bunta Sugawara as Ged especially and Aoi Teshima, as Therru, deserves special mention. She has a captivating singing voice and does a decent turn as the heroine. The theme song (sung in one of the most effective moments in the film), composed by Akino Arai, is rather special when heard acapella.

Overall, I'd give it an 7.5 out of 10.

[Nutster]

This has to be my least favorite Ghibli film. While the animation is as beautiful as ever, i feel the story is a big mess and confusing. Maybe because I just didnt pay enough attention, cause the story telling and characters are simply not engaging as other films, such as mononoke or spirited away. The film feels flat, and didnt leave me any impression like the one mentioned above, mainly cause I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. I think the film is trying to do too much, and over complicated itself.

[Guardian Enzo]

Sonhex, your criticism isn't surprising in that Cob is basically a screenplay invention - not in the books at all in any literal sense. And I would agree that the lack of humor was one of the things that kept the film from reaching the level of greatness, and separated it from most of Hayao's work. Still, it must be pointed out that the trilogy isn't exactly a laugh riot...

[Sonhex]

Ah, that makes much sense then. Cob does feel like a stereotypical fantasy villain (ambiguous motives, random cruelty, large castle) than a well constructed literary antagonist. Hopefully the books will offer a much more rounded conflict when they arrive from Amazon this week

[Guardian Enzo]

LeGuin is a pretty sober storyteller, and I think you'll find the portayal of good & evil much more subtle and ambiguous than in Gedo Senki. But given the constraints of time, Goro-san did what he had to do, IMO.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I wanted to like this movie. Unfortunately, I ended agreeing with most of the critics.

To put it kindly, I do think that it's a good effort for a first-time director. Goro Miyazaki does indeed prove to be an effective artist. Some might say he has cut corners to produce the movie as quickly as he did, but I did not find it very noticeable, as far as artwork is concerned. The desert scene was bad, certainly, but for the most part, Gedo Senki looks as good as most Ghibli movies do. It's lacking perhaps in the flowing animation that Hayao Miyazaki is famous for, but that's not Goro's fault -- that aren't that many other animators who are as fastidious as Miyazaki Senior, let alone a first-time director.

No, it's not so much the animation or the art that disappointed me. Rather, it's the story. I have not read the Earthsea Chronicles, but I don't think it would have helped even if I had. It probably would have made it worse! As a storyteller, Goro Miyazaki definitely has a lot to learn. His movie felt very tedious. Its narrative plodded along with barely any sense of urgency. The characters were bland and lacking in dramatic depth, especially Arren. I found it very difficult to empathise with his despair because I could not understand his motivations for murdering his father. He revealed his reasons very late in the movie, and by that time, they felt very contrived and out-of-place.

Luckily then, "Therru no Uta" provided the one bright spot that this movie needs. It is a wonderfully poetic song. I'm listening to it right now, and I find it a fitting way to welcome a new year. It seems that Goro Miyazaki wrote the lyrics, so in this instance at least, it is clear that he does have a talent for writing. I think all he needs is more time to find his own "voice". At this time, he seems to have tried too hard to step out of his father's shadow, only to end up imitating his father's style.

I recall the old artist from Whisper of the Heart, commenting kindly on the heroine's first effort at writing a novel. Goro's Gedo Senki is very much like Shizuku's novel -- rough at the edges, but with the potential to become a brilliant gem.

So, I think there's hope yet for the next generation of Ghibli animators. I hope Goro Miyazaki would take the poor reviews in his stride, learn his lessons, and go on to be a better animator/storyteller in the future.

[Shio]

Hi guys
have you watched tales from earthsea?
Could you let me know what you think?
I think that ending was weird