Tales From Earthsea

One thing I like about movies is that studios like directors can form their own sense of style. You can see the difference between a Pixar movie and any other computer animated movie in like five seconds. Disney has gone through several different styles, but generally you can always tell a disney film. Studio Ghibli certainly has a distinctive style of animation. I personally love their films and part of that love comes from their look. It's a little old school, anime-wise, and I like that.

Sometimes though a style can work against a film. "Tales From Earthsea," actually suffers from the Ghibli look. I watch it and I see a character and I'm like, "Hey I saw that dude in Naussca," and it throws me right out of the movie.

The movie is based oddly enough in the third book of the series by Ursula K. Le Guin. It involves the wise mage Sparrow Hawk and a prince with issues as they face off against Cob who is a magician trying to open the door between life and death so as live forever.

The film is good enough with an exciting ending. It only disappoints because Ghibli is so good. It's like if Pixar made a shrek film. You'd say, "Well that was ok, but man it was no "The Incredibles." So, I do admit being just slightly bummed. But I think most other folks will like it fine.