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I found that the people who hadn't read the books felt like they were missing a great deal and those who had read the books were incredibly dissapointed. Never one for jumping in with the the whole 'book was better than the film' crowd I really did try hard to like it but failed.

The landscapes look nice I guess. Overall I think I'd rather watch the incredibly promising trailer a few times, dream of the perfect Earthsea movie and pretend I never saw the movie.

As someone who knows sod all about Earthsea I was pretty much bored out of my skull for 80% of the run time. There's a bunch of lip service to fantasy world elements (weather wizards, dragons, etc.) in the first 10 minutes that then get ignored for the bulk of the film, which is talky as hell.

Easily the weakest Ghibli film I've seen. For Ghibli completists only.

> Easily the weakest Ghibli film I've seen.

Sadly, I tend to agree.

And yet -- Hayao Miyazaki could have made a wonderful film out of "The Farthest Shore" (with no monkeying about)....

And like all other Japanese Ghibli DVDs, windowboxed as usual.

patrick wrote:it could very likely get an R rating.

highly unlikely. I didnt see anything in this movie that could make it an R.

edit: instead of making a new reply, I'd say the violence in Princess Mononoke was more violent than anything in Earthsea, and that got a PG-13 rating in America. This could possibly get PG-13 but I'd say that can be easily appealed to PG without any cuts, but then again, this movie won't be out in the US for years......

I didnt see anything in this movie that could make it an R.

I'd say what it is, but I'm too dumb to figure out where the spoiler tags are on this board.

Spoiler

Suffice it to say that an act of violence near the end struck me as pretty hardcore for what felt like a kid's movie; in live action, there's no question it'd be an R.

UK release date for the DVD in November, it seems

Steven H wrote:Seriously though, I rarely agree with Schilling's assessments, and I'm sure I'm not alone, but I have to admit his words put me off a little. I'm antsy to see this one, and I'm trying to keep an open mind, but I'm definitely not expecting the adventure storytelling genius of Miyazaki, or the humanity and comedy of Takahata. I'm hoping for something new.

I was just about to email Schilling asking him did he give the same star rating to all the films he reviews when I chanced upon the (apparent) exception

A lot of people criticize Ghibli for making their younger directors play it safe and conform to the house style, but usually their voices or personality do shine through somewhat. What is truly disappointing about Goro is that there is very little trace of a strong personality evident in the hand behind this movie. I can forgive missteps in storytelling and narrative, I can forgive clumsily choreographed or staged sequences, but what I can't forgive is a creative staff that completely wimps out and opts for the path of least resistance at every creative juncture.

The only real good thing is that the art is nice and colourful (in that sorta Ghibli house-bland way), but hand an amateur a pack of the most talented artists in the industry and you're going to at least get something that has some good artwork anyway.