Whenever a new Studio Gibli film is released I of course jump on it right away, because they have yet to release a film that I did not love. And I was epecially interested in seeing how the great Miyazaki Hayao’s son would do in his first directing job, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. This is an enjoyable and well done film, with artwork done in Hayao’s style. A enjoyable film, though the story is not perfect, and does have some missing explanations as to exactly what happens or why things happen, but overall I still enjoyed it. It may not be an accurate translation of the story either, but Gibli has never been known to not make the stories they adapt their own, and since i have not read the original Ursula K. Le Guin author, I can’t really say.

I actually made a mistake when watching the Region 3 Japanese DVD, since I ripped it to my iPhone to watch, I didn’t check the language track, and accidentally ripped the English Dub, with English Subtitles, so I saw the American version, which was a decent enough dub, though I usually prefer the original language if possible. Still Willem Defoe was great, so it was still enjoyable.

This story takes place in the land of Earthsea, a mystical world, where human’s rule the land, and Dragon’s live far away. They were both one race, but human’s became gready, and decided to take over the land, and dragons, lost all great and took to the sky. The film starts with a ship at see, witnessing for the first time dragons attacking and killing each other, presaging a forbidding change to the balance of the land. Meanwhile a good king is dealing with the issues of the land, drought and farmers leaving, and when he goes to his chambers to think, he is stabbed and possibly killed by his son Prince Arren (Junichi Okada / Matt Levin), who steals his magically created sword, and runs. Travelling in the desert is a lone wizard named Sparrowhawk (Sugawara Bunta / Timothy Dalton). Arren is attacked by a pack of wolves and is only saved by Sparrowhawk who brings the troubled young man with him on his journey across the land.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Sparrowhawk and Arren head across to the land and to a large trading city where people are sold as slaves. Arren is amazed, and waits to meet up with Sparrowhawk, where he runs into a young girl his age named Therru (Teshima Aoi / Restaneo Blaire) who has a scar on half of her face, and is being attacked by a group of slavers led by Hare (Kagawa Teruyuki / Cheech Marin). Arren gets the strange scared look on his face he got when he stabbed his father, and when he gave up with the wolves, when he doesn’t care about life or death and fights off the slavers, but Therru runs from him, because she is scared of someone who cares so little about death. Arren wanders off and lays down on some stairs, and gets caught by Hare who returns with more men, and puts him in a slaver vehicle, but Sparrowhawk uses magic to find him, and releases him, and takes him to the farm of a friend of his. This is the woman Tenar (Fubuki Jun / Mariska Hargitay) who is feared by her neighbors as a witch, but is a good woman, who helps give their children medicine. Tenar also takes care of Therru, and Arren and her don’t mention how they met, but obviously Therru does not like Arren.

Meanwhile Hare works for an evil magician Cobb (Willem Dafoe) who wants his slaves back, and when he hears about Sparrowhawk, who turns out to be the Arch Mage he sends his men to get him. They first come and rough up the farm, as Sparrowhawk is gone to find Arren’s sword he lost when the slavers take him, but Arren in a fit of despair runs away, and is taken by Cob, who manages to get his real name (the basis of all magic in Earthsea) and take control of him using his fear of death. Cobb then sends Hare to take Tenar, and leave Therru to tell Sparrowhawk.

Sparrowhawk goes to get Tenar, but is captured by Arren. Therru then seas who she thinks is Arren, but is the part of his spirit that was evil, and is now the good part that is left, that gets her to bring his sword, and come and give him hope with his true name. And she goes and rescues Arren, and they go to save Sparrowhawk and Tenar. Arren manages to use his father’s magic sword, which shows that Cobb is in fact an evil old magician, who fears death, and is himself destroying the balance of the land, and he kills Therru, but she does not die, but becomes a dragon and kills Cobb and saves Arren. She then changes back and the 2 go to talk to Sparrowhawk and Tenar, and Arren decides to go back to his homeland to pay for the crimes he has done, because he has finally taken responsibility for his actions, but hopes to return to Therru someday.

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An enjoyable film. Sure I don’t quite get why Therru became a dragon, or exactly why Arren killed his father, unless Cobb’s darkness had already taken him over. Still a good and well animated film, I might have enjoyed it more than Howl’s Moving Castle in fact. It is just too bad this won’t come out in the US until 2009.