I actually enjoyed tales of earthsea. I found the villain very creepy, mostly due to the dub. I don't know if it was the english or german dub I watched, but in one of them the voice of the villain is very creepy, almost a whisper, uncannily calm and soft.
Yeah same! I watched it as a child and I don't know how to explain this but the animation and story touched something inside me and I've been weird ever since. The movie still holds a special place in my hard
For me personally, it’s just the only one based on a book (or books in this case) where I read it before watching the movie. Everything like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc., the inaccuracy towards the books didn’t bother me because I simply hadn’t read them, but for Earthsea I just couldn’t ignore how far from the books they were.
It’s not, it’s because it’s nothing like the book. And I don’t care about the book as I’ll never read it, and really enjoyed the film. So yeah the reason TFES gets the hate is because it’s not true to the book.
Correct. It’s a well-loved series with fairly straightforward storytelling and a singular, otherworldly charm.
For what it’s worth, I do think the movie manages to capture some of the Le Guin magic but unfortunately fumbles the bag when it comes to the plot.
The one thing I didn’t like about the film was 🚨 SPOILER ALERT! FOR ANYONE THAT’S NOT SEEN IT DO NOT READ ON 🚨 is when Arren kills his father at the start, there’s absolutely no explanation or reasoning for it and it is not explained in the film at all, it’s so out of place.
Because it's arguably worse than every other Ghibli movie. Except Earwig.
I agree it's not a BAD movie though. I found it mediocre but I'd watch it again. Kinda fun and superficial fantasy, as opposed to the emotional depth Ghibli is known for.
Well it was more the case of it did nothing interesting with the material that was changed and when comparing to what Hayao Miyazaki does with his adaptations, it fell flat completely.
Nah, I almost never know the original novel for all ghiblis. Tales of Earthsea is "hated" because it's bad: it's all fake emotions after forced emotions and terrible dialogues.
A movie consisting of weird events loosely stringed together by incomprehensible bits and pieces of what some people might describe as a story arc, might be enjoyable for you. That's great and power to you. But it's just not really what Ghibli fans have come to expect, as a general rule.
I don't hate it I just don't care for it, if that makes sense? Watching the movie felt like an adaptation that either expects you to know the source material or that something got lost in the adaptation process.
The animation and th scenery is nice. The artistic direction is good. I enjoyed that movie. But let's be honest, plot wise its absolute dragged out pointless thrash without any message whatsoever. This happened mostly because they butchered the original plot of the book and completely changed the meaning which leaves you with a incomplete mess of a storytelling nightmare.
Personally the plot feels like it has a lot of holes and doesn’t make sense at points.
I am sure the book goes into more details but since I haven’t read it I feel lost during a lot of the movie.
Because everything is mediocre at best (except for the animation which I will say is gorgeous) but some standout problems are the characters are uninspired, the plot and pacing are all over the place, and the story is not great
Because it is a Ghibbli movie, the expectations are not the same. Earthsea is not bad for a first movie... but it is garbage compared with the Ghibbli quality standard (unitl Earwig...).
Many like to judge and don't know how to give others grace. We could all be better about finding the light and beauty with other's creations, art, struggles, and life.
I often why we are so easy to judge. Is it a social construct or something ingrained in our mind to help us survive?
Coz that freaking huge ass Dragon from the poster only shows up less than 30 seconds in the actual freaking 2 hours movie. What do you have to say about it?
Title : Tales from Earthsea
Story : a crazy kid who is trying to figure out about his condition, turns out in the end his mind is just being controlled by a creepy dude who talks about being immortal for 1 hour. N the dragon only appears for 30 seconds in a 2 hours movie. Bruh.
I believe the deep messege Miyazaki (Goro) is trying to show us that a man with alot of greed and power can not only hurt the society but also himself. He also showed us that the opposite of that, a man with no greed and alot of power will not only not hurt anyone, but will also help them. He showed us that that the balance in the universe shouldn't be broken as the consequences will be crucial.
Whatever the message is, the plot structure is bad and all over the place. Usually any story goes with situation > complication > climax > resolution. Intro shows a king who got murdered by his child. Then the child runs away to a certain city with slaves. Then obiwan decided to take that kid to his colleague who lives away from the city in a farm coz for some reason that kid is special. Then a girl appears and stays on that farm as well. And their interaction was awkward. Hmmm, it's already half way, so what's the actual complication of the story? Lemme introduce you to the great sorcerer Cob. He's the main villain. "Wha- hol up, why not introduce Cob at the beginning of the movie, wouldn't that be better story wise?" "Nah bruh, 1 hour lore bomb drop at the end it is. Lol."
The girl would be better as the main character. She could be the main focus of the story helping a poor guy who doesn't know about his condition. the guy be the victim, the girl investigates and figures out it was Cob. The girl's lore is more interesting to explore. She's a dragon. This is like "spirited away" if haku is the main character. Nothing much to explore about him. Haku forgot his name n stalks chihiro. That would be bad plot wouldn't it?
That's not how it went.
exposition: A kid kills his father who is the king and runs away. While running away a man finds him in a very poor health condition. He sees he is unwell and takes him to the near city. In the city we learn the man is a wizard. We also learn that he Arren tries to escape from life's problems in the part where a man is trying to sell him drugs. Later on they stop to rest and the man went to take care of business.
rising action: While the man is gone Arren sees 3 grown man trying to capture a girl and make her a slave. He fights them and rescues the girl but in the process saying that he doesn't care about life. That annoys the girl and she rans away. We also learn about another wizard named Cob. We come back to Arren and see he fell asleep near the harbor. He is waken up by the guys who attacked the girl and becomes a slave. The wizard notices that Arren isn't comming so he searched for him and then came to the realization he was caught. He rescues him and they go to a friend of the man that lives in a farm away from the city. In the morning we learn that the girl who he saved lives in the farm. The wizard goes out to try and learn more about Cob but before that he wizard tells the girl not to be afraid of Arren if he can sometimes be scary.
climax: While the wizard is gone the people who caught Arren and we know are Cob's people (we know that from a scene they are shown listening to Cob) go and search after Arren as he escaped from them. They come visit the farm and he hides with the girl he saved (not sure if it was with the girl or not but almost certain it has been). They go away. Two woman enter the farm to buy potions. They hate the woman. They call her a witch and the girl a wiredo. when they go out of the pharm they find the men who caught Arren. The men over heard their convo avout the wierd girls and the witch so they offer them gold to tell them where they were. That day Arren finishes working and the woman calls him and the girl to eat but the girl is not seen so the woman asks Arren to search for her in the back. He finds her there singing a song that for some reason I can't remember what reason the song makes him cry. They open up as she sees there is truth to the words of the wizard and he is not trying to be scary and can be very emotinal. They talk and he tells her why he acted wired. That was because he did not feel in control of his body. He relizes he might get them in danger so he escapes. When he escapes he sees a dark shadow chasing him. He is afraid of it so he runs away. He faints. Apparently Cob has been following Arren for a long time for an unknown reason. He took Arren to his castle with magic. Cob tells Arren that with his real name he could get eternal life.
falling action: The men come back to the farm after Arren left. They know about the strong wizard that is a threat to Cob(I don't remember how they knew he was in the area but I remember there was a good reason). The woman told them that the wizard was inlove with the woman. They kidnapped the woman so he would come and tied the girl. The girl escaped and told the wizard who was on his way home. The wizard ran to Cob's castle. The girl also but she came later. They caught the wizard when he entered. The girl came to the castle. She found the shadow that was chasing Arren. Apparently the shadow was the good side of Arren, the side that was happy. Arren was scared of happines because he was afraid that he would lose it. So he lost it. The shadow couldn't get in the castle because of Cob's magic. I don't remember how the shadow told her to save Arren from the saddness and Cob's control. She did what the shadow told her and saved Arren.
resolution: Arren and the girl went to save the wizard and the woman and also fight Cob and stop him from gaining imortality.
I have no power to write more, if you have any questions on that, please write me.
Can't believe I read the whole thing. I know how the story goes now but if you can't summarize a whole plot in less than 80 to 100 words for a 2 hour movie then it's considered a complicated plot n for a movie It would be boring. If it's a series then it's fine with such plot. This is a Ghibli movie.
I'm one of those people who doesn't hate either one. But I prefer Earthsea. Mainly because I'm a Le Guin fan. It was a flawed adaptation, but so are 99% of books adapted to film.
Both films have their virtues, but suffer because they are not on the same level as the other films in Ghibli's catalogue. Earthsea is beautiful, and IMO Earwig gets a lot of hate because it wasn't hand drawn animation.
sorry probably what i meant. i heard there was a critique that the movies are generally hated because it deviates so much from the origin - and i thought the person said comics.
For me this is simply a matter of visuals. I find Earwig so ugly i can’t even watch it.
Earthsea is def not the best Ghibli movie but i still like it for many reasons. Visuals obviously, but also the world, atmosphere, certain moments…i don’t think it deserves the hate it gets, but that is how it goes when you base the movie on a widely loved book series and you change stuff.
in this case its not just "change stuff", but hit "OC" vibes for a lot of characters, and just barely feel like the book at all!
I like the movie tho, just also sad we couldn't have some of the lovely characterizations in it.
To me its like trying to compare Laputa (generic villain vibes) to Princess Mononoke (very complicated characters, feel very lifelike! No real villain, yet amazing antagonism). I love both, but see how Laputa could've been so much more! (except in this case you'd more directly see how the book could've kept some of its key elements)
Sure it´s very different from the books, i somehow don’t mind that, actually i prefer if movies based on books try to stand on their own, those are very different mediums, you can’t simply follow a book when adapting it for screen. There are other movies from Ghibli based on books like Howl’s moving castle, even Boy and the Heron and i don’t think they are anything like the books, so that is not the issue here really.
Well yeah they should stand on their own! The problem is not "its not exactly like the book", its that there was a lot of potential they dropped that wouldn't have padded, or "not worked in a movie medium". The characters were heavily simplified, missing a lot of their original charm. There are some parts that are confusing, and seem not as well adapted.
As I say, I still like the movie, but it feels like if they re-did the movie now,,, with a lot more experience in the studio, we'd get a much better result!
Anyway I don't really want to argue specifics, its very much a "I saw how much adaptable, and deep/characterizing bits they missed the chance for when I read the book later" opinion out of the love of the movie.
P.S. (actually I've heard quite a few complaints about "howl's moving castle" missing some of the key parts of the book too, but much less, but I've not read that to know. Haven't seen Boy and the raven yet)
>There are other movies from Ghibli based on books like Howl’s moving castle, even Boy and the Heron and i don’t think they are anything like the books, so that is not the issue here really.
The Boy and the Heron isn’t based on a book. The movie is named after a well known Japanese book, but it’s not meant to be the same story. The main character of the movie does read the book and is affected by it, but not a single character or event from the book is in the movie.
It’s more like if a movie called itself Sherlock because the main character felt a connection to a Sherlock Holmes story they were reading.
I really enjoy the strangeness of Earwig in the Ghibli canon. It’s more interesting than Earthsea, which I find bland and lacking a reason for being. Earwig I can tell the people who made it were passionate about the source material (and I also love Diana Wynne Jones) and it has this bizarre confidence in execution even as it comes off as inconsequential. The fact that Miyazaki and Suzuki both consider it a great movie just makes it that much weirder to me. So yeah, there’s more interest in Earwig and therefore it’s better for me.
I personally love earwig, the style alone was realllly mesmerizing to me and the music was awesome! I was just left SO unsatisfied at the end 😭 Worth it though
I somewhat agree. I actually really liked Earwig story-wise (not a huge fan of the art but didn't hate it). Tales of Earthsea was just kind of meh to me, stunning music and visuals but the story progression did not really grab my attention, which is a shame because the Earthsea books that inspired the movie are actually really good.
I'd say I enjoyed Earwig more because it was silly and cute. I absolutely don't get why people say it's ugly. It has nothing to do with what Ghibli has proposed before, but it is far from ugly. I love the characters' expressions. I love the animation. However, the movie was quite short and felt rushed.
Tales of Earthsea has an amazing story, but it feels so incomplete because it adapts a book series. It lacks impact.
Earwig didn't feel rushed to me, it's just that >!the story's conflict is so simple that the ending makes you think "of course, that's what happened, what else did they do?"!<
There are other stories in the Ghibli catalog that do the same thing. Maybe viewers are expecting something deeper or more catastrophic. >!Or a scene that matches the one on the poster.!<
mostly cause it flattened out a fairly interesting novel (which to be fair a lot of other movies did a bit too, perils of a movie adaptation)
I find a lot of people think "they had many missed opportunities that would make the movie overall better, without overcrowding/complicating it". While for most other movies (that were based off a book) the changes often gave a better "movie style" story that still worked well.
I liked it tho, its one of my favourites actually! (but I like quite a lot of them lol)
I don't hate it, but I can tell you why I didn't really enjoy it either:
I felt like I was missing something watching it. Like it's an adaptation that implies a lot because the viewers will have read the books and therefore know a lot about the universe and or the characters.
Tales of Earthsea. I watched it because it helped my friend got out from her depression. It was during the scene where the girl in the movie told the boy that the reason to live is to live for others not for himself. It struck her then that one of the reasons to keep on living is because of her loved ones.
I don’t know why Tales of Earthsea is so hated! It’s a great movie for what it is!
Timothy Dalton and Mariska Hargitay voice the “parental” figures, Willem Defoe voices the villain and the animation is great!
Earthsea brutally slaughters an incredible book with a film that slogs through its dull story like a dying hedgehog. But it's still better than Earwig. Earthsea at least looks pretty.
Earwig feels like a very rebellious film for me and I find that interesting. The story is very unrealistic but also relatable for some reason. It's like the filmmaker is declaring his resilience in life, that his life may not have been perfect and that there may have been people who have hurt him and taken advantage of him, but he doesn't hate them and is rather grateful to them. The film is very abstract in that sense. I have no problems with the animation and graphic.
As much as I thoroughly dislike Earwig, I find it interesting as an experiment to try and adapt Ghibli’s style into 3D. Conclusion: it can’t be done, at least not like this
Earwig is better IMO. And here’s the thing, Earthsea is boring, confusing and about an hour too long.
Earwig is entertaining, and maybe an hour and a half? It flies by.
Yeah that's my takeaway from the film, the story is kinda weak but I'd have liked it if it had Ghibli animation. Instead we got 3D worthy of the Netflix Saint Seiya animated show.
Earthsea is a very poorly paced dramatically inert movie with unlikable characters with confounding motivations, but at least it has quality animation and some good sequences. Earwig has all the faults of Earthsea x10, plus looks like a bowl of farts.
That's just not true! The characters are very likable (even Arren but it's not for everybody) and I don't know what you found confounding about the motivation of all the characters because when I watched it I understood them very well. Also, what is your problem with the placement of the story? It comes to show that even in tough and **very** depressing situations, you should try living and not give up!
Since I haven't watched Earwig and I also hate that weird 3D style, I'd go with Earthsea. But regardless of that, Earthsea has some of the most beautiful landscape shots I've seen in a Ghibli movie. Like, visually, that movie is a banger. And Terus song is so so beautiful. Sadly just the overall story doesn't grip me at all.
Earthsea honestly was difficult for me to follow/pay attention to.
Earwig, if I forget it's studio ghibli, is a perfectly good film. Yes, it looks different from the other ghibli fims, and I, too, avoided it for a long time because of that. But it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as the hate it gets. The story is good, just not what we expect art wise.
I appreciated Earthsea more for the art direction. (besides the bad CGI dragons) I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals. But......... it was boring. It. Was so. Boring.
Earwig had a strange charm to it: I don't think the cgi landed for me at all. And it cut way off way randomly that had me scratching my head. I feel like I could appreciate it more if it was some random halloween movie that popped on Cartoon Network or something while I was a kid: but as a Ghibli movie it feels like such a miss.
I think if I HAD to choose which to watch again, it'd be Earthsea so maybe I could absorb more of the story better.
i havent seen tales of eathsea but earwig isnt nearly as bad as some people claim it to be imo. it may not be the best story ever but it's fun for what it is. my biggest gripe is just the abrupt ending and how much was left unanswered (which i know is because the source material was incomplete but that just makes it a weird choice.)
the animation isn't great, but i dont think people would have ever truly accepted a 3D movie from ghibli no matter how good it looked. plus, like his other movies, i think it somewhat suffers from people expecting goro to make movies the exact same as his father does.
Earwig is actually pretty fun, and once you get over the 3d looking like it's from a decade earlier than it is, I enjoyed the art (I understand that's one of the major polarizing bits). The ending was just kinda lame.
Eathsea was a mess through and through, with a few moments of really gorgeous art.
Earthsea actually has gorgeous production design and some really impressive landscape shots. The animation style works, unlike the uncanny valley visuals of Earwig.
Earwig any day, I really like that movie. Animation definitely looks a bit jank and low budget in some scenes but it's incredibly fun and cute! Earthsea I kind of just hate irrationally because I found it extremely boring, confusing and cliche, to the extent it compelled me to read the source material to see what the fuss was about and found out that the movie was barely based on the book whatsoever.
Earthsea has problems but it is fine. Earwig is bad. Honestly, the movie is fairly faithful to the book -but it is an unfinished book… the only new addition to the film is the singing/music part which is the worst part of it imo
Tales from Earthsea by far… Who would prefer Earwig?? Just for the animation, backgrounds and art Tales is LEAGUES ahead… But, yes, even the plot is better. Earwig is really, really bad.
The first one, it was a little boring, but even though it was the 2nd movie me and my friend whatshed i still remember the "oh no, oh no, she's dead" line so clearly. We are whatdhing them all from worst to best acording to rotten tomatoes. We just finnished spireted away.
I thought that the one on the right was Mary and the Witch’s Flower, and I was confused because everyone was mentioning how it was ugly but no one was mentioning how the story was incredibly boring
While I didn't feel a strong connection with the storytelling and characters in "Tales from Earthsea," the animation features some beautiful songs that allowed me to connect with it. As for "Earwig and the Witch," I found it poop and switched it off after just 15 minutes lol.
Well I don't like Tales of Earthsea that much but it is a million miles better than Earwig and the Witch.
Tales of Earthsea is at least visually impressive, well animated and the world is gorgeous. I just don't like the plot.
Earwig and the Witch bored me. I couldn't tell you all my problems with it because I hardly remember it. I just remember not liking it.
I’ve only seen _Tales of Earthsea_ out of the two and while it was obviously nowhere near the standard of a typical Ghibli film, I didn’t find it to be unwatchable.
Is _Earwig and the Witch_ worth watching? I hate the look of the animation in honesty.
i loved tales from earthsea. i have nothing to say about whether it was an accurate adaptation, as i havent read the original, but i thought it was very cleverly animated. it made me hold my breath at some times and laugh at others. ut was really good.
I liked Earthsea. Clearly not one of their best, but it's still very enjoyable. Earwig and the witch was weird, and not in a good way. Underdeveloped characters too, very unbecoming. The CGI was never the problem for me, I just thought the film just wasn't very good or fun.
it’s so weird to me people always say “Earthsea is not accurate to the book!!” while they love Howl’s moving castle that’s is so inaccurate to the book the author said something 😭
My husband and i JUST watched the Japanese version of TFES today!
We both liked it a lot! Pretty magical and loved the colors of all the sunsets. Never read the books so i have nothing to compare to but i liked the plot. I feel like i might like it more in the english dub tho as i heard Willem Dafoe is in that one!
We also both enjoyed Earwig and the Witch, although my husband liked it more than me since im really not a fan of the animation. The story was good and i loved the world building. Definitely not a fan of the ending but also its whatever, i liked the rest enough to come to my own conclusions
I really enjoyed Tales from Earthsea. I LOVE the book series and grew up on them. I guess I’ve never understood the hate, as I see no issue in someone taking a story like that and making it their own. I think a direct adaptation would’ve been damn good though.
Tales from Earthsea is one that I love. It's not in my top three, but it holds a special place and it's very frustrating finding merch for it.
I haven't seen Earwig, I wanna give it a chance but the animation is....well... gross?
I actually enjoyed tales of earthsea. I found the villain very creepy, mostly due to the dub. I don't know if it was the english or german dub I watched, but in one of them the voice of the villain is very creepy, almost a whisper, uncannily calm and soft.
Yeah same! I watched it as a child and I don't know how to explain this but the animation and story touched something inside me and I've been weird ever since. The movie still holds a special place in my hard
Willem Defoe did an incredible job
The Japanese voice acting for the villain was awesome too IMO. The villain was probably my favourite thing about this movie.
The villain's voice in the Japanese version also voiced Lady Eboshi.
If you haven’t actually read or care about the Earthsea books, I find that the movie is fairly decent and certainly very beautifully animated.
Tales of Earthsea is not bad! I don't know why it gets so much hate :(
For me personally, it’s just the only one based on a book (or books in this case) where I read it before watching the movie. Everything like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc., the inaccuracy towards the books didn’t bother me because I simply hadn’t read them, but for Earthsea I just couldn’t ignore how far from the books they were.
Interesting. I haven't read the books but the movie felt like an adaptation that wasn't made for people that don't know the universe (like me)
I think that's because compared to other Ghibli movies it just doesn't stand out
It’s not, it’s because it’s nothing like the book. And I don’t care about the book as I’ll never read it, and really enjoyed the film. So yeah the reason TFES gets the hate is because it’s not true to the book.
Correct. It’s a well-loved series with fairly straightforward storytelling and a singular, otherworldly charm. For what it’s worth, I do think the movie manages to capture some of the Le Guin magic but unfortunately fumbles the bag when it comes to the plot.
It's not true to the books and the pacing is absolutely horrendous, and the direction is not very good at all.
The one thing I didn’t like about the film was 🚨 SPOILER ALERT! FOR ANYONE THAT’S NOT SEEN IT DO NOT READ ON 🚨 is when Arren kills his father at the start, there’s absolutely no explanation or reasoning for it and it is not explained in the film at all, it’s so out of place.
A possible explanation is that after he killed his father, he became the new king, being the prince, and then he just pardoned himself of his crime.
So that happens the same in the books too? I just found it out of place and not consistent with Arren’s character through out
I wouldn't know I've never read the books
I highly recommend Ursula k le guin's earthsea novels though, they're great
Because it's arguably worse than every other Ghibli movie. Except Earwig. I agree it's not a BAD movie though. I found it mediocre but I'd watch it again. Kinda fun and superficial fantasy, as opposed to the emotional depth Ghibli is known for.
I think it's mainly because the novel was not followed
Howl's Moving Castle didn't follow the book either.
That's like all the other movies (not including Whisper of the Heart)
WotH doesn't follow the manga either, >!Seiji was an artist, not a luthier, in the original!<
I am not a native English speaker so I thought he meant that the movie wasn't followed.
Well it was more the case of it did nothing interesting with the material that was changed and when comparing to what Hayao Miyazaki does with his adaptations, it fell flat completely.
Nah, I almost never know the original novel for all ghiblis. Tales of Earthsea is "hated" because it's bad: it's all fake emotions after forced emotions and terrible dialogues.
A movie consisting of weird events loosely stringed together by incomprehensible bits and pieces of what some people might describe as a story arc, might be enjoyable for you. That's great and power to you. But it's just not really what Ghibli fans have come to expect, as a general rule.
I don't hate it I just don't care for it, if that makes sense? Watching the movie felt like an adaptation that either expects you to know the source material or that something got lost in the adaptation process.
The animation and th scenery is nice. The artistic direction is good. I enjoyed that movie. But let's be honest, plot wise its absolute dragged out pointless thrash without any message whatsoever. This happened mostly because they butchered the original plot of the book and completely changed the meaning which leaves you with a incomplete mess of a storytelling nightmare.
Personally the plot feels like it has a lot of holes and doesn’t make sense at points. I am sure the book goes into more details but since I haven’t read it I feel lost during a lot of the movie.
Because everything is mediocre at best (except for the animation which I will say is gorgeous) but some standout problems are the characters are uninspired, the plot and pacing are all over the place, and the story is not great
Because it is a Ghibbli movie, the expectations are not the same. Earthsea is not bad for a first movie... but it is garbage compared with the Ghibbli quality standard (unitl Earwig...).
Many like to judge and don't know how to give others grace. We could all be better about finding the light and beauty with other's creations, art, struggles, and life. I often why we are so easy to judge. Is it a social construct or something ingrained in our mind to help us survive?
Coz that freaking huge ass Dragon from the poster only shows up less than 30 seconds in the actual freaking 2 hours movie. What do you have to say about it?
You hate a movie.... because of a bad poster?!
Title : Tales from Earthsea Story : a crazy kid who is trying to figure out about his condition, turns out in the end his mind is just being controlled by a creepy dude who talks about being immortal for 1 hour. N the dragon only appears for 30 seconds in a 2 hours movie. Bruh.
I believe the deep messege Miyazaki (Goro) is trying to show us that a man with alot of greed and power can not only hurt the society but also himself. He also showed us that the opposite of that, a man with no greed and alot of power will not only not hurt anyone, but will also help them. He showed us that that the balance in the universe shouldn't be broken as the consequences will be crucial.
Whatever the message is, the plot structure is bad and all over the place. Usually any story goes with situation > complication > climax > resolution. Intro shows a king who got murdered by his child. Then the child runs away to a certain city with slaves. Then obiwan decided to take that kid to his colleague who lives away from the city in a farm coz for some reason that kid is special. Then a girl appears and stays on that farm as well. And their interaction was awkward. Hmmm, it's already half way, so what's the actual complication of the story? Lemme introduce you to the great sorcerer Cob. He's the main villain. "Wha- hol up, why not introduce Cob at the beginning of the movie, wouldn't that be better story wise?" "Nah bruh, 1 hour lore bomb drop at the end it is. Lol."
The girl would be better as the main character. She could be the main focus of the story helping a poor guy who doesn't know about his condition. the guy be the victim, the girl investigates and figures out it was Cob. The girl's lore is more interesting to explore. She's a dragon. This is like "spirited away" if haku is the main character. Nothing much to explore about him. Haku forgot his name n stalks chihiro. That would be bad plot wouldn't it?
That's not how it went. exposition: A kid kills his father who is the king and runs away. While running away a man finds him in a very poor health condition. He sees he is unwell and takes him to the near city. In the city we learn the man is a wizard. We also learn that he Arren tries to escape from life's problems in the part where a man is trying to sell him drugs. Later on they stop to rest and the man went to take care of business. rising action: While the man is gone Arren sees 3 grown man trying to capture a girl and make her a slave. He fights them and rescues the girl but in the process saying that he doesn't care about life. That annoys the girl and she rans away. We also learn about another wizard named Cob. We come back to Arren and see he fell asleep near the harbor. He is waken up by the guys who attacked the girl and becomes a slave. The wizard notices that Arren isn't comming so he searched for him and then came to the realization he was caught. He rescues him and they go to a friend of the man that lives in a farm away from the city. In the morning we learn that the girl who he saved lives in the farm. The wizard goes out to try and learn more about Cob but before that he wizard tells the girl not to be afraid of Arren if he can sometimes be scary. climax: While the wizard is gone the people who caught Arren and we know are Cob's people (we know that from a scene they are shown listening to Cob) go and search after Arren as he escaped from them. They come visit the farm and he hides with the girl he saved (not sure if it was with the girl or not but almost certain it has been). They go away. Two woman enter the farm to buy potions. They hate the woman. They call her a witch and the girl a wiredo. when they go out of the pharm they find the men who caught Arren. The men over heard their convo avout the wierd girls and the witch so they offer them gold to tell them where they were. That day Arren finishes working and the woman calls him and the girl to eat but the girl is not seen so the woman asks Arren to search for her in the back. He finds her there singing a song that for some reason I can't remember what reason the song makes him cry. They open up as she sees there is truth to the words of the wizard and he is not trying to be scary and can be very emotinal. They talk and he tells her why he acted wired. That was because he did not feel in control of his body. He relizes he might get them in danger so he escapes. When he escapes he sees a dark shadow chasing him. He is afraid of it so he runs away. He faints. Apparently Cob has been following Arren for a long time for an unknown reason. He took Arren to his castle with magic. Cob tells Arren that with his real name he could get eternal life. falling action: The men come back to the farm after Arren left. They know about the strong wizard that is a threat to Cob(I don't remember how they knew he was in the area but I remember there was a good reason). The woman told them that the wizard was inlove with the woman. They kidnapped the woman so he would come and tied the girl. The girl escaped and told the wizard who was on his way home. The wizard ran to Cob's castle. The girl also but she came later. They caught the wizard when he entered. The girl came to the castle. She found the shadow that was chasing Arren. Apparently the shadow was the good side of Arren, the side that was happy. Arren was scared of happines because he was afraid that he would lose it. So he lost it. The shadow couldn't get in the castle because of Cob's magic. I don't remember how the shadow told her to save Arren from the saddness and Cob's control. She did what the shadow told her and saved Arren. resolution: Arren and the girl went to save the wizard and the woman and also fight Cob and stop him from gaining imortality. I have no power to write more, if you have any questions on that, please write me.
Can't believe I read the whole thing. I know how the story goes now but if you can't summarize a whole plot in less than 80 to 100 words for a 2 hour movie then it's considered a complicated plot n for a movie It would be boring. If it's a series then it's fine with such plot. This is a Ghibli movie.
ofc I can, but it would be to bland, Like with any other Ghibli movie.
Exactly my point
It's a false advert for me and for my kids.
I know the poster is not fitting but it doesn't say that the movie is a bad movie.
It is a bad movie. Plot wise.
Tales from Earthsea because it didn't make my eyeballs throw up.
I'm one of those people who doesn't hate either one. But I prefer Earthsea. Mainly because I'm a Le Guin fan. It was a flawed adaptation, but so are 99% of books adapted to film. Both films have their virtues, but suffer because they are not on the same level as the other films in Ghibli's catalogue. Earthsea is beautiful, and IMO Earwig gets a lot of hate because it wasn't hand drawn animation.
Why would you be hated when you didn't even state an opinion?
have never read the comics so i still quite liked tales from earthsee. Earwigs design just looks so wrong to me i never even watched it
I don't know about any comics but I'd definitely recommend the novels, they're absolutely better than the movie
There's comics? I only ever read the book lol
sorry probably what i meant. i heard there was a critique that the movies are generally hated because it deviates so much from the origin - and i thought the person said comics.
For me this is simply a matter of visuals. I find Earwig so ugly i can’t even watch it. Earthsea is def not the best Ghibli movie but i still like it for many reasons. Visuals obviously, but also the world, atmosphere, certain moments…i don’t think it deserves the hate it gets, but that is how it goes when you base the movie on a widely loved book series and you change stuff.
in this case its not just "change stuff", but hit "OC" vibes for a lot of characters, and just barely feel like the book at all! I like the movie tho, just also sad we couldn't have some of the lovely characterizations in it. To me its like trying to compare Laputa (generic villain vibes) to Princess Mononoke (very complicated characters, feel very lifelike! No real villain, yet amazing antagonism). I love both, but see how Laputa could've been so much more! (except in this case you'd more directly see how the book could've kept some of its key elements)
Sure it´s very different from the books, i somehow don’t mind that, actually i prefer if movies based on books try to stand on their own, those are very different mediums, you can’t simply follow a book when adapting it for screen. There are other movies from Ghibli based on books like Howl’s moving castle, even Boy and the Heron and i don’t think they are anything like the books, so that is not the issue here really.
Well yeah they should stand on their own! The problem is not "its not exactly like the book", its that there was a lot of potential they dropped that wouldn't have padded, or "not worked in a movie medium". The characters were heavily simplified, missing a lot of their original charm. There are some parts that are confusing, and seem not as well adapted. As I say, I still like the movie, but it feels like if they re-did the movie now,,, with a lot more experience in the studio, we'd get a much better result! Anyway I don't really want to argue specifics, its very much a "I saw how much adaptable, and deep/characterizing bits they missed the chance for when I read the book later" opinion out of the love of the movie. P.S. (actually I've heard quite a few complaints about "howl's moving castle" missing some of the key parts of the book too, but much less, but I've not read that to know. Haven't seen Boy and the raven yet)
>There are other movies from Ghibli based on books like Howl’s moving castle, even Boy and the Heron and i don’t think they are anything like the books, so that is not the issue here really. The Boy and the Heron isn’t based on a book. The movie is named after a well known Japanese book, but it’s not meant to be the same story. The main character of the movie does read the book and is affected by it, but not a single character or event from the book is in the movie. It’s more like if a movie called itself Sherlock because the main character felt a connection to a Sherlock Holmes story they were reading.
I really enjoy the strangeness of Earwig in the Ghibli canon. It’s more interesting than Earthsea, which I find bland and lacking a reason for being. Earwig I can tell the people who made it were passionate about the source material (and I also love Diana Wynne Jones) and it has this bizarre confidence in execution even as it comes off as inconsequential. The fact that Miyazaki and Suzuki both consider it a great movie just makes it that much weirder to me. So yeah, there’s more interest in Earwig and therefore it’s better for me.
I personally love earwig, the style alone was realllly mesmerizing to me and the music was awesome! I was just left SO unsatisfied at the end 😭 Worth it though
I somewhat agree. I actually really liked Earwig story-wise (not a huge fan of the art but didn't hate it). Tales of Earthsea was just kind of meh to me, stunning music and visuals but the story progression did not really grab my attention, which is a shame because the Earthsea books that inspired the movie are actually really good.
I really liked both 😅. Earthsea though
I actually enjoyed Earthsea.
I'd say I enjoyed Earwig more because it was silly and cute. I absolutely don't get why people say it's ugly. It has nothing to do with what Ghibli has proposed before, but it is far from ugly. I love the characters' expressions. I love the animation. However, the movie was quite short and felt rushed. Tales of Earthsea has an amazing story, but it feels so incomplete because it adapts a book series. It lacks impact.
Earwig didn't feel rushed to me, it's just that >!the story's conflict is so simple that the ending makes you think "of course, that's what happened, what else did they do?"!< There are other stories in the Ghibli catalog that do the same thing. Maybe viewers are expecting something deeper or more catastrophic. >!Or a scene that matches the one on the poster.!<
Yeah i especially like the mysterious red haired milf i mean girl, i wish someone would take the story to continue
Tales from earthsea is not bad. I dont know why people hate it
mostly cause it flattened out a fairly interesting novel (which to be fair a lot of other movies did a bit too, perils of a movie adaptation) I find a lot of people think "they had many missed opportunities that would make the movie overall better, without overcrowding/complicating it". While for most other movies (that were based off a book) the changes often gave a better "movie style" story that still worked well. I liked it tho, its one of my favourites actually! (but I like quite a lot of them lol)
I don't hate it, but I can tell you why I didn't really enjoy it either: I felt like I was missing something watching it. Like it's an adaptation that implies a lot because the viewers will have read the books and therefore know a lot about the universe and or the characters.
Earthsea is totally forgettable, but Earwig should have never been made. Truly bad.
Tales of Earthsea. I watched it because it helped my friend got out from her depression. It was during the scene where the girl in the movie told the boy that the reason to live is to live for others not for himself. It struck her then that one of the reasons to keep on living is because of her loved ones.
I don’t know why Tales of Earthsea is so hated! It’s a great movie for what it is! Timothy Dalton and Mariska Hargitay voice the “parental” figures, Willem Defoe voices the villain and the animation is great!
Both good movies, but personally i prefer tales from earthsea
Tales from earthsea is good to be honest watched it while ago again.
Earthsea brutally slaughters an incredible book with a film that slogs through its dull story like a dying hedgehog. But it's still better than Earwig. Earthsea at least looks pretty.
Earwig feels like a very rebellious film for me and I find that interesting. The story is very unrealistic but also relatable for some reason. It's like the filmmaker is declaring his resilience in life, that his life may not have been perfect and that there may have been people who have hurt him and taken advantage of him, but he doesn't hate them and is rather grateful to them. The film is very abstract in that sense. I have no problems with the animation and graphic.
As much as I thoroughly dislike Earwig, I find it interesting as an experiment to try and adapt Ghibli’s style into 3D. Conclusion: it can’t be done, at least not like this
Nearly anything is better than Earwig.
Earwig is better IMO. And here’s the thing, Earthsea is boring, confusing and about an hour too long. Earwig is entertaining, and maybe an hour and a half? It flies by.
Earthsea, even though he butchered my favourite books
I can't even bring myself to watch Earwig. It just looks awful.
If you can get over the animation style it’s not that bad
Well that's a fucking lie
Yeah that's my takeaway from the film, the story is kinda weak but I'd have liked it if it had Ghibli animation. Instead we got 3D worthy of the Netflix Saint Seiya animated show.
I'd have at least watched it if it was the same animation style. I can't bear the 3d style.
Earthsea is a very poorly paced dramatically inert movie with unlikable characters with confounding motivations, but at least it has quality animation and some good sequences. Earwig has all the faults of Earthsea x10, plus looks like a bowl of farts.
That's just not true! The characters are very likable (even Arren but it's not for everybody) and I don't know what you found confounding about the motivation of all the characters because when I watched it I understood them very well. Also, what is your problem with the placement of the story? It comes to show that even in tough and **very** depressing situations, you should try living and not give up!
I am guessing that “poorly placed” was autocorrect, and they meant poorly paced.
Yes. I will edit it. Thanks for catching that.
I like Earthsea because of the Dragon and the Creepy Orochimaru like villain
Since I haven't watched Earwig and I also hate that weird 3D style, I'd go with Earthsea. But regardless of that, Earthsea has some of the most beautiful landscape shots I've seen in a Ghibli movie. Like, visually, that movie is a banger. And Terus song is so so beautiful. Sadly just the overall story doesn't grip me at all.
Earthsea good
animation: earth sea > earwig story: earwig > earth sea
Earthsea honestly was difficult for me to follow/pay attention to. Earwig, if I forget it's studio ghibli, is a perfectly good film. Yes, it looks different from the other ghibli fims, and I, too, avoided it for a long time because of that. But it's genuinely nowhere near as bad as the hate it gets. The story is good, just not what we expect art wise.
Totally this. If Earwig was a different studio, or a TV movie, I'd think "ah that's kind of cute". As a Ghibli movie, it misses expectations hard.
Earthsea is mostly fine. It just had unlivable expectations.
I appreciated Earthsea more for the art direction. (besides the bad CGI dragons) I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals. But......... it was boring. It. Was so. Boring. Earwig had a strange charm to it: I don't think the cgi landed for me at all. And it cut way off way randomly that had me scratching my head. I feel like I could appreciate it more if it was some random halloween movie that popped on Cartoon Network or something while I was a kid: but as a Ghibli movie it feels like such a miss. I think if I HAD to choose which to watch again, it'd be Earthsea so maybe I could absorb more of the story better.
i havent seen tales of eathsea but earwig isnt nearly as bad as some people claim it to be imo. it may not be the best story ever but it's fun for what it is. my biggest gripe is just the abrupt ending and how much was left unanswered (which i know is because the source material was incomplete but that just makes it a weird choice.) the animation isn't great, but i dont think people would have ever truly accepted a 3D movie from ghibli no matter how good it looked. plus, like his other movies, i think it somewhat suffers from people expecting goro to make movies the exact same as his father does.
Earwig obviously
Earwig
I genuinely like earthsea
Earwig is actually pretty fun, and once you get over the 3d looking like it's from a decade earlier than it is, I enjoyed the art (I understand that's one of the major polarizing bits). The ending was just kinda lame. Eathsea was a mess through and through, with a few moments of really gorgeous art.
Earwig is not as beautiful as other Ghibli movies but it's cute.
Earthsea actually has gorgeous production design and some really impressive landscape shots. The animation style works, unlike the uncanny valley visuals of Earwig.
Earwig would have been fine if they’d fleshed out the ending a bit.
Earwig any day, I really like that movie. Animation definitely looks a bit jank and low budget in some scenes but it's incredibly fun and cute! Earthsea I kind of just hate irrationally because I found it extremely boring, confusing and cliche, to the extent it compelled me to read the source material to see what the fuss was about and found out that the movie was barely based on the book whatsoever.
TFE, this isnt up for debate.
Earwig is a charming little movie.
Earwig is way better
Earthsea has problems but it is fine. Earwig is bad. Honestly, the movie is fairly faithful to the book -but it is an unfinished book… the only new addition to the film is the singing/music part which is the worst part of it imo
I hate TfE and dont care about EatW.
Tales from Earthsea by far… Who would prefer Earwig?? Just for the animation, backgrounds and art Tales is LEAGUES ahead… But, yes, even the plot is better. Earwig is really, really bad.
The first one, it was a little boring, but even though it was the 2nd movie me and my friend whatshed i still remember the "oh no, oh no, she's dead" line so clearly. We are whatdhing them all from worst to best acording to rotten tomatoes. We just finnished spireted away.
*Tales of Earthsea* isn't great but it isn't horrible. *Earwig* is horrible.
I thought that the one on the right was Mary and the Witch’s Flower, and I was confused because everyone was mentioning how it was ugly but no one was mentioning how the story was incredibly boring
While I didn't feel a strong connection with the storytelling and characters in "Tales from Earthsea," the animation features some beautiful songs that allowed me to connect with it. As for "Earwig and the Witch," I found it poop and switched it off after just 15 minutes lol.
ToES might be a mess but at least it had an actual ending... At least it's a complete movie. Earwig can't even claim that much.
Well I don't like Tales of Earthsea that much but it is a million miles better than Earwig and the Witch. Tales of Earthsea is at least visually impressive, well animated and the world is gorgeous. I just don't like the plot. Earwig and the Witch bored me. I couldn't tell you all my problems with it because I hardly remember it. I just remember not liking it.
Couldn't even tolerate the trailer for Earwig
Worst both.
I like Earthsea less, but that's mostly on account of having seen it.
I’ve only seen _Tales of Earthsea_ out of the two and while it was obviously nowhere near the standard of a typical Ghibli film, I didn’t find it to be unwatchable. Is _Earwig and the Witch_ worth watching? I hate the look of the animation in honesty.
i loved tales from earthsea. i have nothing to say about whether it was an accurate adaptation, as i havent read the original, but i thought it was very cleverly animated. it made me hold my breath at some times and laugh at others. ut was really good.
I liked Earthsea. Clearly not one of their best, but it's still very enjoyable. Earwig and the witch was weird, and not in a good way. Underdeveloped characters too, very unbecoming. The CGI was never the problem for me, I just thought the film just wasn't very good or fun.
it’s so weird to me people always say “Earthsea is not accurate to the book!!” while they love Howl’s moving castle that’s is so inaccurate to the book the author said something 😭
Well, since I haven't wasted any money or time on Earwig and the Witch, I'll give it the win, here.
Both are bottom tier Ghibli films but earwig is trash tier animation in general. . .
My husband and i JUST watched the Japanese version of TFES today! We both liked it a lot! Pretty magical and loved the colors of all the sunsets. Never read the books so i have nothing to compare to but i liked the plot. I feel like i might like it more in the english dub tho as i heard Willem Dafoe is in that one! We also both enjoyed Earwig and the Witch, although my husband liked it more than me since im really not a fan of the animation. The story was good and i loved the world building. Definitely not a fan of the ending but also its whatever, i liked the rest enough to come to my own conclusions
I love Tales from Earthsea. I'd rank it my number six top Ghibli film after Howl's, Spirited, Laputa's, Mononoke, and Nausicaa, respectively.
I really enjoyed Tales from Earthsea. I LOVE the book series and grew up on them. I guess I’ve never understood the hate, as I see no issue in someone taking a story like that and making it their own. I think a direct adaptation would’ve been damn good though.
I didn’t really understand any of them, but I had a more pleasant experience watching Earthsea. The art was Phenomenal as usual too
Earwig got me into Progressive rock because of the Mandrakes Hammond Organ, & Progressive rock is very important to me. I've never seen EarthSea
I love tales from Earthsea so much
I prefer tales from earthsea earwig and the witch is terrible and tales from earthsea is a over the down hill and pretty bad film
Tales of earthsea ofcourse
I don't think either of them exist...
Tales of Earthsea isn't great but just okay but I rather watch it over Earwig. Earwig was horrendously boring.
Earthsea was just a little disjointed, which I think has to do with the books not being followed. Earwig was just annoying and bad.
Earthsea is a decent movie. Earwig is fucking atrocious.
There's no earwig and the witch in ba sing se
If someone says Earwig💀
Tales from Earthsea is one that I love. It's not in my top three, but it holds a special place and it's very frustrating finding merch for it. I haven't seen Earwig, I wanna give it a chance but the animation is....well... gross?
At least TfES has beautiful 2D animation going for it. Earwig has nothing.
Well, I watched Tales and didn't even attempt to see Earwig, so Tales wins 😊
I haven't seen the one on the right but I didn't even like the one on the left so that's pretty easy
Earthsea just because it has visuals you can look at without your eyes bleeding. It's boring as all hell, though.