Studio Ghibli (aka the Disney/Pixar of the Far East) keeps it in the family as animation legend Hayao Miyazaki hands the reins to son Goro for this 2D adaptation of Ursula K Le Guin’s sprawling fantasy. Pitting a young boy and an enigmatic mage (Timothy Dalton) against an evil wizard (Willem Dafoe) who’s tearing the land of Earthsea apart in a quest for immortality, it honours several Ghibli standards: sweeping, meticulous landscapes, tortured lead characters and the requisite pop ditty. Despite the lacquered finish, there’s nothing here that can hold a wand to papa’s Spirited Away or the similarly solemn Nausicaa. For all its talk of death and destiny, Earthsea’s neither as epic or poetic as it thinks it is.
DVD Extras:
Extras are just as limp, with a single stand-out option letting viewers flick between storyboards and the finished product (included in both English and Japanese versions).
