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Tales of Earthsea (Spoilers)
14 years ago
Okay, so...I'm confused. Why were the dragons fighting if that's such a bad thing? Why did Arren kill his father? What was this "One Thing" that could disrupt the balance, and why is it never mentioned again? Why is the disappearance of magic a big deal for thirty minutes and then never mentioned again? How does magic function normally, and how can ordinary people identify witches and wizards on sight? If Arren's split personality is the result of his fear of death, why does it make him go apeshit on people and start talking about not caring about life? Why did Sparrowhawk's powers fade inside the scary guy's castle? What are the implications of the girl being a dragon, and why does no one make a big deal about it? Is this kind of thing normal? Did we ever figure out what happened to the Balance? What was the significance of the sword, and why did crazy-Arren steal it?
The only question I don't have is why this movie didn't see a more elaborate release. I haven't read the books, and I shouldn't have had to. It was kind of a bummer to see the usual Ghibli-quality animation in the service of a story that makes so little effort to make itself understood.
"Ok, so we're off the destroy a ring, now why?"
"It will kill Sauron."
"Ok, now why do we hobbits care about some Sauron guy or his magic ring of invisibility? Its not like we've been here long enough to demonstrate it corrupting souls or bringing down black riders or anything. All we've seen is Bilbo vanish and you give me the darn thing."
"Shut up we need to get through Moria in the next five minutes and we haven't even gotten to Bree."
Summed up: Miyazaki's son got begrudginly talked into making the film by his agent, despite that he didn't want to direct films. He was given access to Studio Ghibli to do so, very much against Hayao's approval. As a first time director, he pretty much stumbled through the whole process. Considering it was his first and he didn't even want to do it, I thought the movie came out pretty good (Went in expecting far worse). At the very least he made an honest effort. As you've illustrated though, plotholes gallore.
Besides, there would be some "ancient powers", more or less like in Lovecraft's stories yet somewhat less ominous.
As for the plot in the books, it would usually be thick and bizarrely metaphysical. You would roughly understand what the problem is, but its root cause would remain very obscure, and the way Ged solves it would be incomprehensible
I would compare it to a saturday night movie.
and dinotopia.....what i would do to some of those dinos would borderline orgy :P
As I think about it a little the only one that makes any sense as a stand alone movie without a PhD in mythology is Porco Rosso. Oh well I still love Ghibli's style.