This is the latest from Studio Ghibli and I'm obliged to jot down some background information. Studio Ghibli has over the years, churned out some of the finest animated movies ever. Japanese and otherwise. Co-founded by the legendary Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko, Only Yesterday, My Neighbours the Yamadas etc.,) and Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and a few more), Studio Ghibli has also played home to Yoshifumi Kondō's directorial debut, the beautiful Whisper of the Heart, after which he passed on. The offshoot to Whisper of the Heart was made by Hiroyuki Morita and was called The Cat Returns. Another landmark work from Studio Ghibli was the co-production of Ghost in the Shell: Innocence with Production I.G.

With all that cleared up, let's get down to the business. Hayao Miyazaki has been wanting to adapt Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea fantasy series for a while. Though it took Ursula years and an Oscar for Spirited Away to finally figure out Hayao could do this, Hayao was busy directing Howl's Moving Castle. Studio Ghibli's long time producer Toshi Suzuki suggested that Gorō, Hayao Miyazaki's son who's otherwise a landscape artist, direct this. Hayao didn't like the idea too much because of his lack of experience and ended up not talking to his son for over a year. Gorō, when he finally finished work on this film in 2006, Hayao saw it and thought it was good because it 'came from his heart'. Ursula thought it was a good movie but wasn't happy with the way the story had been changed. Most of the fans of the books weren't either. But that doesn't matter to me because it's clearly a loose adaptation and more importantly, the fact that I haven't even read the books.

Tales from Earthsea, or Gedo Senki in Japanese, revolves around Arren, a young boy filled with rage and no respect for life. He kills his father, the king, by stabbing him, and is on the run. He carries his magic-powered sword with him. He's saved from the wolves by a sorcerer called Sparrowhawk (later revealed to be the archmage) and travels with him. Arren helps this girl called Therru from 'Slave Hunters' but Therru is somehow angry at him and runs away. Arren himself falls prey to the same Slave Hunters but gets rescued by Sparrowhawk. Arren who's now in a miserable shape is taken to Tenar who's the woman of the movie. Somehow Therru is also there. It is revealed that Therru has been with Tenar for 5 years and that her real parents abused her thus explaining the mark she has on her face. Arren and Sparrowhawk spend their time working at the fields and during this time Arren and Therru also get close to each other. So that's the good side of the film.

Heading the evil side is the witch called Lord Cob who's in fact got all the Slave Hunters under her. She also has a past with Sparrowhawk and is waiting for her revenge. She kidnaps Tenar, sort of possesses Arren and confronts Sparrowhawk who is powerless in her castle. How Therru helps Arren and together, save them all from evil, forms the final action packed set-piece of the movie.

The film's bottomline is about giving importance to both life and death. And about two kinds of humans, the ones that want possession and the ones that want freedom, the latter take the form of a dragon in Ursula's fantasy world.

Make no mistake, this is very Ghibli. The characters are beautiful, part of the film that happens in the countryside was so typical of Hayao, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous and the soundtrack is epic as it should be. This should've been an excellent movie but it falters at various points and throughout. Firstly, though the art is great like I said, the production as such isn't as grand as a regular Ghibli film. More significantly, the story and its unimaginative pacing itself fail to keep my attention on. Fantasy has been done by the same studio to mindboggling results before but this is their weakest take on the genre yet. This is definitely watchable if you're already familiar with Studio Ghibli and Japanese Animation as such but if you're a newcomer, you're better off watching the films mentioned right at the beginning of this review.