SOC
04-08-2007, 11:55 PM
Stars the voices of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Matt Levin, Cheech Marin, Mariska Hargitay
Directed by Goro Miyazaki
I’ve always been a bit of a purist when it comes to foreign language films, preferring subtitles to the dubbed versions. But I tend to break that rule when it comes to the breathtaking animations from Studio Ghibli. It’s nice to be able to just sit back and let the glorious visuals wash over you without having to concentrate on reading the dialogue. This is the debut film from Goro Miyazaki — and yes, he is the son of Ghibli stalwart and animation genius Hayao. And for his first outing, Miyazaki the younger has set himself a huge task — not only will he find himself compared to his brilliant father, but he’s adapting what I hear is a difficult work, the Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin.
I haven’t read any of the books, and to be honest, it would have helped if I had — the story is, at times, a little hard to follow. Put simply, it’s the tale of the Archmage Sparrowhawk, who befriends a young prince, Arren, who has killed his father and gone on the run. Set in a fantasy world of wizards and dragons, a world that is becoming “unbalanced”, Sparowhawk and Arren must ultimately defeat the evil sorcerer Cob — who is trying to open the doorway between the living and the dead, and so achieve immortality. As you’d expect, the hand-drawn animation — a rare thing to find these days — is stunning, but not quite up to the standards of Miyazaki senior and his classics such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. It also lacks those films' warmth and humour. But young Goro appears to have bucketloads of talent that just needs a little refining. He’s certainly one director to keep an eye on.
Directed by Goro Miyazaki
I’ve always been a bit of a purist when it comes to foreign language films, preferring subtitles to the dubbed versions. But I tend to break that rule when it comes to the breathtaking animations from Studio Ghibli. It’s nice to be able to just sit back and let the glorious visuals wash over you without having to concentrate on reading the dialogue. This is the debut film from Goro Miyazaki — and yes, he is the son of Ghibli stalwart and animation genius Hayao. And for his first outing, Miyazaki the younger has set himself a huge task — not only will he find himself compared to his brilliant father, but he’s adapting what I hear is a difficult work, the Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin.
I haven’t read any of the books, and to be honest, it would have helped if I had — the story is, at times, a little hard to follow. Put simply, it’s the tale of the Archmage Sparrowhawk, who befriends a young prince, Arren, who has killed his father and gone on the run. Set in a fantasy world of wizards and dragons, a world that is becoming “unbalanced”, Sparowhawk and Arren must ultimately defeat the evil sorcerer Cob — who is trying to open the doorway between the living and the dead, and so achieve immortality. As you’d expect, the hand-drawn animation — a rare thing to find these days — is stunning, but not quite up to the standards of Miyazaki senior and his classics such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. It also lacks those films' warmth and humour. But young Goro appears to have bucketloads of talent that just needs a little refining. He’s certainly one director to keep an eye on.