Tales from Earthsea

Starring: Voices: Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Matt Levin
Directed by: Goro Miyazaki
Review: Dave Burbidge
Release date: 28th Jan 2008

Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange. The ruler orders healers into affected areas, but is told that his teenaged son, Arren has gone missing. Later he sees Arren in the palace, but is stabbed by the boy. The story follows Arren's flight to a remote land where a wandering wizard called Sparrowhawk(Dalton) rescues him (and his strange looking horse) from wolves. They visit a city where slave trading is rife, and a local wizard, Lord Cob is exerting more and more control.

With the introduction of a young girl, Terru, who Arren rescues from slavers, only to gain her emnity, and a brief rural idyll on a remote farm, the stage is set for Arren to face his fears, for Sparrowhawk to face a test and for Terru to reveal a hidden power.

A story set in a fantasy world where a ship is tossed by a raging sea and two dragons appear from the storm clouds only to devour each other, a terrible omen that the very balance of the world is collapsing.

From studion Ghibli, who had created spirited Away and also Howl's moving Castle this epic is based on the sci-fi novels of Ursula Le Guin. It is a little one paced, and plods along, even throwing in a too long song in the middle, but it does perk up during the climatic action scenes. There's an idiotic slave trader for light relief and for some reason Cob looks like a flat chested woman.