Blu-ray Review // Tales From Earthsea

Tales from Earthsea is the directorial debut of Goro Miasaki, son of legendary animator Hayao Miasaki. The epic fantasy explores a world of witchcraft and dragons. The tale follows the journey of Arren a young prince in exile who meets the arc mage, Sparrowhawk and travels with him to discover the evil that is plaguing the balance of their world. It’s a masterful piece of animation, with a captivating story and beautiful hand drawn sceneries. A fitting first film from the second generation of Studio Ghibli film-makers as it was a story Hayao had wanted to make for years before his son took it on.

The English cast includes Timothy Dalton as Sparrowhawk with Mariska Hargitay as his friend Tenar while William Dafoe voices the evil wizard Cob and Cheech Marin plays his henchman. The special features don’t give us too much insight into the cast but there are quite a lot of features included with the BluRay + DVD combo pack. Along with the standard Japanese Storyboards and trailers featured in Studio Ghibli home entertainment releases, there’s also a featurette on the soundtrack as well as a look at the the adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. That featurette also outlines the importance of the story for the studio.

Tales from Earthsea was originally released in 2006 and is now available on BluRay + DVD combo packs. Two more Studio Ghibli titles were also re-released on BluRay recently, Pom Poko and Porco Rosso.