Tales from Earthsea (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tales from Earthsea ゲド戦記
Directed by	Gorō Miyazaki
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki Tomohiko Ishii
Written by	Ursula K. Le Guin (novel) Gorō Miyazaki Keiko Niwa
Starring	Bunta Sugawara Junichi Okada Aoi Teshima Jun Fubuki Yuko Tanaka Mitsuko Baisho Kaoru Kobayashi Yui Natsukawa Teruyuki Kagawa
Music by	Tamiya Terashima
Distributed by	Studio Ghibli (Japan) Toho (Japan) Walt Disney Pictures (U.S.) Tokuma Shoten (Japan) Nippon Television Network (Japan) Dentsu (Japan) d-rights (Japan) Hakuhodo (Japan)
Release date(s)	July 29, 2006 August 10, 2006 September 2006 October 26, 2006 2006 April 11, 2007 May 18, 2007 2007 (direct-to-DVD) 2007 (direct-to-DVD) (unannounced)
Language	Japanese
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Tales from Earthsea (ゲド戦記, Gedo Senki^?, loosely Ged's War Chronicles) is a feature anime film from Studio Ghibli, released in Japan on July 29, 2006,^[1] to be distributed in the USA by Walt Disney Pictures and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. It was directed by first-timer Gorō Miyazaki, son of Hayao Miyazaki. The movie is based primarily on the third book of the Earthsea series, The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin. A manga adaption of the film has been published in Japan.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 History 3 Staff 4 Voice cast 5 Trailer 6 Soundtrack 7 Reaction and box office 8 International releases 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot summary

[edit] History

This feature film from Studio Ghibli is the first anime film adaptation of any part of the Earthsea series. In the past, numerous directors have attempted to adapt the Earthsea cycle for film only to be refused by the author herself.^[2] Hayao Miyazaki had desired to create an anime version of the cycle, before he made Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.^[3] In 2003, after winning an Oscar for his film Spirited Away, he received approval but was busy directing Howl's Moving Castle. On behalf of Studio Ghibli, his son Gorō Miyazaki took charge of this film adaptation.

[edit] Staff

• Producer: Toshio Suzuki
• Assistant Producer: Tomohiko Ishii
• Original Story: The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Screenplay: Goro Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa
• Storyboard: Goro Miyazaki
• Music: Tamiya Terashima
• Art director: Youji Takeshige
• Animation director: Takeshi Inamura
• Assistant director: Akihiko Yamashita
• Color Design: Michiyo Yasuda
• Image Director: Atsushi Okui
• Theme Song Composition: Akino Arai and Hisaaki Hogari
• Theme Song Lyrics: Akino Arai and Goro Miyazaki
• Theme Song Performance: Aoi Teshima
• Animation Production: Studio Ghibli
• Director: Goro Miyazaki
• Distribution: Toho
• Produced in cooperation with Tokuma Shoten, Studio Ghibli, NTV, Disney, Hakuhodo, Dentsu, d-rights and Toho

[edit] Voice cast

The movie stars the following actors:

• Ged: Bunta Sugawara
• Prince Arren: Okada Junichi
• Therru/Tehanu: Aoi Teshima
• Tenar: Jun Fubuki
• King: Kaoru Kobayashi
• Queen: Yui Natsukawa
• Cobb: Yuko Tanaka
• Hare: Teruyuki Kagawa
• Vendor: Mitsuko Baisho

[edit] Trailer

• The three-minute Japanese trailer was first shown in Japanese cinemas starting Saturday 24 February 2006. It was aired on NTV on 23 February 2006 (the day the trailer was completed.^[4])
• The trailers were made by Keiichi Itagaki, who has been responsible for trailers for all the other Ghibli films up to now.
• Theo Le Guin, Ursula K. Le Guin's son, viewed the Japanese trailer and said about it "The images are really beautiful. The song too, it's not like something from Hollywood, but felt really like Ghibli."^[5]

Studio Ghibli released the First Trailer and Second Trailer on their official web site.

• 1st Trailer, April 13, 2006
• 2nd Trailer, May 15, 2006

[edit] Soundtrack

The Earthsea soundtrack was overseen by Tamiya Terashima and was released by Tokuma Japan Communications and Studio Ghibli Records as a multichannel hybrid SACD-CD on 12 July 2006. Its release code was TKGA-503 and ASIN was B000FNNOTG. Carlos Núñez was a key collaborator, contributing his ocarina, whistle and gaita (spanish bagpipe) to 11 out of 22 tracks. Newcomer Aoi Teshima sang in 2 of the tracks. A followup album, "Melodies from Gedo Senki", was released in 17 January 2007 and included unreleased Gedo Senki OST tracks as well as new tunes by Núñez. Its release code was SICP-1151 and its ASIN was B000HT1ZLW.^[6][7]

[edit] Reaction and box office

The film reached No.1 at the Japanese Box Office on its opening week with a gross of over 900 million yen, or approximately 7.7 million USD,^[8] pushing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to second place and became the number one movie in the country for five weeks,^[9] until it was pushed out of the top spot when X-Men: The Last Stand was released.^[10] This number is a large opening gross by Japanese moviegoing standards due to Japan having some of the highest admission prices in the world, which makes people shy away from theater trips. The movie went on to be the #4 top grossing movie for the year in Japan.

Ursula K. LeGuin, the author of the Earthsea Series, was disappointed in the film from her review on her website. LeGuin commended the visual animation in the film but complained that the plot and the content had been changed drastically. Her initial response to Goro Miyazaki was, "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie."^[11]

[edit] International releases

Licensing problems are in the way of a North American release of Gedo Senki, with the Sci-fi Channel, which released the miniseries Legend of Earthsea in 2004, currently holding the rights to the property. Under the current situation, the film cannot be released earlier than 2009, when Sci-Fi's rights expire.^[12]

UK DVD releaser Optimum will release an English subtitled, region 2 DVD for the UK market in the summer of 2007.^[13]

Australian anime DVD and manga publisher Madman Entertainment will be doing a short theatrical run starting with a premiere at Supanova Expo on April 15th in Brisbane, and opening in Brisbane 10 days later for a nation wide tour. A DVD will be released later in the year.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gedo Senki official website
• Gedo Senki at VIFF 2006: a review and interview with Goro Miyazaki
• Gedo Senki - Tales from Earthsea at Movie Tome
• Gedo Senki at the Internet Movie Database
• Gedo Senki Information at Nausicaa.net
• Gorō Miyazaki's Director's Blog (Japanese)
• Translation of Gorō Miyazaki's Director's Blog
• Translation of an Interview with producer Toshio Suzuki
• Ursula K. Le Guin Official Site: Film synopsis and review
• Official Hong Kong movie website

v • d • e  Studio Ghibli Films
Pre Ghibli Films
Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968) • Panda! Go, Panda! (1972) • Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1977) • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind  (1984)
Ghibli Films
Castle in the Sky (1986) • My Neighbor Totoro (1988) • Grave of the Fireflies (1988) • Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) • Only Yesterday (1991) • Porco Rosso (1992) • The Ocean Waves (1993) • Pom Poko (1994) • Whisper of the Heart (1995) • Princess Mononoke (1997) • My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) • Spirited Away (2001) • The Cat Returns (2002) • Howl's Moving Castle (2004) • Tales from Earthsea (2006) • Ponyo on a Cliff (2008)
Studio Ghibli Shorts
Nandarou (1992) • On Your Mark (1995) • Ghiblies (2000) • Ghiblies Episode II (2002) • Mei and the Kittenbus (2003) • The Night of Taneyamagahara (2006)
See also...
Ghibli Museum • Katsuya Kondō • Yoshifumi Kondō • Gorō  Miyazaki • Hayao Miyazaki • Kazuo Oga • Yasuo Ōtsuka • Toshio Suzuki • Isao Takahata •