Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

JLRVancouver I like both Studio Ghibli films and the Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books, but this film did little for me. While the backgrounds and 'set pieces' were striking, as expected in anime from this studio, the realisation of the characters left a lot to be desired, especially Ged who was bland and Cob, who was oddly androgynous. I also found the voices used in the English version either dull (Timothy Dalton's generic 'gentle English lord') or silly (Cheech Marin's hodgepodge of accents). The biggest weakness, however, was the story, which was just boring – by the time things began to happen, I'd stopped caring and was just waiting for the film to end. Pity: LeGuin's Earthsea book could make a fantasy movie to rival the Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter series, but so far, all we have is a second rate anime and an awful made for TV 'sword and sorcery' romp.

hayashimegumi While it is a wonder that Tales from Earthsea (2006) is a box office success, this animated feature is certainly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The art is okay but the screenplay is beyond terrible. It is so terrible that I almost don't want to review about this film and am extremely tempted write several paragraphs of dots instead of sharing any of my analysis and thoughts on this film.Honestly, it is devastating. One hour into the movie and I am still clueless about the direction of the film or what they actually want to achieve through this anime film. I watched this film with an open mind; I thought this wouldn't be as bad as I've read online and actually intends to defend that it is too harsh to award this film the worst movie and the director as the worst director but... oh well.With no intention of bashing (and spoiling) this film but just for the record, I almost completely dropped this film after plenty of hours of breaks in between. It was truly an unpleasant experience as it spoils my mood so badly but I am glad that I've painfully endured and watched the whole film. At least, I have learned a little about this director, known a little more about this studio, seen one of the worst movies ever and be able to warn you all that you might not want to watch this film.PS. Still, kudos to the director for making his directorial debut. He has successfully entered the anime film industry with this one.

John Black I've liked Ghiblis other movies, Spirited away is one of my favorites. But this was just sad. Knowing the origin of Earthsea I was annoyed that Japan was written all over this movie. The cultural behavior was overwhelmingly eastern. I haven't read the book so I can't really say if Le Guin wrote the book in an eastern cultural way, but I really doubt it.Also the characters look exactly the same as in earlier Ghibli movies. Most of the pictures are beautiful but the character drawing is really poor. Not to mention the clothes people wear. They're really similar and really boring.The movie was quite childish also. Again, I can't compare it to the book but the scenes and lines were really poorly written. I know it's bad to judge a movie by cultural basis, but I think realism should be respected. I don't like when western people make bad adaptations from eastern stories and vice versa. One should try to maintain the real cultural behavior of people if he wants to do a movie about it.

Roman Jones I just finished watching Studio Ghibli's "Tales From Earthsea" expecting to see, and I quote from JesuOtaku, 'Hands down the worst Ghibli movie ever."It starts out clunky - there's lots of expositing and breaking the "show don't tell rule", it's kinda slow, we don't see much of the world here, most people speak in whispers for no reason,the main character mugs at the camera a lot, and his sword looks humorously phallic.But... it's not a bad movie. Not at all. And definitely not at all the worst Ghibli film. I can name three others that are much much worse in terms of storytelling, editing, and overall craft. I have no problem following the story. I can remember all of the character's names. I genuinely cared about what was happening. The villain Cob is SCARY and COMPLETELY worth your time to watch it. I think the main reason people hate it is because A. It's directed by Miyazaki's son and not him, and B. It doesn't FEEL like a Ghibli film. It is obviously made by very different minds than those who made Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, and Princess Mononoke. And you know what? That's okay!The movie reminds me of the classic 1970's-early 90's fantasy genres. Ladyhawke, Dragonheart, Krull, and Highlander. All of those had lots of expositing (because they didn't have the budget for showing us the amazing lands they were talking about), plenty of mugging/overacting, whispering to make the scenes more dramatic and therefore cheesy, often slow at the beginnings, and had hilarious phallic or otherwise goofy props. They also all have really sugary morals at the end given to us in a speech, just like in Earthsea. And these movies hold a special nostalgic place in my heart. Animation can totally show us these worlds so the reason they aren't shown to us HAS to be a stylistic choice (or the budget was really that low, which is okay). Is this film a love letter to those fantasy movies? If so I can believe it. Tales From Earthsea isn't a terrible movie. Not at all. It's sweet, enjoyable, terrifying at times, and gave me a delicious plate of nostalgia.