2006 anime film by Gorō Miyazaki
 is a 2006 Japanese anime epic fantasy film co-written and directed by Gorō Miyazaki in his directorial debut, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Mitsubishi and Toho, and distributed by the latter company. The film is based on a combination of plot and character elements from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" series ("A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", "The Farthest Shore", and "Tehanu"), as well as Hayao Miyazaki's graphic novel "Shuna's Journey". The film's English title is taken from the collection of short stories published in 2001.
The film was released in Japan on July 29, 2006. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its animation, music and visuals, but criticized the narrative, pacing, and overall differences from the novels. Le Guin herself stated that the plot was "entirely different" to that of her books. She told director Gorō Miyazaki, "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie", but later expressed her disappointment with the final result. A film comic adaptation of the film has been published in Japan.
Plot.
As a war galley sails through a storm, two dragons fight above the clouds, ending in one's death. In the kingdom of Enlad, royal wizard Root proclaims the dragons to be a sign of a loss of balance in the world. The king is dealing with disease sweeping across his kingdom and the disappearance of his son, Prince Arren. Arren kills his father, steals his father's sword, and flees the castle.
Arren travels through the desert and is rescued from wolves by the archmage Sparrowhawk. They travel to the city of Hort Town, where Arren rescues a young girl named Therru from the slaver Hare, but is later captured himself. His sword is dumped in the sea. Sparrowhawk rescues Arren and takes him to a farm run by Sparrowhawk's oldest friend Tenar, who lives with Therru.
Sparrowhawk's intervention against Hare's slave caravan angers Lord Cob, a powerful warlock and the ruler of Hort Town. Sparrowhawk tells Arren that he seeks a way to restore the upset balance. He buys Arren's sword from a merchant and evades capture from Hare whilst learning about Cob's castle.
Arren confesses to Therru that he killed his father and feels an unknown presence following him. He is then met by the presence: a mirror image of himself. He flees and falls unconscious after stumbling into a swamp. Cob takes him to the castle, where he manipulates Arren into revealing his "true name", Prince Lebannen, to control him. Hare captures Tenar as bait to lure Sparrowhawk into the castle, leaving Therru tied to a post. She frees herself, and Sparrowhawk gives her Arren's sword. Sparrowhawk breaks into the castle to save Tenar and learns that Cob is causing the world's balance to collapse by opening the door between life and death to gain eternal life. Cob sends Arren out to kill him. Sparrowhawk frees the prince from Cob's control but is captured by Hare.
Therru sees the duplicate of Arren and follows him to the castle, where he reveals that he is the light within Arren and tells Therru his true name. Therru learns of Sparrowhawk and Tenar's sunrise execution. She finds Arren, guilty and hopeless, and brings hope back to him, calling him by his true name and confiding in him her own true name, Tehanu. Arren confronts Cob and finally unsheathes his sword, which was sealed with magic. He cuts off Cob's staff-holding hand. Unable to use his magic powers, Cob rapidly begins to age. He captures Therru and flees to the highest tower of the castle. The withering Dark Lord uses the last of his magic to strangle Therru to death. Instead of dying, she reveals her true form as a dragon, possessing everlasting life. Therru kills Cob and rescues Arren.
Sparrowhawk and Tenar leave the castle while Therru and Arren land in a field where Therru changes back into a human. Arren tells Therru he will leave for home to repent for his crime, but will come back to see her someday. Arren and Sparrowhawk depart for Enlad, bidding Therru and Tenar goodbye. Therru looks up to see her fellow dragons airborne, indicating that the balance of the world has been restored.
Production.
"Tales from Earthsea", from Studio Ghibli, is the first anime film adaptation of any part of the "Earthsea" series by Ursula K. Le Guin. In the past, many directors, including Hayao Miyazaki, had tried to adapt "Earthsea" for film, but were disapproved by the author herself. Some 20 years before the release of the film as far as Le Guin recalled, she had been contacted by the senior Miyazaki (through the bookseller Iwanami Shoten) for permission to adapt her "Earthsea" into anime, but turned him down since she had not seen any of his films and associated animation with the output of the Walt Disney Company. After some years had passed, Le Guin had seen "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) and came to appreciate Miyazaki's work. 
Eventually (ca. 2003) Le Guin relayed her change of heart and desire to have her work animated through Masako Shimizu, the translator of her works.
In the interim, Miyazaki had proceeded with other project like the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" (2001), "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004). By this time, Hayao Miyamoto didn't feel he still had the fire in the belly (enthusiasm) for animating "Earthsea", after already having creating many works inspired by it, and showed inclination to decline the offer. However Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki who wished to carry the offer through devised a plan to let Hayao's son Gorō Miyazaki make the film. When Miyazaki learned of the idea, he was initially strongly opposed, thinking that Gorō lacked the necessary experience, saying "He can't possibly handle directing. He probably can't even draw". But Suzuki had already been working behind his back, and showed him the storyboard the son had drawn, as way of rebuttal. Miyazaki accompanied the signing of the deal made by the producer and his son, meeting Le Guin and her managing son in person, in August 2005 (or rather June 2005). Le Guin was greatly disappointed Miyazaki himself would not be directing, but agreed to the deal, with the understanding that the senior Miyazaki would have oversight over the whole project. However the producer recalls Hayao Miyazaki only said he would be "held entirely responsible for the script" only. Hayao never once looked at his son's storyboard for the anime, and had remained on non-speaking terms for the duration of the project. Hayao did somewhat acknowledge his son's work upon its first preview. Besides the original work, the "original idea" that laid the foundation for the film was Hayao Miyazaki's graphic novel "Shuna's Journey", with many direct references, especially the development of characters. One drastic and gruesome deviation from the original novel, the killing of the father king by Arren at the opening of the movie, was producer Shimada's idea.
Music.
The soundtrack for "Tales from Earthsea" was composed and managed by Tamiya Terashima and was released by Tokuma Japan Communications and Studio Ghibli Records as a multichannel hybrid SACD-CD on 12 July 2006. Carlos Núñez was a key collaborator on the soundtrack, contributing his ocarina, whistle and Galician gaita (bagpipe) to 11 of the 21 tracks. Newcomer singer, Aoi Teshima, sang in 2 of the tracks. A follow-up album, "Melodies from Gedo Senki", was released on 17 January 2007 and included unreleased Gedo Senki OST tracks and new tracks by Núñez.
Release.
Theatrical.
"Tales from Earthsea" was released in Japan on July 29, 2006. Studio Ghibli released the first and second trailers on its official web site. A 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). Theo Le Guin, Ursula K. Le Guin's son, viewed the Japanese trailer and said this of it: "The images are really beautiful. The song too, it's not like something from Hollywood, but felt really like Ghibli." The trailers were made by Keiichi Itagaki, who had been responsible for trailers for all of the other Ghibli films up until then.
In Australia, "Tales from Earthsea" premiered in Brisbane on 15 April 2007. The film began a single print tour of major cities on 25 April 2007 and ended up playing at locations in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth over the following months. It was notable that, unlike previous Studio Ghibli releases, only a subtitled version was seen in cinemas.
The film was released in selected UK cinemas on 3 August 2007 by Optimum Releasing, in both subtitled and English dubbed versions. The film was not released as widely as previous Ghibli movies, playing to 23 venues across the nation and making an unremarkable £23,300. Reviews were generally positive, but received mixed reviews when it was compared to the past Ghibli films. Radio Times suggested that it "lacks the technical sheen and warm sentimentality of some of Ghibli's earlier films", while the "Daily Mirror" called it "ploddy, excruciatingly slow" and not in the same league as the work of Hayao Miyazaki. However, Empire magazine said it was "well worth watching" while "The Guardian" called it "An engaging piece of work".
In Spain, "Tales from Earthsea" premiered only in Madrid and Barcelona in two small theaters on 28 December 2007 by Aurum, only in a Japanese version with subtitles (an odd theatrical release compared to previous Ghibli movies).
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released the film in the United States on August 13, 2010, under the Walt Disney Studios banner. Unlike their release of "Ponyo" (2008) the previous year, Disney opted to give the film a limited release in only five theaters. The film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for some violent images, making it the first and only animated film released under Disney's name receive a PG-13 rating. It is also the second Studio Ghibli film to receive this rating after "Princess Mononoke" (1997). The reason for the movie's longer-than-usual release in North America was due to an existing non-compete arrangement with RHI Entertainment, who at the time held the North American rights to "Earthsea" adaptations and produced the 2004 miniseries "Legend of Earthsea" (later simply titled "Earthsea"). RHI (at the time, Hallmark Entertainment) granted a specific rights reversion for Studio Ghibli in 2004 that allowed them to produce the animated movie, with the rights not expiring until December 2008.
Home entertainment.
Japan.
The movie was released on DVD and VHS in Japan by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on July 4, 2007. The DVD included the movie with both the original Japanese soundtrack and English dub, alongside a selection of bonus features. A Special Edition 4-DVD set was also released on the same day, which featured extra language tracks, and more bonus features.
Walt Disney Studios Japan released the film on Blu-ray Disc on November 16, 2011. The company later reissued the DVD with the HD remaster on April 20, 2022.
International.
A 2-disc DVD was released on 12 September 2007 in Australia by Madman Entertainment, this time featuring both the English and Japanese versions.
Optimum Releasing released both the subtitled and dub, region 2 DVD for the UK market on 28 January 2008. To mark the release, HMV ran frequent sponsor credits for the DVD, as well as a prize competition, on the AnimeCentral channel. StudioCanal UK released the film on Blu-ray on June 25, 2012.
In the United States, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on March 8, 2011. The company later released the movie on Blu-ray Disc on February 3, 2015. GKIDS re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on February 6, 2018, under a new deal with Studio Ghibli.
A single DVD and a special 2-disc DVD were released by Aurum on 12 March 2008, this time with a Spanish soundtrack included.
Reception.
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 7.7 million USD, pushing "" to second place and becoming the number one movie in the country for five weeks. It became the year's #4 top-grossing movie in Japan, and the year's highest-grossing domestic Japanese film, with ¥. As of