The Earthsea Series

[MidgardDragon]

Anyone read these? I love them, not quite as much as His Dark Materials, Narnia, or LOTR for me, but darned close.

[vanessajoyce]

Haven't read them . . . but is this the series that was used for the Isao Takahata film (Studio Ghibli)?

[MidgardDragon]

I do believe Studio Ghibli was supposed to be doing a version of Earthsea, yes. I did not realize it was already out, but if so I need to check it out. I thought Miyazaki's son, or someone to that effect, was supposed to be doing it, though.

Aha, here's what I was thinking of:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0495596/

Goro Miyazaki did "Tales From Earthsea", which apparently came out 2 years ago (boy am I behind). What Isao Takahata film are you thinking of that might be based off of it?

[vanessajoyce]

Ahhh . . . then it looks like it won't be Takahata-san.

There's been an "Untitled Project" on his plate for awhile . . . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Takahata . . . and somehow I got it in my head that it would be "Earthsea". (He's my favorite anime director, so I follow what he's doing.)

It sounds interesting . . . gonna go check the library right now to see if they've got some . . .

[MidgardDragon]

I wish there *was* going to be a good adaptation of Earthsea, animated or otherwise. Unfortunately Ms. LeGuin is probably quite miffed after two failed attempts at adapting her books (the first was a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie *shuders*). Earthsea needs a fantasy directing talent the caliber of Peter Jackson in order to properly pull off, they're simply "classics" of literature and the fans won't be happy with anything less.

[vanessajoyce]

Yeah, committment and vision are rare. And now that the technology has caught up to the possibilities of imagination, a director has no excuse for not getting it right. IMHO, anyway.

Personally if I had written a series of fantasy stories, I actually would trust a Japanese director over an American one. Or at least give him more of a chance.

[parka]

I've actually just written a review on the Earthsea art book and saw this thread.

You guys can check out some pictures at
parkablogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-review-art-of-tales-from-earthsea.html

It's a great book.