Gedo Senki - Tales from Earthsea

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Finally managed to watched Studio Ghibli's anime film Gedo Senki on DVD. This film was not shown on local theaters. Initial impression from watching the film for the first time - the scenes are very beautiful especially the landscape shots of nature in the world of Earthsea. But compared to sceneries depicted in Hayao Miyazaki's films, they seemed to lack that something special. They're beautiful to look at but its beauty was not "magical". They did not inspire the feeling of being transported to someplace magical when watching a Ghibli film. Someplace that i'd never seen or been before. Anyone who had watched a Ghibli film would know what i mean. Take "My Neighbour Totoro". Even though the scenes in the film was not some magical, faraway fantasyland but a normal countryside, the film's attention to details are breathtaking. The scene in the rain where Mei and Satsuki are waiting for their father is one good example. Then, there's the storyline. Although not difficult to follow but i found it rather meandering to reach a point. And the conclusion was not quite satisfactory. It feels like the story took a long time to build and then ended suddenly. Some questions remained unanswered or answered in a not-so-satisfying manner to the viewer. Or maybe it's just me not getting the "message". Anyway, on it's own, Gedo Senki is a good film but compared to the other Ghibli offerings (of which admirers of Ghibli's films will definitely do), it is not a satisfying watch. Here's what the author of the original Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin had to say of Goro Miyazaki's film: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html She was not very happy about the film actually as she claimed it did not keep to the "spirits of the books". Having not read any of her Earthsea books, i would not want to comment on this. Well, if anyone had seen the film feel free to give some comments.