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*bump*
So, this was finally given shown at cinemas in the UK recently - did anyone catch it? Apparently it's had something of a stunted release, wikipedia claims 23 cinemas nationwide.
I felt somewhat mixed feelings for it. Changes to characters and plotlines abound, and it took me a little while to mentally seperate the film from the books so as to judge it on it's own merit, but here goes.
The animation is lovely. As Jack's link above says, it's perhaps not always quite as good as some other recent releases, but still pretty breathtaking. However, some of the key characters seemed a little flat and underdeveloped (especially Hare, who seemed in many ways something of a annoying stock caricature, as did the women who came to buy from Tenar). Sparrowhawk seemed more open in many ways than I expected, and Therru seemed much more outgoing and almost too ordinary given her nature. I was also unhappy with some aspects of the film such as the way certain characters disfigurement was downplayed and how elements of trangenderism seemed to be treated as unnatural and evil. These aside however, I enjoyed the portrayal of the world, with its natural balance, and humankind's place and influence within it, something which LeGuin only starts to properly touch upon in The Farthest Shore and the books that follow it.
I was also disappointed at how any maritime aspects of the storyline were shelved, and how the dry land was anything but, but perhaps these are criticisms born more out of comparison with the books than anything else.
These criticisms aside however, I still found the storyline reasonably engaging and whilst I wasn't carried away by the film as I have been by many (most) other Ghibli productions, I would say it was worth watching, especially for the second act's farm setting.
One aspect of the book, the absence of which in the film made me reflect on it [+] [-] Spoiler Isn't the slaver scene with Arren in the Farthest Shore all a little bit Ben Hur? |
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