A night with the Silver Screen

So Maia and I decided to go see a movie here. This came about from multiple reasons; 1) The new Studio Ghibli movie "Tales from Earthsea" has just come out, and... well I can't sit around and not see that...

and 2) MyTown, even though it is a small, little, unknown town here... has the only theater within 50 km... I don't know why that is, but it is.

Besides, Maia had never been to a movie here before, and, of course, neither had I, so this sounded like an excellent opportunity.

Thus, with this, we walked over to the theater (It's a 3 minute walk from my apartment).

First, I'll give you an impression of the theater, then I'll give a review on Earthsea...

One might wonder, what would a Japanese theater be like? Well, I can tell you; it's like the old 80's style theaters, except immaculately clean. No stadium seating, and no THX.

The lobby was where we ran into the first set of interesting things; first of all, as Yogurt from Spaceballs said; "This is where the real money for the movie is made; merchandising!" There was merchandising from the two big movies out now (Pirates 2 and Earthsea). You could buy a Coke, Popcorn, a Pencil case with Jack Sparrow on it and the Earthsea Soundtrack all for $35.00. The movie counters has glass cases in front of them, and where we have candy in ours in America, they have the storybooks, and the postcard packs with pictures from the movies...

Come to think of it, I really don't think it's a bad idea...

As we came up to the ticket counter, I noticed the sign that had the movies and their playing times, also had their trailers running on the screens too... So, just above the ticket counter ladies' heads were the showtimes and little trailers of the movies playing... That was pretty cool.

We went to the "Very Late" showing (Which is for 18 and older only)... it started at 8PM...

Because it was the Very Late Showing, however, the tickets were 1/2 price... which meant they were $10 instead of $20 per person... Which is where Japan has already beaten America...

However, a Large Coke (Which is a Medium in America) was $1.50, two Cokes and a Popcorn cost us about $8.00... I haven't seen prices like that since the 80's...

So, we go into the theater and sit down. Immediately I notice that the seats have cup holders... that were designed in America... so our "large drinks" swam in the cup holder... (It was obviously designed for American XL cups... because it was just way over the top huge...

The movie started, and just as in America, there were previews (However, unlike America, there were no ads).

But the previews were for every movie that was being advertised outside in the lobby... there was a horror flick, followed by a preview for "Over the Hedge" (Which will be coming out here in November), followed by a bizarre movie about Udon (Yes, the noodles... it actually looks really funny), followed by a preview for a Sci Fi flick and then a romantic comedy. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it.

But that was okay, for once I saw Totoro (The sort of universal "Studio Ghibli" icon), I was all ready for a great ride.

Now on to my review of "Tales From Earthsea".

I don't usually get to review movies (At $20 a pop, you can sorta see why) like my friend Evan does. And it gives me great happiness to be able to say "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo" to my friends back home because I get to see Ghibli flicks waaaay before you guys do...

That said, I have to wait 6 months to see Over the Hedge... so it's a very very small victory.

Okay, Tales from Earthsea.

Based on the Ursela K LaGuin Novels, Tales From Earthsea seems to be a segment somewhere in the middle of the series (I take this from Maia whom has read these books). It is the first time Goro Miyazaki (Hayao Miyazaki's son) has helmed a movie (The Elder Miyazaki is still working on the next project). As a first time out, it is a pretty good movie.

The problem is that Studio Ghibli isn't a "Pretty Good" Studio.

I felt the animation didn't pop as much as it has in the past (Howl's Moving Castle managed to blow me away with the animation quality and I'm a seasoned animation person). It seemed flat, and the camera angles were not very inspired.

The backgrounds were beautiful, of course, and those stole the movie.

After watching Howls' and agreeing with Maias complaint that they deviated from the original story too much, I loathe to say this, but... It was too much like the books... I really felt that the movie could have benefited from a funny round old woman, or a airplane-flying-pig or soot-balls with eyes... There was (Ironically), very little magic in the story. Something that makes Ghibli flicks mystical...

That said; it was still very much above average animation (Ghibli is so far above everyone else in animation that even when they are having a bad day it's still better than the average fare), and the story was very engaging, if just a little simple.

The Music was very different. Goro decided not to use Joe Hisahashi (The normal Ghibli composer), but instead went for a more medieval, almost Irish feel to the music, which is very good, but does tend to paint the movie in a very different, and unfamiliar light. The soundtrack by itself, however, is beautiful, and I bought it the very next day.

Using Evan’s scale of grading, and factoring Howl’s Moving Castle into the mix, I give Earthsea a B. It’s definitely worth watching, and it was very much worth $10…

---Me.