Tales from Earthsea 20th Anniversary - Studio Ghibli Fest 2026

Name: Tales from Earthsea 20th Anniversary - Studio Ghibli Fest 2026
Duration: 2 h

As crops dwindle and dragons reappear, mankind stands on the verge of total chaos. Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a powerful wizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, search for the force behind this mysterious imbalance that threatens to destroy the land of Earthsea, in a tale of redemption and self-discovery that will take your breath away. Featuring the voices of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and Mariska Hargitay.

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Phoenix Theatres Lennox Town Center 24 Theatres + IMAX with Laser

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Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Gorô Miyazaki

Producer:

Stephen Alpert, Javier Ponton, Toshio Suzuki

Writer:

Ursula K. Le Guin, Hayao Miyazaki, Gorô Miyazaki

Release Date:

Aug 8, 2026

Runtime:

2hr

Synopsis

From the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, and the director of From Up on Poppy Hill, comes an animated fantasy epic based on the classic book series by Ursula K. Le Guin As crops dwindle and dragons reappear, mankind stands on the verge of total chaos. Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a powerful wizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, search for the force behind this mysterious imbalance that threatens to destroy the land of Earthsea, in a tale of redemption and self-discovery that will take your breath away. Featuring the voices of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and Mariska Hargitay.

Cast

Jun'ichi Okada
Aoi Teshima
Yûko Tanaka
Teruyuki Kagawa
Jun Fubuki
Takashi Naitô
Yui Natsukawa
Kaoru Kobayashi
Bunta Sugawara
Timothy Dalton

Letterboxd User Reviews

3.0

RATINGS 486 FANS

3.0

Worse than I expected tbh. An agonizing failure at worldbuilding with the dullest characters and story to ever be featured in a Ghibli film. Hilariously lifeless direction. Princess Mononoke had more levity than this trash. I wanted it to be over from the 15 minute mark and…

1.5K Likes

James (Schaffrillas)

Feb 4, 2023

this happened to me on skyrim once

880 Likes

˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗

Jul 25, 2020

Remember when we saw two dragons fighting at the start? That was pretty cool...

858 Likes

Mark Marshall
Jun 21, 2022

The epitome of biting off more than you can chew. Tales From Earthsea is crammed with interesting ideas and characters but never takes the time to explore or develop any of them. Maybe more impressively, for a movie with dragons, it also finds a way to be massively…

645 Likes

Joe A

Aug 18, 2018

i really couldn’t get into this and it makes me so sad because i love studio ghibli so much. also the poster is misleading because i was expecting lots of dragons, but there were not enough dragons

427 Likes

rach

Jan 10, 2021

Loosely based off "The Farthest Shore", the third book of Earthsea novel series by Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea is based in a mythical land, where a man and a young boy investigate a series of unusual occurrences in a deteriorating kingdom. Similarly, to Ocean…

394 Likes

George Clark
Oct 8, 2023

Too much sad boi, mysterious, and heroic moments. Should have added more witchcraft, wizardry, and dragonussy. But same with other Ghibli films, I got hooked with the animation style. Also, I was amazed by Theru’s singing voice.

384 Likes

Lexi ꩜

May 4, 2021

Gorō Miyazaki, I am so sorry but yikes. I have never, ever rated a Ghibli film so low. Epic in its subject matter, it’s quite clear that Tales From Earthsea took too large of a bite to chew when it comes to its plot. As a result, there’s bizarrely so much going on without…

281 Likes

claira curtis

Dec 13, 2016

CW: brief race reference, gender/trans stuff, sexuality To me, dragons have always been the pinnacle of wonder. Their usage in high fantasy as avatars of greed or symbols of noble power might seem at first to be anathema to a collectivist, but to the queer trans girl,…

279 Likes

Sally Jane Black

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Top Reviews

Bella Kamiya liked

Tales from Earthsea

Beautiful movie with a message just as good, but the plot was unclear and hard to follow. I found myself dozing off at the serene landscape as well as the absence of substance to the story 😭Despite this, I did enjoy the movie. Recommend if you can enjoy slow paced movies.

2 3Y

Adiee is "meh" on

Tales from Earthsea

Really gorgeous movie. It’s one of the prettiest ghibli movies I’ve seen. Honestly I liked this movie, but the pacing is insanely bad. It needed to be split into several movies tbh because the book series is so long. It just doesn’t work to cram all that material into one movie.

1Y

Nix liked

Tales from Earthsea

Done by the son of Miyazaki if I remember correctly as well as inspired by a book. Nice drawings and world but misses something compared to the other Ghibli movies… the story feels unfinished, the stakes are unclear etc + a bit scary for young children (the sorceress at the end)

3Y
Bennie is "meh" on

Tales from Earthsea

Like all Ghibli films, it’s beautiful in its imagery, but for a film that should have a lot of dragons, there’s not much. The characters are seemingly bland and overall I just needed more from this tale. It does manage to pick up in the end where the villain shines through. 5

5M

Bart van Tilburg liked

Tales from Earthsea

Great Anime Movie, Balance is one of the most important things in the world, one half cant exist without the other. there is no light without dark no happyness without sadness no life without death everything is supposed to be in balance or people and the world will suffer.

1Y

user420366496 liked

Tales from Earthsea

as a huge fan of studio Ghibli, i have thought i would enjoy this more. however, i felt it didn’t have the magic as the studio’s other films. perhaps that was the more western art influences, but i also found the story to be hard to follow. i might need another rewatch

9M
Jesper liked

Tales from Earthsea

The movie has a different style than the other Ghibli movies I've seen so far. It has a much more western style of fantasy, for example the dragons are the western depiction. The movie is also a higher level of fantasy then the others I've seen. 8/10

2Y

salt disliked

Tales from Earthsea

accidentally swiped away and my review deleted. stupid movie was super boring even though the story is so easy to make into an incredible adventure god what wasted potential. and hello chief doom patrol. nice to see you here. I said. lying. it's not.

1M

JP is "meh" on

Tales from Earthsea

Any scene w Terru and Arren is such a breath of fresh air compared to the uninspired and underdeveloped plot. If only the rest of the film could’ve shared an ounce of what those two had, then it would’ve been at least good, if not one of Ghiblis best

1Y