By Ryan Epps Published Jul 29, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT Goro Miyazaki's debut feature remains the boldest and most hotly debated creative gambles in the studio's history
Image: Studio Ghibli Studio Ghibli has weathered surprisingly few genuine critical disappointments across its four-decade history. It’s a studio best known for anime masterpieces, which is why calling a Studio Ghibli movie "bad" almost feels like a contradiction. While it does have a few “lesser” films in its catalog, from Earwig and the Witch to Ocean Waves (a sleeper hit if you ask me), no Ghibli film has been more persistently labeled the studio's weakest than Tales from Earthsea , which celebrates its 20th anniversary next month with a North American theatrical release.
The film marks the feature directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki, son of Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, and adapts Ursula K. Le Guin's beloved Earthsea novels into a sprawling fantasy adventure, drawing from multiple books in the acclaimed series rather than adapting a single novel. It was an ambitious assignment for any filmmaker, but especially for someone making his first feature — a role he was thrust into after serving as a consultant .
Next month's re-release arrives as part of a celebration of the film's original 2006 debut, giving audiences another chance to revisit one of the most divisive films Studio Ghibli has ever produced. While Tales from Earthsea has never enjoyed the same reputation as classics like Spirited Away , Princess Mononoke , or Howl's Moving Castle , its return offers an opportunity to reassess a movie whose legacy has only become more complicated with time.
20 years ago, critics pointed to the film’s uneven pacing, fragmented storytelling, and difficulty balancing ideas pulled from multiple Earthsea novels into a single narrative. Fans expecting another instant Ghibli classic instead found a story that felt caught between honoring Le Guin's rich fantasy world and carving out its own identity. For example, the film borrows the central journey of The Farthest Shore while weaving in major characters and themes from Tehanu , compressing stories that were never meant to unfold together. The result is a narrative that often rushes through character development while struggling to give its philosophical ideas room to breathe.
Hayao Miyazaki had reportedly expressed reservations about his son directing the project before ultimately stepping away to allow him to make the film on his own. That father-son dynamic inevitably became part of the conversation surrounding Tales from Earthsea , sometimes overshadowing the work itself.
Image: Studio Ghibli On rankings of Studio Ghibli's catalog , Tales from Earthsea almost always lands at or near the bottom of the list. For a studio with one of the strongest filmographies in animation history, "worst Ghibli movie" is hardly the harshest label imaginable, but it’s a label the film has struggled to shake for two decades, even in the wake of middling releases like From Up on Poppy Hill and the aforementioned Earwig — both also directed by Goro.
Yet time has also been kinder to Earthsea than its initial reception suggested. Even many viewers who still consider it one of Ghibli's lesser efforts acknowledge the remarkable craftsmanship on display. The painted backgrounds remain breathtaking, reflecting the strong visual sensibilities that first earned Goro Miyazaki the directing job through his storyboards in the first place. Joe…