Ian Webb

This book series is very wonderful. And I've always thought it would make a wonderful set of films if done properly. I was disappointed with the live-action film adaptation that I saw which was a made for TV kind of thing. Of course the animation in this film is very beautiful but because it did not capture the story at all I was very disappointed. I can't think of any other animation studio that should have done this story justice but studio Ghibli. The reason the story feels underwhelming and seems to go nowhere is because it doesn't follow the book at all. Ursula k Le guin is a spiritual and gifted author who has done all the writing for these filmmakers and if they had only followed the writing that she laid out they would have made a powerful film. It's easy to be a critic and it's difficult to make films, however, I'm being critical because I really enjoyed this book as a younger person and I love studio Ghibli films because of their excellent writing and deep subtext. I'm sure goro is not reading my review but I would encourage him to make this film again but according to the actual story because it's worth making.