Gedo Senki
I was really happy when I heard that Studio Ghibli had released a new movie and that it was Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro Miyazaki that was the director. This is what I thought about the movie:
Story:
“Ged is a wandering wizard which is on the journey to investigate why people suddenly have started to see dragons in the sky. On his journey he meets a young boy named Arren who is escaping his home since he has killed his own father, the king. Ged soon realize that the young boy possess both hate and strength. When the witch Kumo learns this she realizes that she can make use of Arren to get to Ged.”
Gedo Senki lacks the depth which I have been used to when watching Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful movies, therefore I was strongly disappointed in this movie even though this was Goro Miyazaki’s first movie I still expected more. The story is really slow and it doesn’t happen much through the movie though at the end it speeds up in the story and it starts to become more enjoyable. The movie has an medieval theme and starts out on the sea during a terrible weather, the crew of a lonely ship get’s to witness the fight between two big dragons in the sky this is supposed to be an unusual sight as the dragons is supposed to live in their own world. And therefore the crew of the ship takes this as an really bad omen and the news spreads to the king. As the story goes on we don’t get an explanation to why the dragons was in the human world instead the story kind of ignores that it ever have happened, the story goes on and suddenly from nowhere one of the main characters a girl named Therru turns out to be an dragon.
Animation:
There were actually two things with Gedo Senki which didn’t make me disappointed the first one was the animation which is the typical sweet Studio Ghibli style, if you have seen Princess Mononoke or Howl’s Moving Castle I guess you are familiar with the animation. The art and character design is good and it feels like they as always have put much effort into the animation, the style is warm and colourful and they captures the medieval theme without a problem.
Sound:
Now for the second thing which didn’t make me disappointed, the beautiful song called “Theru no Uta” by Aoi Teshima. I really enjoyed the part in the movie when the young girl called Therru sang this song, as it really is a warm and wonderful song which fits more than well in this movie.
Characters:
When it comes to the characters I can’t say that I was really impressed since I don’t feel like you got the chance to really learn to know and like them. And through the movie it wasn’t much of character development all of the main characters continued in the same way as they had started out.
Enjoyment:
Sure I maybe expecting too much from this movie since it was made by Hayao Miyazaki’s son but even if it was made by a different company I still would have had the same thoughts, it would still lack of depth in the story. Even though the bad story I really enjoyed the animation and sound so for that I want to highlight this movie but I assure you that If you want a movie with story depth, good animation, good sound and good characters then it is better to watch one of Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful movies.
Story: 4
Animation: 6
Sound: 6
Characters: 4
Enjoyment: 4
Overall: 5
