Studio Ghibli has weathered surprisingly few genuine critical disappointments across its four-decade history. Itโs 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 โlesserโ 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.

