Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin's beloved children's fantasy book series, this animated film from Studio Ghibli marks the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki , the son of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki ('Spirited Away', 'Howl's Moving Castle') . A strange force is disturbing the natural harmony in the land of Earthsea. Dragons are fighting, magic is dying out, and humanity is falling into chaos and disorder. Haunted by inner demons, Prince Arren stabs his father and absconds with the king's sword. He meets master wizard Ged and a strange young girl named Therru and finds friendship and protection. A dark shadow, however, continues to haunt Arren, drawing him closer to the evil sorcerer Cob whose quest for eternal life is destroying the balance between the realm of the living and the dead. To save Earthsea, Arren must stop Cob, but Arren himself is desending into darkness.

Goro Miyazaki directs this nostalgic coming-of-age animation from Japan's Studio Ghibli. As Japan readies itself for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, fatherless 16-year-old high school student Umi (voice of Sarah Bolger) helps run 'Coquelicot Manor', a boarding house overlooking the Japanese port of Yokohama, while her mother Ryoko (Jamie Lee Curtis) is away studying medicine in America. After meeting up with local orphan Shun (Anton Yelchin), Umi enlists to help save the 'Quartier Latin', an old and dilapidated building housing her high school's clubs, which is being threatened with demolition in the country's drive for post-war modernisation. As feelings begin to develop between the pair, they soon find their budding romance under threat when they discover they share a previously unknown past.