In the wake of Hayao Miyazaki’s visit to Zellerbach Hall last summer, and Walt Disney Studio’s release of his film “Ponyo” in the fall, public regard for the famous Japanese filmmaker has been a growing catbus of love since the release of films like “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.” Yet his stranglehold on animated perfection is currently being tested by the newest addition to the Miyazaki filmmaking team: Hayao’s son, Goro Miyazaki.

Goro’s directorial debut, “Tales From Earthsea,” is based loosely on the well-loved “Earthsea” fantasy novel series by Ursula K. Le Guin – the K. stands for Kroeber – whose father was a founder of UC Berkeley’s Anthropology department. Goro wrote the screenplay for the film, originally in Japanese, which premiered in Japan in 2006 produced by Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki’s animation film studio).

After seeing the film, Le Guin published a letter on her website denouncing the “whitewashing” of the Earthsea people – described as “red-brown” in the novels – along with a representation of violence that is “deeply untrue to the spirit of the books.” According to her letter, Le Guin originally signed onto the project with the understanding that the senior Miyazaki would be directing the film. When the film became first-time director Goro’s project, the author expressed concern at the way the film would be treated.

Adapting a popular book series is often a difficult task for any filmmaker. In the case of “Earthsea,” it is obvious that the film is not aiming to be a faithful adaptation. However, even in its attempts to borrow from the books in order to create something of interest – let alone, a piece of work associated with Hayao and Studio Ghibli – Goro’s “Earthsea” fails not only its source material, but its family name.

Dealing strictly with the plot and characters as they appear in the film, we are introduced to a dilapidated feudal kingdom known as Earthsea, and a king who is told by his wise old sage that “the light of that balance that sustains the world” is growing dim. The king retires to his chambers, and then his son Arren comes running at him down the corridor, kills him and steals his magic sword. Don’t worry. No one ever comes after the son, his friends don’t seem to care about the patricide and the murder doesn’t exactly give Arren any Hamlet-esque complexity.

In fact, the characters are flatter than their 2-D animations, which are fairly standard-issue anime themselves. The simplistic, unmotivated and generic overdubbed English dialogue is laughable, but only so much can be lost in translation. The score by Tamiya Terashima swells at the faintest hint of a picturesque nature scene with Celtic overtones. Look away for a second and you’ll swear those beached shipwrecks on the screen are animated Titanics with all of the musical James Horner-isms going on.

The saving grace of the film is the Willem Dafoe-voiced Lord Cob, the evil wizard who just happens to look like a female runway model with long blue hair and is eerily reminiscent of Frank from “Donnie Darko.” But even creepy Cob is defeated without much effort, and the film closes with a bunch of bow tying plot devices that fail to connect all of the storyboards together.

With rumors that Goro wasn’t even down in the first place to direct “Earthsea,” it’s hard to hold him completely responsible. Yet Disney’s release of this film is disappointing. A Miyazaki is not necessarily a golden ticket, and the work done here under the family name is poorly written, churned out in lifeless fashion and sorta boring.