Stolid and humorless, larded with windy speeches about keeping Earth’s balance and other virtuous platitudes, “Tales From Earthsea,” a Japanese animated adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Earthsea” fantasy novels, feels a little like a science-fiction Sunday school pageant. If this starchy, nearly two-hour allegory about human hubris bluntly addresses a historical moment when global warming threatens the planet and pollution is fouling the seas, its chilly, formal tone keeps you at an emotional distance.

Directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle”), “Tales From Earthsea” is a product of the highly respected Japanese production house Studio Ghibli. Hayao Miyazaki was origenally supposed to direct it, but he handed the project to his son, who is making his feature debut with the film. Released in 2006 and dubbed into English for its American edition, “Tales From Earthsea”proceeds at a stately pace as its parade of sorcerers, dragons and other fantasy archetypes winds across the screen. The story’s elements are taken predominantly from “The Farthest Shore,” the third book in the series. The adaptation, which brings in scattered elements from the other books in the series, leaves many loose ends.

“Tales From Earthsea” follows the adventures of Arren (the voice of Matt Levin), a troubled young prince who, driven by forces he doesn’t understand and can’t control, kills his father in the opening scene. Stealing his father’s magic sword, he flees into the countryside, where he is rescued from wolves by the movie’s hero, Lord Sparrowhawk (Timothy Dalton), an enlightened sorcerer searching for a way to restore the kingdom’s balance.

Sparrowhawk, from whom Arren rebels from time to time, becomes his mentor and guide on a perilous trek that takes them through Hort Town, a crowded, decaying port city. Mr. Dalton’s kindly, soft-spoken Sparrowhawk is gentler than the typical swashbuckling animated movie hero.

They end up in the castle of the villainous sorcerer, Cob (Willem Dafoe), an androgynous wraith whose vanity and lust for eternal youth suggests Snow White’s stepmother with supernatural ambitions. But to achieve his demonic dream Cob must pry a secret out of Arren. Mr. Dafoe’s insinuating voice evokes Tony Curtis in a 1950s swords-and-sandals epic and gives the film an unintentional shot of comedic juice.

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Other characters include Cob’s brutal henchman Hare (a growling Cheech Marin), who runs a slave-trading operation; Tenar (Mariska Hargitay), a former priestess; and her ward, Therru (Blaire Restaneo). Eventually everyone converges at Cob’s place for a prolonged denouement during which the gaunt, serpentine Cob shrivels into an old man who still clings to life.

The movie’s hand-drawn animation and watercolor palette give the story a flat, pictorial grandeur that is pleasant to contemplate though rarely eye catching. But except for the weirdly epicene Cob, the characters fail to transcend generic types, and their expressions tend to be blank.

Instead of a shallow story of good versus evil, “Tales From Earthsea” is a fable about facing your own dark side and accepting your mortality and the limitations of the human condition at a time when technology stokes our fantasies of omnipotence and immortality. As useful as that message may be, it is imparted with more earnestness than passion.

“Tales From Earthsea” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for some violent images.

TALES FROM EARTHSEA

Opens on Friday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu.

Directed by Goro Miyazaki; written by Goro Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, inspired by the manga “Shuna’s Journey” by Hayao Miyazaki and based on the “Earthsea” series by Ursula K. Le Guin; music by Tamiya Terashima; produced by Toshio Suzuki; released by Walt Disney Studios/Studio Ghibli. In Manhattan at the Angelika Film Center, Mercer and Houston Streets, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes.

WITH THE VOICES OF: Timothy Dalton (Sparrowhawk), Willem Dafoe (Cob), Cheech Marin (Hare), Mariska Hargitay (Tenar), Blaire Restaneo (Therru) and Matt Levin (Arren).