The film is based on a combination of plots and characters from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu; however, the film's title is named from the collection of short stories, Tales from Earthsea, made in 2001. The change of plot was "entirely different" according to the author Ursula K. Le Guin who told director Gorō Miyazaki, "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie", although she later expressed her disappointment with the end result.