Princess Mononoke

I saw Mononoke Hime on its USA release back in late December 1999 under its U.S. title Princess Mononoke. I had read quite a bit about this film and its director but was still totally overwhelmed by the beauty and brutality of this movie. The complexity of this movie is something never seen in the United States in an animated movie and even exceeds that of most live action movies as well. It combines love and hate, war and romance, nobility and deception in ways rarely seen in movies today. Lines of good and evil are anything but clear cut and in the end is hope but no guarantees, no promises. This is truly an adult movie but my children, ages 12 to 15 all loved it and talked about it for days later. Even my wife who holds a strong prejudice against Japanese animation enjoyed this movie.

Go and see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

I have seen many many animated features, but none compare to the talent that is shown in this anime. After seeing this for the first time, I could see why so many animators (especially disney animators) consider Mr. Miazaki a GOD! His animation style has the best "flowing motion" I have ever seen.

The American dubbing team, whoever they are did an excellent job picking voices, they got top notch actors to do the job right (unlike most animes today). They even took on the hair-pulling task of RE-ANIMATING the mouth movements to match!

This is by far one of the best films I have ever seen.

Princess Mononoke is one of the best animated movies I have seen in a long time, and is up there with Studio Ghibli's best along with Spirited Away. I will say I am probably biased, as I am a huge Studio Ghibli fan, and love all of their films, I even like Cat Returns, which along with PomPoko is considered as one of the weaker Ghibli efforts. The animation in Princess Mononoke is absolutely stunning, with rich detailed backgrounds and brilliant character animation. The image of the Stag actually made my jaw drop. The music is fantastic as well, and although environmentalism is a subject matter very difficult to get right, what the filmmakers succeeded in doing was making a highly intriguing story that was not only original but succeeded in not being preachy at all. The film is also helped by the high calibre vocal talents of Minnie Driver, Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thornton et al (voicing quite remarkable characters) and a strong script. True, some of the images like the Demon Worm, may frighten younger viewers, but it is fair to say they were very powerful. All in all, Princess Mononoke is breathtaking and I recommend it highly. 10/10 Bethany Cox

A few years ago I would have tossed this film into a collection of movies I like to call the rubbish pile. Recently, however, I have forced myself, with great difficulty, to open my mind and look at the entire picture. Instead of focusing on one or two aspects of the movie I do not like and formulating a biased opinion based on my hasty and clouded notions, I can now decipher both the good and bad points of a given flick. Upon watching Princess Mononoke, I must say I first thought it would be very difficult to look past the animation style and see it for what it was- a dynamic film directed be the highly acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki. After about ten minutes of dwelling on the follies (and there are, in my opinion, many) of the "anime" style of art, I became enthralled with the quickly unfolding plot and the subsequently dire fate bestowed upon Ashitaka, the protagonist of the film. After Ashitaka leaves his village to search for a treatment to remedy his affliction, I no longer cared that this was an animated feature; I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. I no longer disliked that every character had abnormally large eyes (though not over-sized to the point of utter absurdity) or that the English overdubbing was a little choppy. In fact, I even began to enjoy the accomplished yet subtle computer generated effects interspersed throughout. By the last half hour I was hooked to the screen, eagerly awaiting the conclusion I wanted so badly to end the bitter conflict of the plot. By the end, I realized that this movie carried a powerful moral with it: man's continuous tampering with nature brings about as much savagery as it does progress, as much suffering as it does good, and that a sound compromise must be struck between nature and civilization. I do not harbor any negative feelings towards those who rated this movie poorly, as I used to be one of those people. All I have to say to them is this: look at a both the visual and symbolic attributes of a movie before rating it harshly. If, after observing all these features and idiosyncrasies, you still wholeheartedly hate the film, then by all means give it a one. After all, what would the world be like if we were all did not criticize or question our surroundings?

Princess Mononoke is, without a doubt, one of the best films I have ever witnessed. There has never been an animated film even close to this -- I kept thinking after I left the theater, how can Disney even have the guts to make another film after seeing this? Even live action movies pale in comparison to Princess Mononoke. There has never been a film to pay such close attention to details. Watch for the magnificent and subtle flying insects throughout the film, especially in the ancient forest, where bioluminescent dragonflies glide gently around the screen. There are thousands of subtleties such as this. You'd have to see it a dozen times to appreciate this film fully. Aside from it being the most beautiful film I've ever seen, it also has an enormously powerful script. The characters are some of the the most well rounded in all film. Ashitaka especially, the main character of the film, is so nuanced that he has become in my mind one of the great characters in film, up there with Charles Foster Kane and Jake LaMotta. I would compare him to Freder, the main character of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. His role in the film is a mediator between the forces of humans and the gods of nature. Both sides comment several times that Ashitaka must be on the other side, when he is trying desperately to convince everyone that there are no sides. Peace is the way. There is a little to be desired in the American voice talent. Claire Daines was certainly a wrong choice for San (Princess Mononoke), and Billy Bob Thornton just could not hide his southern accent, which made the character of Jigo seem more comical than he was probably supposed to be. Gillian Anderson's voice clashed with her character, the wolf god Moro, a bit. It hardly affected my passion. The film was so spectacular and beautiful that James Earl Jones could have voiced San and it would have detracted little. Definitely, though, I'm praying that they release the DVD with subtitle options. Anyway, Princess Mononoke is the best film of 1999, the best film of the 1990's, and, in my personal top ten list, no lower than #5, but closer to #2. 12 hours later and my heart is still beating with the power of Princess Mononoke! America: SEE IT!