Introduction

This movie in Japan is the 2nd highest grossing film the only film that beat it was Titanic, and that film does not even compare to the artistry and magic that you will find in Princess Mononoke. This movie features excellent animation and art, an excellent enthralling storyline and even an excellent well acted (for the most part) and produced dub (written by master comic/fantasy writer Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame). Of course this is the quality I have come to expect from master animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, anything less would be unexpected. About the only problem I have with this film was that it wasn't marketed correctly. (Most people I asked didn't even know it showed at Centerville Cinemas a movie theater about ten miles from where I live!)

An Epic Tale of Man Vs. Nature

The story begins right in the middle of the action, with a giant demon-boar (Tatarigami in the Japanese version) coming out of the woods into an isolated village of a people who were on the verge of extinction in Japan. A boy, Prince Ash*itaka(*) (Voiced by Billy Crudup), fights the Tatarigami, and is cursed by it to die. A side effect of this curse gives him extraordinary strength, but whenever he uses it the curse eats at him even more. Ash*itaka is forced to go on a quest to where the Tatarigami came from, and along the way he runs into Lady Eboshi (voiced by Minnie Driver) who runs Iron Town, a small mining town at the edge of a lake. Lady Eboshi is what most Americans would think of as a bad guy, she is destroying the forest, and is responsible in part for the curse that Ash*itaka has. Upon closer inspection we see that she isn't all bad, she provides honest work for brothel girls and she takes care of lepers. There are many fractions in this conflict, on the human side there are the residents of Iron Town, led by Lady Eboshi, the Samurai, who have their own ambitions. On the animals side there are the boar clans, and the wolfs, with whom the human character, The Princess Mononoke (San, voiced by Clare Danes) resides with, and the tree planting monkeys, probably the least developed side of the conflict. No side in this conflict is entirely good or evil; the only character in this who I can consider good is Prince Ash*itaka. This sets the stage for a thought-provoking emotionally stimulating epic that few movies can rival.

Beautiful Art and Exquisite Animation

The art of this film is absolutely fantastic! Lush and beautiful forests, great vistas, and exotic mythical creatures fill the vast and beautiful world of Princess Mononoke. The colors are all lush and deep, in fact the art in this film can only be truly be appreciated by watching it in theaters (something that I was lucky enough to be able to do) or watch it on a very nice big widescreen television. The animation is very smooth (for a Japanese production) and makes good use of limited and full animation (see my Kiki's Delivery Service review for an analysis on why Miyazaki's way is superior to Disney's). Even though the animation is not as smooth as Disney's (remember the average Disney film cost about $80 million to produce, this one only cost $19.4 million) it is quite innovative and is very convincing.

Dubbing and Acting

This dub, by far is the greatest dub of any foreign language movie I have ever seen, but it is not quite flawless. The dub is written by Neil Gaiman, know for the absolutely wonderful (and soon to be reviewed by this author) Sandman comic, did work on the English dub script. It was also personally inspected and approved by Miyazaki (or at least officials from his animation studio, Studio Ghibli) the script is quite faithful to the original, and includes little snippets of information on some of the cultural references made by this film. The acting is also quite good, with Billy Crudup giving an excellent performance as Ash*itaka and Minnie Driver giving the sophisticated and regal Lady Eboshi a spot on performance. Others weren't quite as good (but better than 99% of all dubs) such as Clare Danes, who overacted her part as San, and Billy Bob Thorton, an excellent actor who, disappointed me with his portrayal of Jigo the Japanese monk. A final comment is that the American side of the production touched absolutely none of the great score by Joe Hishaishi!!! (Sadly this isn't true for Kiki's Delivery Service and the upcoming and rescored Castle in the Sky)

A Rant About Disney/Miramax's Poor Marketing

I am floored when a wonderful film like this (everybody I've shown it to loves it, even a man who is extremely critical and opinionated) makes terrible money at the box office in America, when absolute garbage like Pearl Harbor (also marketed by the wizards at Disney) makes hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office!! Disney didn't even try to market it, they were afraid to, because this film is more violent than any film aimed at kids. I think Disney should learn something from Sony, who was able to make a Hong Kong subtitled movie make over $100 million, at the box office. If they would have marketed it (by generating hype) like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon(another beautiful excellent movie) was able to, I think that this film could have been just as successful.

A few Comments about the DVD

The dvd of this release is excellent, with great picture quality and seamless branching that shows the original Japanese credits and titles when you have it on the Japanese language track. Speaking of the Japanese track, there was a large petition signed, led by www.nausicaa.net (an excellent English language resource on Studio Ghibli's films), to get it on the dvd. Kudos to them for doing that because I almost always prefer to watch anime subtitled, and French was not the movie's original language! (We can only hope that Mamoru Oshii's Avalon, and Ghost in the Shell 2 will receive the same treatment by Miramax when it is released stateside). The only thing that I would have liked to have seen is a better "behind the scenes" special.

Final Thoughts
As you can tell from the length of this review, I love this film and think that you should definitely watch it. It may be a bit too violent for the little ones, but it is an excellent epic that keeps you thinking and emotionally involved with the strong characters. After seeing it in theaters I was speechless, this is the film that got me interested in Japanese Animation, and even if you don't normally like anime, I would recommend that you see this film. Final Word: Very Highly Recommended, Buy IT!

(*)You may have noticed that the name of the principal character of this movie, Ash*itaka, has been mistaken by Epinions as a cuss word, this is the reason why a star has been placed in the middle of the name. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon because I have reported this as a bug to epinions.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older