Amazon.co.uk Review
Princess Mononoke has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, this epic, animated 1997 fantasy, represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylised approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here.
Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god", transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature.
Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. -- Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with an impressive widescreen aspect of 2.35:1 and a pleasant 5.1 Dolby digital sound, you cannot fault the transfer of this animation in any way. However, the special features leave a lot to be desired on what is a classic piece of modern anime. The "Behind the Scenes" feature holds no information on the making of Princess Mononoke in its original form--with no input from animator Hayao Miyazaki--and the trailer is taken from the American release of the movie (even though it calls itself an "original" theatrical trailer), complete with the annoyingly hyped-up voiceover that comes with US film trailers. The redeeming feature of this DVD is the ability to watch the anime in its original language with subtitles, a much more passionate and beautiful form--so much of the feeling and lyricism of the movie is lost with the transfer to English language and misplaced casting. After watching the original Japanese version of Princess Mononoke and reading the book you begin to wonder why the West has become such a solitary child of Disney. --Nikki Disney
Customer Reviews:
More Ghibli Magic.......2007-06-13
This is a fantastic film! The animation is superb (especially for the forest spirit), as to be expected from Miyazaki, and the story is original and engaging. The environmental themes to the story are especially relevant and give the added poignancy that make this one of Miyazaki's many triumphs. The translation is excellent with respected actors providing their voices. This has to be in any top 5 anime films.
A perfect blend of story-telling and animation.......2006-06-11
I wouldn't go so far as the New York Post in calling this film "the 'Star Wars' of animated features," but certainly Princess Mononoke is a vibrant, magical movie that resonates with life in all its facets and the spirit that lies beneath this world we too often take for granted. It's funny how American animated films are always about - well, nothing at all, really, while Japanimation is about basically everything. To me, dubbing this film into English, no matter how talented and famous the voice actors are, just feels wrong. Certainly, it helps attract a Western audience that has still only begun to discover the wonders of anime and makes the story much easier for younger viewers to understand, but anime purists will probably want to watch the film as it was originally intended to be shown - and, fortunately, it is possible to change the setup to play the movie in Japanese with English captioning. Speaking of younger viewers, the film does deserve its PG-13 rating, as more than a few characters lose their heads - literally - and animals are slaughtered in significant numbers during several scenes of fighting and warfare.
Princess Mononoke is not so much the story of the princess herself as it is of young Ashitaki, a young warrior who journeys many miles westward in search of a cure for the demon curse transferred unto him by a giant boar demon he managed to kill when it attacked his village. The odds of him finding and being healed by the Spirit of the Forest are pretty low, making this as much of a spiritual journey as a physical one with a clear purpose. He and his noble elk steed do find the place, however, after a brief sojourn in Iron Town. The humans in this fortified village have been clearing away forest so that they can mine the iron ore that exists within the soil in great abundance. For her part, Lady Eboshi is working to perfect the guns she will use to defend Iron Town from those casting greedy eyes upon it even as she plots with hunters sent by the emperor to slay the Spirit of the Forest himself. The animal gods of the forest, seeing the human threat now close to destroying their final peaceful retreat, gird up for battle themselves, particularly the boars and the wolves. Among the wolves is Princess Mononoke, a human girl raised by wolves; she hates all humans for their greedy, destructive ways - a fact which rather complicates the personal bond she eventually comes to share with Ashitaki.
It's a rather complicated story, really, but it all culminates with the seemingly unavoidable armed clash of men, gods, and animals - a war that Ashitaki desperately tried to prevent. Already dying from the demon curse, Ashitaki, a warrior hero with sympathies for both sides of the fight, risks all in an effort to save both the princess and the Spirit of the Forest himself. You can never take anything for granted in Japanese anime, particularly in terms of who lives and who dies, and this makes the final moments of the film all the more captivating - not to mention poignant. In a war that can have no true winners, what of the world will be left for those who manage to survive?
The animation (which is from 1997) is not all that breath-taking on the face of things; at first, I really couldn't see why it is praised so highly. As you get into the story, however, and see the absolute importance of nature, as represented in the animation, you quietly become more and more impressed. The scenes with the little forest sprites are especially magical - they are most unusual creatures, really quite simple in terms of their animated form, but they prove magical indeed as representatives of the forest and the beauty of nature. The Spirit of the Forest is equally engaging, and much more impressive and majestic in each of his forms. All of the characters are quite expressive, in fact, revealing as much through the animation as they do with their voices. That is one reason the movie works so well even with English dubbing.
If you've yet to experience anime, I can't think of a better introduction than Princess Mononoke. With the English dubbing, the viewer is free to take in the whole animated experience (something that would take a second viewing for a movie with subtitles) and see just what makes Japanese animation superior to anything you'll ever see come out of Hollywood. Hayao Miyazaki didn't make a film, he created a vibrant new universe that will transport viewers back to a medieval age when iron was new and animals still ruled the forests. Not content to merely entertain, the film addresses a number of questions that get right to the heart of human life itself, touching on themes of love, hate, honesty, community, heroism, selflessness, life, death, stewardship of the Earth, etc. With only a short featurette and a theatrical trailer, the DVD doesn't have much in the way of special features, but the movie alone more than makes Princess Mononoke worth the price of rental or purchase.
You cannot alter your fate, but you can rise and meet it.......2006-02-15
I received Princess Mononoke on Friday as part of Amazon Rental service. And I have been watching it everyday since. The film is absolutely outstanding, and in my opinion Japanese anime, in fact animation at its best. It is no kiddy film - there are no fluffy happy dancy animals. The beasts are mean but only because they wanted to protect what they see as rightfully theirs - the forest. While it is easy to blame human - as embodied by Lady Eboshi who champion the scientific progression of modernity, Miyasaki has rejected the simplicity of a black and white view between good and evil. Good and evil constitute each other and as human and beast, we embody both. Lady Eboshi is not all evil - her motives to deforest is to protect Irontown and its people. Irontown is a refuge for the socially marginalized - lepers and prostitutes alike. Her matriachal role as the maiden of Irontown makes her one of the most intriguing character where these role are normally played by male in conventional film. As for Princess Mononoke - Eboshi's nemesis, is no Disneyfied princess either. She is a feral wolf-human raised in the forest by the wolf clan when she was abandoned as a child. She embodies the wilderness of nature and kill mercilessly to protect the spirits of the forest.
The film is laden with adult themes, exploring human relationship to nature. It begs us to answer the question if human progress are indeed painful? Are there any reconciliation? These are global themes.
On the other hand, Princess Mononoke also explored the issue between life and death as embodied by the Forest Spirit - Shihsigami - where life and death is his alone. Are there hope in being alive when everything seems to be crumbling away? There are themes of suffering as embodied by Ashitaka whose wound of hatred marked the tension between humanity and nature.
There are however some cutesy characters like Yakul the elk, the tree spirits - all of which are not only magical but reminds us of a Japan long forgotten - when man and god are at peace. Some said that the film draws idea of Shinto, a dominant beliefs in Japan. Miyasaki claimed that his ideas are an amalgam of both Eastern and Western ideas. There are some parralels between Tolkein's Lord of The Rings which also explore the issue of ecosystem, but also our existence as human being in the world. In Princess Mononoke, Miyasaki reconciled the tension between human and nature will always exist. Progress are ineviable as part of human evolution. However, Miyasaki provides us with the hope that we can still go on living and appreciate the beauty that still exists in the world. The Forest Spirit may have died in its bodily form, but lives on forever in our hearts and in the flowers and trees and animals in the world. While nature was once fearsome and wild, it is now tamed.
Overlong.......2006-01-31
I'm a great fan of the other Studio Ghibli films, but Princess Mononoke is just not as good as them. Frankly, it gets really dull by about 2/3 of the way through.
What's good about it?
There are some nice bits to it and the animation is up to the usual great standards. There are also the usual whimsical and eccentric touches- like the forest spirits.
What's bad about it?
It's overlong. It's also a story that has been done a lot in other animations (underdog goes on a long quest and battles to save nature/ the forest from evil powerful ruler), so it's not as fresh as the storylines in the other Miyazaki films.
"Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Round" and "Howl's Moving Castle" have everything this film has and better and more quirky plots, so are much more entertaining. "Whispers of the Heart" is also a better Miyazaki film, but not available (yet?) on DVD for some reason.
Probably one of my favorate films.......2005-10-02
This is a great film, mostly because it does not have one or two good characters fighting agenst the bad people/animals. All the character have a good side and a bad one, just like ordinary people. Also, the music was great, as was the art. The only reason i have put 4 stars instead on 5 is the very end. I wont tell you, but if you watch it you might know what i mean.
In all, im sure you will like this, only i would say this film is for over 10s. I really love Princess Mononoke, and i think this is one of my new favorate fims or programs ever.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Princess Mononoke has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, this epic, animated 1997 fantasy, represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylised approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here.
Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god", transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature.
Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. -- Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with an impressive widescreen aspect of 2.35:1 and a pleasant 5.1 Dolby digital sound, you cannot fault the transfer of this animation in any way. However, the special features leave a lot to be desired on what is a classic piece of modern anime. The "Behind the Scenes" feature holds no information on the making of Princess Mononoke in its original form--with no input from animator Hayao Miyazaki--and the trailer is taken from the American release of the movie (even though it calls itself an "original" theatrical trailer), complete with the annoyingly hyped-up voiceover that comes with US film trailers. The redeeming feature of this DVD is the ability to watch the anime in its original language with subtitles, a much more passionate and beautiful form--so much of the feeling and lyricism of the movie is lost with the transfer to English language and misplaced casting. After watching the original Japanese version of Princess Mononoke and reading the book you begin to wonder why the West has become such a solitary child of Disney. --Nikki Disney
Customer Reviews:
More Ghibli Magic.......2007-06-13
This is a fantastic film! The animation is superb (especially for the forest spirit), as to be expected from Miyazaki, and the story is original and engaging. The environmental themes to the story are especially relevant and give the added poignancy that make this one of Miyazaki's many triumphs. The translation is excellent with respected actors providing their voices. This has to be in any top 5 anime films.
A perfect blend of story-telling and animation.......2006-06-11
I wouldn't go so far as the New York Post in calling this film "the 'Star Wars' of animated features," but certainly Princess Mononoke is a vibrant, magical movie that resonates with life in all its facets and the spirit that lies beneath this world we too often take for granted. It's funny how American animated films are always about - well, nothing at all, really, while Japanimation is about basically everything. To me, dubbing this film into English, no matter how talented and famous the voice actors are, just feels wrong. Certainly, it helps attract a Western audience that has still only begun to discover the wonders of anime and makes the story much easier for younger viewers to understand, but anime purists will probably want to watch the film as it was originally intended to be shown - and, fortunately, it is possible to change the setup to play the movie in Japanese with English captioning. Speaking of younger viewers, the film does deserve its PG-13 rating, as more than a few characters lose their heads - literally - and animals are slaughtered in significant numbers during several scenes of fighting and warfare.
Princess Mononoke is not so much the story of the princess herself as it is of young Ashitaki, a young warrior who journeys many miles westward in search of a cure for the demon curse transferred unto him by a giant boar demon he managed to kill when it attacked his village. The odds of him finding and being healed by the Spirit of the Forest are pretty low, making this as much of a spiritual journey as a physical one with a clear purpose. He and his noble elk steed do find the place, however, after a brief sojourn in Iron Town. The humans in this fortified village have been clearing away forest so that they can mine the iron ore that exists within the soil in great abundance. For her part, Lady Eboshi is working to perfect the guns she will use to defend Iron Town from those casting greedy eyes upon it even as she plots with hunters sent by the emperor to slay the Spirit of the Forest himself. The animal gods of the forest, seeing the human threat now close to destroying their final peaceful retreat, gird up for battle themselves, particularly the boars and the wolves. Among the wolves is Princess Mononoke, a human girl raised by wolves; she hates all humans for their greedy, destructive ways - a fact which rather complicates the personal bond she eventually comes to share with Ashitaki.
It's a rather complicated story, really, but it all culminates with the seemingly unavoidable armed clash of men, gods, and animals - a war that Ashitaki desperately tried to prevent. Already dying from the demon curse, Ashitaki, a warrior hero with sympathies for both sides of the fight, risks all in an effort to save both the princess and the Spirit of the Forest himself. You can never take anything for granted in Japanese anime, particularly in terms of who lives and who dies, and this makes the final moments of the film all the more captivating - not to mention poignant. In a war that can have no true winners, what of the world will be left for those who manage to survive?
The animation (which is from 1997) is not all that breath-taking on the face of things; at first, I really couldn't see why it is praised so highly. As you get into the story, however, and see the absolute importance of nature, as represented in the animation, you quietly become more and more impressed. The scenes with the little forest sprites are especially magical - they are most unusual creatures, really quite simple in terms of their animated form, but they prove magical indeed as representatives of the forest and the beauty of nature. The Spirit of the Forest is equally engaging, and much more impressive and majestic in each of his forms. All of the characters are quite expressive, in fact, revealing as much through the animation as they do with their voices. That is one reason the movie works so well even with English dubbing.
If you've yet to experience anime, I can't think of a better introduction than Princess Mononoke. With the English dubbing, the viewer is free to take in the whole animated experience (something that would take a second viewing for a movie with subtitles) and see just what makes Japanese animation superior to anything you'll ever see come out of Hollywood. Hayao Miyazaki didn't make a film, he created a vibrant new universe that will transport viewers back to a medieval age when iron was new and animals still ruled the forests. Not content to merely entertain, the film addresses a number of questions that get right to the heart of human life itself, touching on themes of love, hate, honesty, community, heroism, selflessness, life, death, stewardship of the Earth, etc. With only a short featurette and a theatrical trailer, the DVD doesn't have much in the way of special features, but the movie alone more than makes Princess Mononoke worth the price of rental or purchase.
You cannot alter your fate, but you can rise and meet it.......2006-02-15
I received Princess Mononoke on Friday as part of Amazon Rental service. And I have been watching it everyday since. The film is absolutely outstanding, and in my opinion Japanese anime, in fact animation at its best. It is no kiddy film - there are no fluffy happy dancy animals. The beasts are mean but only because they wanted to protect what they see as rightfully theirs - the forest. While it is easy to blame human - as embodied by Lady Eboshi who champion the scientific progression of modernity, Miyasaki has rejected the simplicity of a black and white view between good and evil. Good and evil constitute each other and as human and beast, we embody both. Lady Eboshi is not all evil - her motives to deforest is to protect Irontown and its people. Irontown is a refuge for the socially marginalized - lepers and prostitutes alike. Her matriachal role as the maiden of Irontown makes her one of the most intriguing character where these role are normally played by male in conventional film. As for Princess Mononoke - Eboshi's nemesis, is no Disneyfied princess either. She is a feral wolf-human raised in the forest by the wolf clan when she was abandoned as a child. She embodies the wilderness of nature and kill mercilessly to protect the spirits of the forest.
The film is laden with adult themes, exploring human relationship to nature. It begs us to answer the question if human progress are indeed painful? Are there any reconciliation? These are global themes.
On the other hand, Princess Mononoke also explored the issue between life and death as embodied by the Forest Spirit - Shihsigami - where life and death is his alone. Are there hope in being alive when everything seems to be crumbling away? There are themes of suffering as embodied by Ashitaka whose wound of hatred marked the tension between humanity and nature.
There are however some cutesy characters like Yakul the elk, the tree spirits - all of which are not only magical but reminds us of a Japan long forgotten - when man and god are at peace. Some said that the film draws idea of Shinto, a dominant beliefs in Japan. Miyasaki claimed that his ideas are an amalgam of both Eastern and Western ideas. There are some parralels between Tolkein's Lord of The Rings which also explore the issue of ecosystem, but also our existence as human being in the world. In Princess Mononoke, Miyasaki reconciled the tension between human and nature will always exist. Progress are ineviable as part of human evolution. However, Miyasaki provides us with the hope that we can still go on living and appreciate the beauty that still exists in the world. The Forest Spirit may have died in its bodily form, but lives on forever in our hearts and in the flowers and trees and animals in the world. While nature was once fearsome and wild, it is now tamed.
Overlong.......2006-01-31
I'm a great fan of the other Studio Ghibli films, but Princess Mononoke is just not as good as them. Frankly, it gets really dull by about 2/3 of the way through.
What's good about it?
There are some nice bits to it and the animation is up to the usual great standards. There are also the usual whimsical and eccentric touches- like the forest spirits.
What's bad about it?
It's overlong. It's also a story that has been done a lot in other animations (underdog goes on a long quest and battles to save nature/ the forest from evil powerful ruler), so it's not as fresh as the storylines in the other Miyazaki films.
"Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Round" and "Howl's Moving Castle" have everything this film has and better and more quirky plots, so are much more entertaining. "Whispers of the Heart" is also a better Miyazaki film, but not available (yet?) on DVD for some reason.
Probably one of my favorate films.......2005-10-02
This is a great film, mostly because it does not have one or two good characters fighting agenst the bad people/animals. All the character have a good side and a bad one, just like ordinary people. Also, the music was great, as was the art. The only reason i have put 4 stars instead on 5 is the very end. I wont tell you, but if you watch it you might know what i mean.
In all, im sure you will like this, only i would say this film is for over 10s. I really love Princess Mononoke, and i think this is one of my new favorate fims or programs ever.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Princess Mononoke has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, this epic, animated 1997 fantasy, represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylised approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here.
Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god", transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature.
Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. -- Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
On the DVD: with an impressive widescreen aspect of 2.35:1 and a pleasant 5.1 Dolby digital sound, you cannot fault the transfer of this animation in any way. However, the special features leave a lot to be desired on what is a classic piece of modern anime. The "Behind the Scenes" feature holds no information on the making of Princess Mononoke in its original form--with no input from animator Hayao Miyazaki--and the trailer is taken from the American release of the movie (even though it calls itself an "original" theatrical trailer), complete with the annoyingly hyped-up voiceover that comes with US film trailers. The redeeming feature of this DVD is the ability to watch the anime in its original language with subtitles, a much more passionate and beautiful form--so much of the feeling and lyricism of the movie is lost with the transfer to English language and misplaced casting. After watching the original Japanese version of Princess Mononoke and reading the book you begin to wonder why the West has become such a solitary child of Disney. --Nikki Disney
Customer Reviews:
More Ghibli Magic.......2007-06-13
This is a fantastic film! The animation is superb (especially for the forest spirit), as to be expected from Miyazaki, and the story is original and engaging. The environmental themes to the story are especially relevant and give the added poignancy that make this one of Miyazaki's many triumphs. The translation is excellent with respected actors providing their voices. This has to be in any top 5 anime films.
A perfect blend of story-telling and animation.......2006-06-11
I wouldn't go so far as the New York Post in calling this film "the 'Star Wars' of animated features," but certainly Princess Mononoke is a vibrant, magical movie that resonates with life in all its facets and the spirit that lies beneath this world we too often take for granted. It's funny how American animated films are always about - well, nothing at all, really, while Japanimation is about basically everything. To me, dubbing this film into English, no matter how talented and famous the voice actors are, just feels wrong. Certainly, it helps attract a Western audience that has still only begun to discover the wonders of anime and makes the story much easier for younger viewers to understand, but anime purists will probably want to watch the film as it was originally intended to be shown - and, fortunately, it is possible to change the setup to play the movie in Japanese with English captioning. Speaking of younger viewers, the film does deserve its PG-13 rating, as more than a few characters lose their heads - literally - and animals are slaughtered in significant numbers during several scenes of fighting and warfare.
Princess Mononoke is not so much the story of the princess herself as it is of young Ashitaki, a young warrior who journeys many miles westward in search of a cure for the demon curse transferred unto him by a giant boar demon he managed to kill when it attacked his village. The odds of him finding and being healed by the Spirit of the Forest are pretty low, making this as much of a spiritual journey as a physical one with a clear purpose. He and his noble elk steed do find the place, however, after a brief sojourn in Iron Town. The humans in this fortified village have been clearing away forest so that they can mine the iron ore that exists within the soil in great abundance. For her part, Lady Eboshi is working to perfect the guns she will use to defend Iron Town from those casting greedy eyes upon it even as she plots with hunters sent by the emperor to slay the Spirit of the Forest himself. The animal gods of the forest, seeing the human threat now close to destroying their final peaceful retreat, gird up for battle themselves, particularly the boars and the wolves. Among the wolves is Princess Mononoke, a human girl raised by wolves; she hates all humans for their greedy, destructive ways - a fact which rather complicates the personal bond she eventually comes to share with Ashitaki.
It's a rather complicated story, really, but it all culminates with the seemingly unavoidable armed clash of men, gods, and animals - a war that Ashitaki desperately tried to prevent. Already dying from the demon curse, Ashitaki, a warrior hero with sympathies for both sides of the fight, risks all in an effort to save both the princess and the Spirit of the Forest himself. You can never take anything for granted in Japanese anime, particularly in terms of who lives and who dies, and this makes the final moments of the film all the more captivating - not to mention poignant. In a war that can have no true winners, what of the world will be left for those who manage to survive?
The animation (which is from 1997) is not all that breath-taking on the face of things; at first, I really couldn't see why it is praised so highly. As you get into the story, however, and see the absolute importance of nature, as represented in the animation, you quietly become more and more impressed. The scenes with the little forest sprites are especially magical - they are most unusual creatures, really quite simple in terms of their animated form, but they prove magical indeed as representatives of the forest and the beauty of nature. The Spirit of the Forest is equally engaging, and much more impressive and majestic in each of his forms. All of the characters are quite expressive, in fact, revealing as much through the animation as they do with their voices. That is one reason the movie works so well even with English dubbing.
If you've yet to experience anime, I can't think of a better introduction than Princess Mononoke. With the English dubbing, the viewer is free to take in the whole animated experience (something that would take a second viewing for a movie with subtitles) and see just what makes Japanese animation superior to anything you'll ever see come out of Hollywood. Hayao Miyazaki didn't make a film, he created a vibrant new universe that will transport viewers back to a medieval age when iron was new and animals still ruled the forests. Not content to merely entertain, the film addresses a number of questions that get right to the heart of human life itself, touching on themes of love, hate, honesty, community, heroism, selflessness, life, death, stewardship of the Earth, etc. With only a short featurette and a theatrical trailer, the DVD doesn't have much in the way of special features, but the movie alone more than makes Princess Mononoke worth the price of rental or purchase.
You cannot alter your fate, but you can rise and meet it.......2006-02-15
I received Princess Mononoke on Friday as part of Amazon Rental service. And I have been watching it everyday since. The film is absolutely outstanding, and in my opinion Japanese anime, in fact animation at its best. It is no kiddy film - there are no fluffy happy dancy animals. The beasts are mean but only because they wanted to protect what they see as rightfully theirs - the forest. While it is easy to blame human - as embodied by Lady Eboshi who champion the scientific progression of modernity, Miyasaki has rejected the simplicity of a black and white view between good and evil. Good and evil constitute each other and as human and beast, we embody both. Lady Eboshi is not all evil - her motives to deforest is to protect Irontown and its people. Irontown is a refuge for the socially marginalized - lepers and prostitutes alike. Her matriachal role as the maiden of Irontown makes her one of the most intriguing character where these role are normally played by male in conventional film. As for Princess Mononoke - Eboshi's nemesis, is no Disneyfied princess either. She is a feral wolf-human raised in the forest by the wolf clan when she was abandoned as a child. She embodies the wilderness of nature and kill mercilessly to protect the spirits of the forest.
The film is laden with adult themes, exploring human relationship to nature. It begs us to answer the question if human progress are indeed painful? Are there any reconciliation? These are global themes.
On the other hand, Princess Mononoke also explored the issue between life and death as embodied by the Forest Spirit - Shihsigami - where life and death is his alone. Are there hope in being alive when everything seems to be crumbling away? There are themes of suffering as embodied by Ashitaka whose wound of hatred marked the tension between humanity and nature.
There are however some cutesy characters like Yakul the elk, the tree spirits - all of which are not only magical but reminds us of a Japan long forgotten - when man and god are at peace. Some said that the film draws idea of Shinto, a dominant beliefs in Japan. Miyasaki claimed that his ideas are an amalgam of both Eastern and Western ideas. There are some parralels between Tolkein's Lord of The Rings which also explore the issue of ecosystem, but also our existence as human being in the world. In Princess Mononoke, Miyasaki reconciled the tension between human and nature will always exist. Progress are ineviable as part of human evolution. However, Miyasaki provides us with the hope that we can still go on living and appreciate the beauty that still exists in the world. The Forest Spirit may have died in its bodily form, but lives on forever in our hearts and in the flowers and trees and animals in the world. While nature was once fearsome and wild, it is now tamed.
Overlong.......2006-01-31
I'm a great fan of the other Studio Ghibli films, but Princess Mononoke is just not as good as them. Frankly, it gets really dull by about 2/3 of the way through.
What's good about it?
There are some nice bits to it and the animation is up to the usual great standards. There are also the usual whimsical and eccentric touches- like the forest spirits.
What's bad about it?
It's overlong. It's also a story that has been done a lot in other animations (underdog goes on a long quest and battles to save nature/ the forest from evil powerful ruler), so it's not as fresh as the storylines in the other Miyazaki films.
"Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Round" and "Howl's Moving Castle" have everything this film has and better and more quirky plots, so are much more entertaining. "Whispers of the Heart" is also a better Miyazaki film, but not available (yet?) on DVD for some reason.
Probably one of my favorate films.......2005-10-02
This is a great film, mostly because it does not have one or two good characters fighting agenst the bad people/animals. All the character have a good side and a bad one, just like ordinary people. Also, the music was great, as was the art. The only reason i have put 4 stars instead on 5 is the very end. I wont tell you, but if you watch it you might know what i mean.
In all, im sure you will like this, only i would say this film is for over 10s. I really love Princess Mononoke, and i think this is one of my new favorate fims or programs ever.
DVD:
- Royal Wedding [1951] (NTSC)
- Sam Whiskey [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Sesame Street: What's the Name of That Song? [2004] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Snow Queen's Revenge
- Son of Fury [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Substitute 2: School's Out [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Superman - Vol. 1 - Last Son Of Krypton [1996]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4 (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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