Reviewed on March 18th, 2007

Visually

As with a lot of Miyazaki’s artistic and stunningly beautiful works of art he depicts in movies, Miyazaki fans need not be disappointed, “Princess Mononoke” exceeds the artistic boundaries that have been set up. In fact, This is in many ways his most beautiful movie to date. It is different from his previous works in that the locations are much less fanciful, and the startlingly graphic action is smaller-scale, but he takes the simple, realistic locales and draws an amazing amount of beauty out of them. The rendering of grassy fields, fertile valleys, and dark forests is a true work of art in and of itself, as is the almost-familiar architecture. The character profiles, visages and even body tones have been well thought out which is evident in the diversity of the characters shown in the movie. Although the character designs are no stretch for Miyazaki--their looks are mostly taken from “Nausicaa the Valley of the Wind” (though some of their personalities are quite different)-they are as pleasing as ever, and the character animation is top notch.

As for action, don't expect many of the sweeping chases or breathtaking flyovers of other Miyazaki films, but it is still enough to induce the heart-pumping intensity that most action animations prove to do. Miyazaki is a genius in his use of Mis-en-scen and the LACK of detail to which he uses to great effectiveness. His action scenes on the open grass-lands and the dense underbrush of the forests are still replaying in my mind. Due to gunfire and arrows, much of the action takes place at long ranges, and the sense of distance is impressively realistic.

Audio

Both the original Japanese version and the high-profile English dub are quite good. I think the Japanese acting and casting are somewhat better, but you won't be disappointed by all the big name actors in the dub. Billy Crudup for one (Prince Ashitaka) delivers a solid performance, a personal favourite (also the dubbing character who I feel gave the best performance…even better than the Japanese voice actors!) was Billy Bob Thornton as the voice of Jigo, he explains in the featurette of the DVD how he felt it very easy to voice act to a Japanese animation and I must say, the smoothness and the texture to which he places his words and sentences are astonishingly accurate and harmonic to the overall conversation. I wasn't terribly fond of San-she sounds a bit too modern; voice acted by Claire Danes and fails to act to the spontaneity of her Japanese counter-part. In all, though, you won't go wrong with the dialogue in either language.

In terms of the sound and the official score for Princess Mononoke, it would have to rank in the top three of my all time favourite scores of any show, anime, movie that I have ever watched.
The sheer tranquillity of the movie is a major theme and throughout the movie, it has never failed to thrill me and lull me into the beautiful score that Miyazaki had provided for his audience.
To the use of the LACK of music and nothing but running water when the main character walks upon a great river, to the loud and intense gun fights between the wolf-gods and the humans, the score is nothing short of a

Storyline

Between the dynamic visuals and the inspired story, this is easily the best action film of its year. Of course, that's not saying much in a year with hardly any decent action films, but I do not want to discount my previous statement. In fact, this could be the film that finally breaks anime into the American mainstream. But wouldn't you know that Disney has the ball in their court.

Princess Mononoke, despite its title, actually focuses its story on a young prince named Ashitaka. His village is attacked by a demonic boar that is diseased with worms. On his trusty red elk, Ashitaka takes the boar down with a few arrows, but manages to get some of the worms on his right arm in the process. The worms disappear, and the body of the boar decays instantly. The villagers find an iron ball inside the body, and discover that the boar was actually dead long before Ashitaka hit it. A local woman warns Ashitaka that the mark left by the worms is a demonic curse, which will eventually kill him. He decides to go in search of the Forest Spirit, who has the power to heal him.

On his journey, he finds two wounded men, and returns them to their village, Iron Town. The village is run by Lady Eboshi (Minnie Driver), who wants to clear the forest for the iron ore that lies underneath. Intent on stopping her is San (Clair Danes), the wolf girl, who is actually Princess Mononoke by birth, but was raised by Moro (Gillian Anderson), a white wolf-goddess with two tails. If Lady Eboshi can take the head of the Forest Spirit, the forest's resources will be hers for the taking, and San will be forced to live as a human again. Ashitaka finds himself caught between these sides while his mark is growing, filling him with hate and making him kill others against his will.

This is no children’s tale and harbours some heavy themes, yet Miyazaki, affectionately known as the Walt Disney of Japanese animation, is a genius at camouflaging such intense themes as this and at the same time, being able to deliver his message across such a wide spectrum of ages.

DVD

Miramax have taken it upon themselves to create the DVD of Princess Mononoke and have given a solid performance in terms of the recreation of the movie along with stunning audio and visuals. On the down side, there are essentially no extras, just some trailers.
The video is very sharp and vivid (though not quite perfect on close scrutiny), there are fine Dolby 5.1 soundtracks in both Japanese and English, an English dub transcription track, and a real, live, literal translation of the original Japanese (important, since it is somewhat different from the English script).

Overall

This was essentially the first of the great anime productions to see broad, if limited, theatrical release in America, and there couldn't have been a better choice. I, at least, found it a little difficult to believe initially that a Miyazaki could have outdone himself after Nausicaa, but now I feel that this movie is in serious contention for the position of his greatest work. It may not be without flaw, but it's certainly close and it manages to be entertaining, thematic, morally understanding, available and easy to understand by a wide spectrum and also….beautiful. One thing that many directors of our time have failed to done, Miyazaki shows with flying colors. Under the context of an engaging storyline and a lovable cast of characters, Miyazaki proves to be one of the world’s forerunners in terms of visionaries and ace directors.
I sincerely look forward to his family’s legacies and future works.

by Tiger