Princess Mononoke is a Japanese animated action adventure film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by the famous Studio Ghibli, and released in 1997.
Princess Mononoke follows Ashitaka (Billy Crudip), a young prince searching for a cure to a curse on his right arm. On his journey he encounters a mining town led by the charismatic Lady Eboshi, and ends up involved in a conflict between the town, spirits of the forest and nature, and the mysterious young woman San (Clair Danes). The plot is heavily based in Japanese folklore and religious beliefs, but as I went through the film, it was less and less confusing, and many elements and concepts were well explained. I found the story to be engaging, pulling me into the world of the film and deeply invested into the characters' struggles.
The one flaw is that there is a bit too much to the story. The film clocks in at about two hours fifteen minutes, and the time can be felt. While it is a complete story, there are meany elements that seem to have no real reason to be in the story besides filler. One such example is a tribe of apes that appear throughout the film. They spoke a few lines and added a bit of antagonism to our heroes, but in the end they were unnecessary, underdeveloped, and added little to the story.
As the film was originally in Japanese, the voice actors faced a unique challenge, needing to provide the right feel for both the characters and make it seem that they were able to at least have a fair match up with the mouth movements, and to the films credit, the voices mostly work. Billy Crudip stars as Ashitaka, and of the main voices, Crudip is the worst. Throughout the film, it feels as if he was always trying to be more subdued with his performance, which never felt right with how the character was acting and how his mouth was moving. Luckily as the film went on the voice seemed less disjointed and I was able to feel that Crudip grew more into the character. All the other voice actors do a great job with the role, with their voices providing a great match for the characters, especially John DiMaggio as Gonza and Gillian Anderson as the wolf god Moro. I also want to give a quick shout out to Jada Picket Smith as Toki who, while not being a major part of the film, brought a wonderful energy to the character and was delightful every time she was on screen.
Director Hayao Miyazaki continues the quality of Studio Ghibli, creating a world that is at times both magical, while still having an air of natural and realistic beauty to it. The landscapes and designs truly create a sense of place and location in the film, and that’s without mentioning the character and creature design. All the human characters are distinct and have something to their costuming and design to make them all stand out. The creature designs are also wonderful. When an animal is based upon a real-life creature, the attention to detail is clearly seen. The film also features otherworldly creatures, and all the designs are beautiful as well, from the kodama (Japanese forest spirits) to the deer-like design of the god of nature.
All of these traits come together to tell an important story about the nature of war, humans and the environment and how even good intentions can cause problems. The performances give life to the characters' struggles with each other and create excellent ideas about the environment. Near the end of the film this is seen most clearly, as a character is corrupted to an infection inky blackness that clearly is made to look like oil. It comes together to create a clear picture of the relationship between humans and nature.
All of these elements come together to create a wonderful film. The visuals still hold up over twenty years later, and while the English voices could have been a bit better, they still anchor a well written, emotional story about the relationship between men, nature, and war.
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