Mononoke Hime

First of all I'd like to say this is my favorite Miyazaki Film. Why you might ask? Its the most powerful and thought provoking of all his films. It also communicates a message very differently since it has much darker overtones than his other lighthearted films. While they may be enjoyable and powerful in their own way they can never be compared to the stature of this film. I hold this one higher than the quality of Spirited Away. Which in my opinion is then most overrated Miyazaki/anime film. This is the one film that Miyazaki completed perfectly because it gave you that feeling thatit couldn't get any better. The film has themes that even an adult could enjoy immensely. The story is basically can be summed up as Man's conflict against the natural world. While this may be a good summarization it also could be misleading because with Mononoke we don't get a classic good vs evil plot. The fascination I have with this film stems from the many groups that are at conflict with one another and how no one is truly the evildoer. We have nature battling with human civilization while within itself there are humans trying to topple each other. The story revolves around how self-destructive we are as human beings and how we haven't realized we are innate in nature. The movie gives us parallels of the battles that the humans face with each other while still all congregating together for that one perceived enemy in the film, nature. All in all the film tries to communicate a deep message through the story and it leaves the viewer with a lasting impression. The characters in this film are fascinating. Particularly Ashitaka and Princess Mononoke. We follow the story through Ashitaka's experiences with the different warring groups in the story. He always is the rational character in the movie and he openly tries to correct the irrationalities the other characters have. he serves as the medium which communicates the overall story and how meaningless the conflict can be found to be. He is extremely brave and he usually gets himself in dangerous situations in order to show the others their incorrect ways. Princess Mononoke is another intricately created character which is full of mystery. She seems to detest fellow humans for their selfish egotism and hostility towards earth and its inhabitants. Lady Eboshi is the a character some may mistakenly confuse for the villain of the movie. I think this would be more prevalent with western viewers like myself. The reason for this is they might seem to mistake her as another modern day oil baron except she is much more than that. Her main goal is to protect her people, particularly the other women who live in the city. She feels in order to do this She has to pursue the industrialization of her city in order to protect her people from the samurais and beasts of nature. In the animation department this is a Studio Ghibli film so you obviously will get an amazing experience visually at least. With this film though I feel the animation captures the essence of nature. It does this with the various beasts and mystical characters Miyazaki created. There are even gods in this movie which helps bring about the feeling that nature is alive. You will enjoy the action sequences in this movie. Especially the battles between Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke. I also think the use of CGI in this film was done well and this is coming from someone who despises CGI. The music in this movie is beautiful. Its the kind that can put you in a trance that you wouldn't want to ever wake up from. Especially the main theme song. A lot of the music puts you in the right mood for the film. Especially the more darker music which is used during scenes with the beasts of nature. The battle scenes also have plesant sounds and the sword fights don't contain the same sword clashing sound *cough Nausicaa cough*. Anyways, I recommend this film because its Miyazaki's Masterpiece.

For each new Studio Ghibli film I watch, I just get more and more convinced that they are the best animation movie studio out there. Princess Mononoke is by no means an exception. Ashitaka, the last prince of a people called the Enishi, gets cursed while fighting a demon, and sets out on a journey to get rid of the curse, which can be lethal. He soon hears rumors of a forest spirit that can give and take away life, and sets out to find it. However, he soon finds himself in the middle of a fight between humans and animals, and he soon gets toknow of a girl called Princess Mononoke, who has sided with the animals. The way the story is presented makes it really enjoyable, as we get to see how various humans and animals view the ongoing fight. Different humans have different viewpoints, different animals have different viewpoints, and it makes it so that part of what they think is right, but they're also wrong about things. In the middle we have Ashitaka, who is the only one looking for a peaceful resolution to this struggle. It's mainly the theme of destroying nature that's mainly being touched upon, a theme I feel is something everyone should think about. The small love story you that's presented is what some would call forced. At least I do. I didn't quite like the way in which it was presented, but different persons have different opinions. It was okay enough though, but nothing that really placed itself in my heart. Maybe they just didn't do enough with it. But it's okay, since the focus of this movie is other things than love. As expected of Studio Ghibli, the visuals are stunning, especially when you think about the movie's age (8 years). With its massive budget of 2,4 billion yen, what else is there to expect anyway? The environments are drawn extremely beautifully, be it mountains, lakes, villages, trees or underbrush. Sometimes I just forgot the movie because of the stunning environments. Thank heavens for rewinding! The character motions are extremely fluid and lifelike, and with a total of 144 000 cels during the movie, you couldn't expect anything less (I even heard that Miyazaki re-drew quite a lot of them himself). I got quite surprised when I learned that they used CGI in the movie; I couldn't spot it at all. That again serves to prove the quality of it. The character designs are typical Studio Ghibli-ish, so you'll know what to expect in that department if you've watched a Studio Ghibli film. The music is perfectly in tune with the movie, giving that calm, mysterious kind of feeling that you'll expect when in a forest where magical creatures are as normal as insects. But ti doesn't do anything more than that, really. Overall, Princess Mononoke is a film that you might enjoy the most for its stunning natural environments; they almost overshadow the plot. But all the different factions, the different viewpoints in the fight, and last but definitely not least, the theme of destroying nature are all something that everyone should give a thought. Especially the latter.

First off, I LOVE Hayao Miyazaki and a lot of his movies. I fell in love with Studio Ghibli’s artwork, music, and pretty much anything about them. This is one of my all time favorite movies in fact. Just the story line is so beautiful about how man and nature are supposed to live side by side but when one fights against the other, there can be both misunderstandings and consequences. The story is open to interpretation but it feels like a timeless tale. A lot of times, I found myself believing that he could have made the story in this time frame and itwould have had the same meaning behind the story. I’m going to sort of talk about what I consider part of this Psychology of this show, and this is only what I feel is part of this. What you take from it may be different. The story is set in the Muromachi period of Japan when there were few Emishi people. The Emishi were actually a real people in Japan much like the Native Americans were to America. They lived in harmony with the land and had different tribes slightly different cultures and so on. Not much is actually known of the Emishi like where they came from and from what I have read, there are very few groups left. The story of this movie follows the ‘last prince’ Ashitaka. I looked around but I couldn't find much on if this was a real person or not. I don’t believe he is a real character and was more symbolic of how that tribe was dieing out. Anyway, in order to protect his village, he kills a demon that was rampaging nearby and is cursed by the demon as he died. It turns out the demon was actually a boar god who was driven crazy by an iron ball that was shot into his body. In order to save himself and protect his village further, he leaves his people and travels west never to return to his people. I see this sort of a symbolic image, the idea of the young leaving their native land, the land they were born into and the culture they were born into, and being integrated into the Japanese basic ideas. It’s similar to the way Native Americans turned away from their culture to become part of the ‘white man’s world’ here in America. Not being able to return pretty much is the same where once you learn something different, you’re never really the same person as you once were. As Ashitaka leaves, he sees the world outside his home as different and we get to see it through his eyes as bandits sort of rampage through another village he runs into. The places we see and the world we see outside his village just ends up looking like a rather cruel and selfish place. I think that was done on purpose as it again shows everything through the eyes of a boy who grew up in a place where everyone took care of everyone else. He goes farther from his village and the areas seem to get harsher until he finds Irontown which in many ways could be like Tokyo or New York in our age. It is a place with ‘futuristic machines’, guns, iron working and so on. Actually, I think the better thought of this place would probably be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was pretty much known for their Steel work. And here in lies a problem. In order to get iron sand for making their weapons and machines, they must clear down the forest near them. Unfortunately, the forest spirits don't like this, which leads to the war between nature and humans. I consider San as like the ‘hippie’ or hard core nature lovers who think they are fighting for natures rights. Without giving away the ending, the whole feel of this movie seems to be about trying to find a balance between humans destructive nature and of nature itself. And that’s what I love about this movie. It’s something that a lot of people are trying to do now as well with all the new eco friendly things we have been doing lately to protect the earth. The artwork is astounding and that’s saying a lot since it was all cel done. Each background, character, and lighting had to be hand drawn over and over again. In fact, according to the wiki, there were over 144,000 cels and Miyazaki personally oversaw each and every one of them, including redrawing parts of 80,000 of them. That is dedication to his work guys and that is why I love his work so much. They even give them a lot of detail down to small crust near the boar’s eyes and the almost realistic backgrounds that seemed to capture your eyes with every detail. There was very little computer animation used in the show, parts like the demon flesh on Ashitaka but I never noticed. They perfectly made it seamless. In fact, I had no clue it was computer animated in those parts until I did a little research for this review and that is what surprised me more. I only watched this show in English, and I was not sorry. I fell in love with the voices; each person did a wonderful job trying to give the characters a realistic way of talking that worked well with that character. I do have some little nit picks though that I have to do. I might have praised this show up and down but I can also see some of the ‘mistakes’ that were done in it. Billy Crudup was the voice of Ashitaka and he played the character a bit too bland I think. I understand the character is not a wild and brave guy, he is just an average guy who left his family but he just sounds a bit to shy at times. Also, even though Billy Bob Thornton was the rather good voice of an old monk named Jiko-bo, he just never really grabbed me as much as I think that character should of. I don’t know exactly if this was intended but Jiko-bo just felt like he didn't know what he wanted to be. I could never tell if he was a good guy, a bad guy, or even what he was. You would think him being a monk would mean he would be one with the spiritual side of things but then on the other hand, he seems to be against them as well. He was a very confusing character for me and though Billy did a good job conveying that confusion in what he was, I wish he would of leaned a little more to one side instead of being so in the middle. I fell in love with this movie so much, and it is definitely a must see for anyone who loves Studio Ghibli or movies with deep meaning behind them. That’s why this gets a very high rating from me.

Princess Mononoke was released in Japan on 1997. It is a Studio Ghibli film, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and it is his seventh feature film. Having seen some of Miyazaki's best works, I can safely tell you, without any hesitation, that this is his second best movie. If you own the Blu-ray DVD combo pack of Princess Mononoke, I can assure you that once you experience Princess Mononoke on Blu-ray, you will never want to go back to the DVD addition of Princess Mononoke. This is because the Miyazaki films that I have actually seen on Blu-ray have been remastered so well, andthey make Miyazaki's films all look incredible, especially the case with Princess Mononoke. This goes without saying, the animation in Princess Mononoke is astounding, I found it to be breathtaking and gorgeous to look at. Every time I rewatch Princess Mononoke, I am floored by the amount of detail and the amount of work that was put into the animation. I even notice some small details that actually look impressive. This is one of Miyazaki's examples of a tour de force, and one of the finest presentations that Studio Ghibli has ever put out. To compliment the majestic animation in Princess Mononoke is the film score by Joe Hisaishi. The film score is also very good in Princess Mononoke, some of the best music that Hisaishi has made in my opinion. There are other film scores to other Miyazaki films that are just as good, but I think that this is the one that sticks out the most. Just have a quick listen to it's main theme and you will understand why this soundtrack is so good. In regards to the voice acting, both the original Japanese cast and the English dub cast are excellent. I can understand that some performances in the English dub may take a little getting used to for some viewers. Personally, I enjoyed all of the performances in the English dub just as much as I enjoyed all of the performances from the original Japanese version of Princess Mononoke. There is something that is special about Princess Mononoke's English dub, and that is the adaptive script. The adaptive script was written by the author that was responsible for stories such as "American Gods" and "Coraline", Neil Gaiman (Yeah, that Neil Gaiman). I find it very rare that a writer took up the task to write an adaptive script for an Anime film, for English speaking audiences, especially a film from Hayao Miyazaki. That being said, the English dub script for this movie is of biblical proportions. Another thing that made me fall in love with this movie are the characters. Now prince Ashitaka may seem to have the least amount of characterization in the film, and even if that were the case, you have to consider that he was exiled by the Emishi people because of the curse on his right arm. He is an outcast, he has to fend for himself, that actually makes him a bit fascinating. As for princess San, some may find her to be a little too feisty for this film's own good, but you have to consider the fact that she was raised by wolves. It's only logical for her to have a bit of a wolf mentality when it comes to her character, and in this film's case it makes sense. Lady Eboshi may appear to be the villain of Princess Mononoke, but her motivations and her actions actually benefit her people, so she does the things she does because she wants what is best for them. What makes Princess Mononoke's characters so fascinating is that they are not your typical black and white, they are all grey. They all have motivations and they are actually believable. Princess Mononoke is a tale of human nature with a touch of spirituality. It even has a clever environmentalist message in it, you just have to look very carefully as to what I mean by that. I may have stared at other Miyazaki films with awe, but when it comes to Princess Mononoke, this is by far the most complicated film he has ever made, not to mention the most violent. Princess Mononoke is a brilliant film by Hayao Miyazaki, and it is a must see for anyone that loves animation. If you have not seen Princess Mononoke, oh dear God what are you waiting for? You are missing out. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest animated films ever made, and one of the greatest Anime films ever made. I love Princess Mononoke, it is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films, it is my second favorite Hayao Miyazaki film, and it is one of my favorite Anime films of all time. Yes, I view Princess Mononoke in high regard. That said, I am going to give Hayao Miyazaki's second best movie, Princess Mononoke, a much deserved 8.

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