I am not worthy...

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2004)

WARNING: EXTREME SPOILERS!!!
This is not an objective review. Princess Mononoke is one of my all-time favourite movies, and I believe there is no complaint about it that is not answerable. That established, now on to business.
Princess Mononoke is a testament to all that can be done with animation, but almost never is. The very nature of the medium is to free one up from all physical limitations, and yet North American culture has restricted it to being a medium for children's movies. The visual beauty and complexity of this film is the equal, if not the superior, of any of the glossy stuff produced by Disney; but the difference here is that it used to tell a mature, intelligent story. Nothing here is sanitized or simplified, and the characters are all three-dimensional beings -- not the one-dimensional caricatures common not just to Western animated films, but to movies in general.
The only song here is the moving one over the end credits -- a counterpoint to the masterful score. These characters actually converse with each other in what's not only one of the best-translated scripts ever, but a damn good screenplay in its own right. The voice casting is also first-rate: Billy Crudup is good as the young hero; Claire Danes hits just the right teenage-angst-out-of-control note with San; Minnie Driver as Lady Eboshi moves excellently between diplomatic and soft-spoken, and demonic and megalomaniacal; and Billy Bob Thornton is understatedly funny yet dangerous as Jigo. The real lightning in a bottle, however, is Gillian Anderson as Moro. Agent Scully is nowhere to be heard as she combines deep anger and ferocity with great wisdom and love. Her death is one of the most heart-wrenching moments I've ever seen on film.
Princess Mononoke is a testament to the power of film as art. It would have been excellent as a live action movie. That it's animated is even more spectacular. It lets us in the west see just how little we've done with animation.