Love this movie so much

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2012)

I first saw Princess Mononoke on DVD a few years ago, when I was around twelve, and although it is more of an adult movie, I loved it. I am sixteen now and I still consider it my favorite movie ever. The art and animation is so beautiful, not all 3-D looking like animation nowadays. The soundtrack is just amazing; it fits perfectly with whatever is happening on screen at any given moment and is incredibly moving and emotional.
This storyline is phenomenal as well. A young man, Ashitaka, is fatally cursed after killing a demon boar to save his village. In an effort to try to stop the curse, he travels far away and stumbles upon a war between a mining colony of humans and the animal gods who live in the forest that the humans destroy in order to reach the iron in the mountain. Horrified by the bloodshed, Ashitaka tries to help both sides come to peace but, in doing so, becomes an enemy to both sides as well because he is seen as helping the enemy. He befriends a family of giant white wolves, the young woman, San, who was raised by the wolves, and a number of the humans in the colony, but then is torn when the humans and animals clash in battle. At the same time, Ashitaka has to fight the growing curse as it threatens to "eat him alive" with its hatred and stop a bounty hunter who wants to kill the Great Forest Spirit for "a hill of gold."
This movie carries a deep, environmental message, as many of Miyazaki's films do, but also a haunting warning of what can happen when you allow hate and angry to consume and corrupt you. It has a very sophisticated plot and some smaller details may be hard to follow at times, especially if it is your first time watching it, but the general story is not hard to understand and should be quite enjoyable nonetheless. Some parts of the movie are rather intense and violent (One man has his arms ripped off by an arrow, two others are beheaded similarly, etc.) and may not be appropriate for a younger audience or anybody particularly squeamish. But if you do not mind that kind of stuff, I would absolutely recommend this; just be prepared to see a lot of blood.
I have seen a lot of films by Hayao Miyazaki, and Princess Mononoke completely blows all the others out of the water. Even if you absolutely hate anime, this movie is still more than worth giving a chance. It is, in my opinion, the greatest story ever told by the greatest storyteller in the world.