Timely themes, yet amazing and entertaining.

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2002)

Princess Mononoke shows us the way humans seem to be increasingly at war with nature, instead of being part of it. That's the theme, and there is an interesting plot with many complex characters... none are simply good or evil.
It's a spectacular movie, the scenery is excellent, but what is most amazing is the animated people and creatures with such exaggerated yet life-like movements, which couldn't really be done with live-action. Princess Mononoke also features enjoyable music by Joe Hisaishi (Hana-Bi), not to mention the best knife-swishing sound effects ever.
The producers have clearly gone to a lot of effort to make the movie appealing to western audiences, with actors such as Gillian Anderson doing the voice acting for the english version. However, the dubbed version is not as good as the japanese subtitled version for a number of reasons. Lines are very different, and the voice actors have to keep up with animated mouth movements. The whole culture of the film is different. Is it right to americanise a foreign movie? Although I do welcome anything to make this great film appeal to a wider audience, if you want authenticity, listen to the original Japanese version.