Viewer Review

Rating: 6/10 (10 June 2005)

I heard about this movie when Channel 4 (in the UK) did 100 greatest cartoons. Princess Mononoke nearly made it to the top 20 (21 it reached). I watched Spirited Away first but I decided to watch one of Miyazaki's earlier works. Boy, was Spirited Away 10x better than this. Though the opening was good but at some points the film tends to get boring. The intro of Ashitaka was visually great same with all the other characters except Lady Eboshi where she was introduced straight away. The reasons that Princess Mononoke could not be televised for kids was that it had 2 'B' words & 1 'P' words. Yes, swearing. Also the part where Ashitaka lets his arrow fly to stop someone where the victim loses his arms and one where he loses his head!!! Blood & Gore to top it off. However the animation was good to watch but the story was weak. Music by Joe Hisaishi is suited at all parts of the film and well deserved music. I like the Legend of Ashitaka which is brilliantly instrumented. Off course if the film didn't have gore and swearing then this would have been a great family program but otherwise don't let your kids watch this and learn bad words. Overall- Average