* * * * for this gem of a movie

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 1999)

Hiyao Miyazaki brings his poetic sensibility to `Princess Mononoke,' the latest from Studio Ghibi. The film is an ecological fable about the conflict between man and nature, but offers no solutions or preachy messages like most animated films. In addition, it doesn't provide the usual scapegoats or easy targets we are used to. The genius of the film lies not only in its pure cinematic excellence (each image is stunning in its beauty and detail), but its willingness to provide clear and understandable motivation for the consumers/exploiters.
Lady Eboshi (voiced elegantly by Minnie Driver) runs Iron Town, a mining village which is reaping its raw material from the Great Forest, taking it by force against the will of the Animal Gods, who battle to regain control over their habitat. Traditionally, Lady Eboshi would be an unrepentant villain who needs to be taught a lesson: destroy the environment and we destroy ourselves. Easy to say, right? Try telling that to the women who work the factory, who were once prostitutes before the lady took them in to work, or the lepers, whom no one but she would hire. Suddenly, the issue becomes clouded. And we understand that technology is both a friend and an enemy. Where would we be without industrial progress? (Miyazaki himself has understood in other films the wonder and glory of these advances, having a fascination for flying mechanisms which runs through his entire body of work.)
However, industrial progress comes with a price, and the film unflinchingly portrays Lady Eboshi's cavalier destruction of the forests and disregard for the lives of the Animal Gods who live there. The Boar Tribe is almost entirely wiped out. The Ape Tribe is afraid to plant new trees for fear of the fiery man made catapults. The Wolf Goddess is dying from a poisoned bullet, grimly accepting her fate.
San (Princess Mononoke, voiced by Clare Danes) is one of the key defenders of the forest, raised by the Wolf Goddess to despise all humans. The iron bullets are transforming the Gods into vicious Demons, wrecking everything in their path, and the damage is going beyond the Forest and Iron Town, into remote villages throughout Japan. The film's protagonist, Ashitaka (voiced by Billy Crudup) comes from such a village, attacked by a mad Demon Boar and leaving him with a poisoned wound which will slowly infect his entire body and corrupt him. Ashitaka rides into town and attempts to bring both sides together in a compromise.
As you can see, the mythos heavy plot requires you to keep up, but the film is consistently entertaining. It features epic battle scenes which rival those of the master, Akira Kurosawa (an admirer of Miyazaki's work), and an understanding of how animals behave which is believable throughout (in body language, gesture and, seemingly, in thoughts.) The adaptation by Neil Gaiman is remarkably vivid, unlike most translations, which seem to lose something special from the source. The voice characterizations range from excellent (Driver, Crudup, Gillian Anderson as the quietly ferocious Wolf God) to questionable (Clare Daines is a bit too cutesy as San, and Billy Bob Thornton is at first seemingly a strange choice as Jiro, a sneaky monk, but neither of them are too distracting. Billy Bob actually grew on me.)
`Princess Mononoke' was one of the finest films I've seen this year.