Not perfect but still wonderful

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2004)

When he is touching by a demon while defending his village, Ashitaka is sent out to the West, from where the crazed demon originated, seeking a cure for the demon infection that will otherwise kill him. However, in seeking the domain of the gods he walks into the middle of a three-way battle between the samurai, who want Iron Town's iron deposits; Lady Eboshi who rules Iron Town and is stripping the forest of it's trees to mine it out; and finally the animals and spirits of the forest who must defend their homes, fighting for them is the human Mononoke, a young woman raised by the wolves.
It is hard to top Spirited Away, and it is maybe unfair of me to come to this film after I had seen that. This film cannot match the sheer wonder that I felt when I saw that film but this is still an accomplished film who's story is it's strength and weakness. The story is a pretty good tale that paints a reasonably good picture of this far off land, although some elements of the plot are a little thinner than I would have liked (namely the samurai). However it still manages to be engaging despite this - although of course it was never going to be as personal a story as Spirited Away. The obvious message of peace between man/industry and nature is more than just the usual one; where Lord Of The Rings was very much nature good, iron bad; this film is a lot more balanced and doesn't look at either badly.
While this runs in the background everything is fine but, when the film has to tie everything up it doesn't quite manage it. The ending is strangely very fast in happening and it ends on a morally good solution but one that I found to be emotionally quite unsatisfying. I must admit that the final 5 minutes left me feeling a little abandoned by the characters. However other than this the story is pretty exciting and the two hours go by pretty quickly.
The characters are interesting but I never managed to really get behind anyone other than Ashitaka. Eboshi was too unpleasant to relate to while Mononoke herself was too distant despite the occasional times where I felt for her. Part of this may be down to the voice cast in the US version. In Spirited Away the US cast fitted the film really well, here it is less the cast. Crudup is, ironically, one of the best voices in the cast. I say ironically because I couldn't place him in comparison to the more famous cast. Driver is OK but her character wasn't. Danes is pretty good and I felt that her character improved due to her good voice work. Anderson was miscast and her voice simply didn't fit her character at all (even with the echo added). Thornton was good for the more comedic role but slightly took away from the dramatic impact of the samurai. Pinkett-Smith brings her attitude to the role well and both she and Keith David are funny.
Visually it is as impressive as you would expect from Miyazaki. It all looks great, the whole land is filled with detail and it flows so freely. The spirits and gods are imaginative and very well drawn and the people show up just how basic stuff like Pokemon really is! It is a little too gory to be for kids (even though it is rated pg in the UK) but the vast majority of it is as detailed as you wished more kids' animation was.
Overall I really enjoyed this film but occasionally found it difficult to get past some of it's weaknesses. The characters are not all as strong as I would have liked and some of their voices aren't that good. The ending is a bit of a letdown as I was hoping for a more emotionally satisfying conclusion to the story. Despite this, it is still a wonderful film and easily one of the best animations I have seen.