A beautiful animated movie that looks into human nature.

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 1999)

Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke in the USA) is an absolutely breath taking film. I recommend this film to everyone, even people that normally would not like animated movies. As a quick note, this is a MOVIE that is ANIMATED. It is NOT a Cartoon, a cheesy Disney-esque animation or a traditional Anime (Anime is a type of Japanese animated feature). Don't go to this movie expecting to see our hero break into song and dance, because it isn't going to happen. MH is rated PG-13 for a good reason, there is quite a bit of animated violnce, but nothing really grotesque (thus it is not an R rated movie).
MH's story revolves mainly around 3 types of people. San, who is Princess Mononoke, was raised by the Wolf goddess Moro and is a defender of the forest. San hates all humans (eventhough she is human herself) and is trying to drive the humans out from the forest. Lady Eboshi is the self made master of Iron Town. She doesn't care about the forest or the creatures that live there. She is an indusrialist and pretty much wants to rule Japan. Ashitaka is a Prince from a long since forgotten and nearly destroyed clan of Japan. Ashitaka is the mediator of the conflict and fights for both sides in hopes that everyone will eventually get along. The whole story revolves around these 3 personalities and combined make an excellent movie.
I have not seen the original Japanese version of the film, just the American dub, but for a dubbed movie, it is excellent (and trust me, I have seen a lot of anime and usually the dubbed versions are horrible). Some people may be a bit upset with it, but anyone who can't speak a word of Japanese, I see no troubles. A must see film in my book.