Disney wishes they could make movies this good...

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2001)

Yes, you read that right. And the irony is that Disney brought it over. It bombed thanks to them, because they realized that the movie was not typical kiddie krap-no songs, the cute creatures don't even talk (they click and fortunatly don't distract), and there's no hit-you-over-the-head moral in it. Simply put, this is the best movie ever made, animation or otherwise, and Disney couldn't handle that.
The characters in this film have incredible depth that even live-action films don't attain. There's no characters that are outright good or bad. Eboshi at first glance would be the haughty villainess, but while she does commit evil by killing the gods, she also does great good by buying up the contracts of women forced to work in brothels and caring for lepers without even fearing for their illness. San, whose name is the "Princess Mononoke" of the title (Trivia: Mononoke means "Ghost" a name that shows the depth that Hayao Miyazaki uses in his films), while she is trying to save the forest, is quite bloodthirsty. The gods, who protect the forest, are also very warlike, and despise humans. The fact that there is no real line of good or evil in the movie is what makes it so powerful.
That is not to say the animation isn't impressive. They pushed the limits with this one-the final sequence with the mutated Deer God is so real you forget that your watching a series of drawings that are only an illusion of motion. The worm demon-gods would be impossible to create in live-action-only the realm of animation make them seem plausible.
This movie proves what animation can do, and also shows a sad fact-while animated films have been around for about a century, their potential has been severely overlooked to the point where the most crude of drawings and pointless of plots are considered to be "art" and are relegated simply to the realm of "mindless kids entertainment" (or worse-EDUtainment:P). Disney would do well to learn, but they haven't-they're still not releasing the other Miyazaki films they bought the rights to. Perhaps they realized that if people saw how bad their own animation hsa become that they'd have to spend the extra time to make GOOD movies instead of the mindless drivel or pathetic made-for-video sequels (Little Mermaid II anyone?) they keep pushing out to us.