Humans and Wildlife

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2017)

Attacked by a wild boar and infected by the madness that drove the boar insane, a young warrior stumbles upon a war between human villagers and intelligent wildlife in this animated drama from the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki. The film benefits from having no clear-cut villains or heroes; both the humans and the wildlife merely want to use the same territory for their own means and the project as such comes with some positive ecological messages in terms of trying to be sustainable and live in harmony. The most fascinating character is the title one though - a human raised by wolves as one of their own. Oddly enough, considering that the film is named after her, the Princess is only ever a supporting character in the proceedings. Furthermore, the film only ever lightly touches on the intriguing personal identity issues that come with being raised as something that one is not. Fortunately, the infected warrior is a curious enough character with his resilience in the face of impending death that the film still chugs along well. It is also refreshing to see an animated fantasy film that dares to show graphic carnage in order further the story-line. If not quite as dark and impressively nightmarish as 'Watership Down', this Japanese offering certainly comes close to it. In short, this is a relatively engrossing tale if not nearly the best thing that Miyazaki has ever done.