Perhaps one of the most captivating Japanese animations

Rating: 10/10 (8 September 2006)

'Mononoke-hime' or 'Princess Mononoke', as the translated title goes, tells the old fable of how men cannot live in harmony with their surroundings. Instead of trying to adjust themselves to their surroundings they selfishly try to adjust the surroundings to their needs, in this case the people of Iron Town try to defeat the Forest Spirit, the guardian of the great forest, who is standing in their way in mining out precious iron from the depths of the earth.
Prince Ashitaka defeats a wild boar demon near his home village, but in doing so he's injured and the wound casts a cures upon him that will devour him in the end. Thus he is banished from his people and he begins to seek the great Forest Spirit in order to get cured. On his journeys he befriends whit the people of Iron Town and he sets up on another mission as well: to try to get the people and the forest to live together in harmony.
The animation and music is just wonderful. The scenery and characters work perfectly and the tempo of the film is almost perfectly balanced between calm moments and action. I haven't seen the original with Japanese voice actors, but I quite liked the English voice cast. At least they sounded like they were interested in doing their jobs and they did it quite nicely.
'Princess Mononoke' is a rare gem of animation, aimed towards a bit more mature audience than your average Dinsey films, that while keeps you thrilled whit the beautiful writing and well fleshed out characters, it also gives you something to think about. It can be seen as a statement of how industrialization is good for people in the short term, but how it will eventually turn the surroundings around us, thus destroying the legacy of later generations to come.
While many other animations will wither in time, I'm sure that 'Princess Mononoke' will be remembered as one of the classics of animation throughout the time.