A brilliant animation

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2008)

I'd heard good things about this film before seeing it and was not disappointed. The animation and story are excellent as one would expect from a Hayao Miyazaki film. Be warned however that this film isn't as gentle as his other films, we see several people having their heads and limbs removed although this is not shown in graphic close-up.
I liked the fact that the conflict between the villagers and the forest creatures wasn't depicted as a clear cut case of good versus bad and like most of Miyazaki's films it has strong female characters that are neither damsels in distress nor trying to marry their Prince Charming like many western animated heroines.
The film opens with a possessed giant boar thundering out of the forest and attacking a village. The boar is slain by Prince Ashitake but not before it wounds him. He is told that the found is part of a curse that will ultimately kill him if he doesn't leave his village and seek out the Deer God in forests far to the west.
When he gets there he finds the forest creatures in conflict with the inhabitants of a village who are clearing areas of forest to find ore for their iron works. It turns out that Lady Eboshi, the leader of the village, had fired the shot that had caused the boar to be cursed. She is not a typical film villain though as she is very protective of her village and employs former prostitutes and lepers who wouldn't be treated so well elsewhere.
Fighting against her is San (Princess Mononoke) a girl that has been raised by the Wolf goddess Moro in the forest and despises humans, and various forest creatures. When she attacks the iron works in a plan to kill Lady Eboshi, Ashitake intervenes to stop them killing each other. As he is taking San out of the village he is seriously wounded but she takes him to the deer god who cures this wound but not the curse.
As well as these protagonist there is Jigo who has been employed my the emperor to bring back the head of the deer god as he believe it will give him the power over life and death.
I can't comment on the quality of the English dubbing as I've only watched the subtitled version so far.