Lovely but not for everyone..

Rating: 4/10 (9 May 2001)

I don't understand what all the commotion is about with this film.. Yes, it is beautiful to look at and has great characters and artistry, but it's so hard to follow! It suffers the same deadfall that many, perhaps MOST anime films do.. The plot is just too confusing. It starts out ok, even the middle of the film is engaging, but by the end of it there is utter confusion: Too many characters fighting for too many different reasons. I am even a science major, an adult, and an animation connoisseur, and this film stumps me. There are all of these different parties going after the forest spirit, but also fighting eachother. The forest spirit is ambiguous itself, friendly one moment, and then dangerous when its head is cut off. Warriors want to keep the head as a trophy, so they're stirring up trouble for everyone. There are the metal workers who are doing their own thing but inadvertently creating demons when animals get shot. Sometimes. Depending on the species of animal which is infected with the bullet. I think. Then you have the boar people who are fighting everybody and trying to protect the forest.. And the princess and the wolves, who are really aloof and not on anybody's side. And then there's Ashitaka, who is mixed up with all of them and has the demon infection himself and wants to find a cure. And we have to hurry up and reunite the forest spirit with its severed head, or we're all doomed.
Get all that? Lovely artwork from the characters to the landscape to the action... Breathtaking scenery and mysticism, but a little too muddled to come off triumphant. This film would be excellent if it were more explanatory, or just had its plot streamlined a bit. Anime fans may get it, but I think the average American viewer will be up the creek without a paddle. Or maybe on the shore WITH a paddle. Anyway, I'm getting dizzy just trying to sort it out. A for effort, though..