Japanese blockbuster, Disney doesn't know what they bought.

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 1999)

Buena Vista purchased this movie sight-unseen two years ago, as part of a bulk deal for all of Miyazaki-san's work. I worked with a small team to translate and subtitle the film a year and a half ago off the import laserdisc (a fortuitous move, since Miramax has continuously pushed the release date back).
Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke, The Spirit Princess) is far deeper than what Disney usually produces in terms of plot and concept. The art is, of course, breathtaking, but the storyline is also tremendously involved and can be viewed on many levels. Miyazaki-san sourced 150+ books in creating the screenplay, which involves characters from feudal Japan coming to terms with changing technology and their relationship to the natural world. The movie is also quite disturbing in many places, as man clashes with nature with catastrophic consequences.
Mononoke Hime chronicles the story of a young man, Ashitaka, who leaves his village in the north to seek a cure for an evil that has infected him. He follows the hero quest, as set forth in The Odyssey, and meets San, the title character. He falls in love, yet the story is not a simple romance. San was raised by mountain dogs in the forest of the Shishigami, the animal God Ashitaka is questing for, and she is determined to protect her home from the encroaching humans.
The movie is very powerful and extremely well done, some might say technically perfect. The artwork is phenomenal (Disney has had their animators studying Miyazaki's earlier films for several years) and the music is breathtaking. It should be very interesting to see how the film fares in domestic theaters.