"Princess Mononoke" - Wondrous, Magical, Mystical Storytelling

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2005)

"Princess Mononoke" is Japanese animation at its peak. It's full of dazzling visual delights, kinetic action, magic, mysticism, epic-level storytelling, and it is frankly quite difficult to not get swept up in it all. It made me laugh, it made me cringe, it scared me, and it moved me and it touched me, deeply. This is one of the most thematically deep and touching animated pictures I've ever seen. Lastly, it's also one of the most violent.
Now I don't mean "Princess Mononoke" is violent in the same sense most Anime' is. This is not a 134-minute gorefest; it's "PG-13," for crying out loud! But yes, people do get impaled, shot with arrows and bullets, forest animals transmute into swirling masses of life-sucking snakes and the blood does flow, but it is all done in a fashion that drives home the point of man's eternal conflict with nature.
It helps to realize that Japanese animation is a lot more complex and daring than American animation cinema. The Japanese animators put forth enormous effort and strive for absolute perfection in their cinema, which places it on a level that will never be reached here in the United States.
With that said, director Hayao Miyazaki, who is one of the most revered animators not just in Japan, but in the whole world, personally saw to it that "Princess Mononoke" made a successful transition from the drawing board, to the big screen, and finally to Japanese and American audiences. And in relaying "Princess Mononoke's" epic vision of man's conflict with nature to American audiences, comic book artist Neil Gaiman wrote the English script, and a fine cast of talented actors were brought in to voice the characters. Of course I'm talking about Billy Crudup, Gillian Anderson, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith, Keith David, and Billy Bob Thornton.
Set in medieval Japan, the film opens (after a lengthy narration by David) at a small village that's fallen under attack from a mysterious creature that emerged from the dense forest outside its borders. The daring and heroic Ashitaka (Crudup) takes on the animal, a giant boar amassed by hideous snake-like creatures. It's defeated but in doing so, however, Ashitaka is wounded - his right arm badly scarred.
The wise woman in his village reveals to him that he's fallen under a curse as a result of his battle with the boar. The boar, which was once a forest god, had been transformed into a demon as the result of being wounded by an iron bullet found in its skeletal remains; the bullet then drove the boar mad, sending it on a killing spree throughout the forest. And because he had fallen to the creature's curse, Ashitaka is forced to cut his top-knot and leave the village forever. His journey: to venture to a far off place in an attempt to find a cure for his curse.
Accompanied by his loyal elk-like steed Yakkuru, he goes off. He stumbles onto Iron Town, a mostly female-run colony that serves as an iron processing station, and it's run by Lady Eboshi (Driver), who has a sort of trustful mother-like relationship with the women workers (many of whom are mostly former prostitutes) and an uneasy alliance with the male workers.
Lady Eboshi is a strong and determined female, the likes of which is rarely seen in Japanese animation. She has surrounded herself with loyal workers that she treats with the utmost respect, and she commands enormous respect too. I really like Miyazaki's treatment of her character, and a great amount of admiration can also be laid upon one of her most trusted women - Toki (Smith).
But Lady Eboshi is at war with the forest gods, in particular the wolf clan (which is headed by Moro - voiced by Anderson - and her adopted human daughter San - voiced by Danes) and the boar gods roaming outside the colony's gates. Her iron works is destroying the forest and the gods living there are angry. Lady Eboshi thinks it will all end if she is able to capture the head of the Forest Spirit, the spectral entity rumored to control all life in the woods where most of this conflict is taking place, and she aims to do it with the help of a lowly hunter named Jigo (Thornton), whom Ashitaka had encountered earlier on his journey to the colony.
"Princess Mononoke" is a wondrous achievement in animation. It's breathtaking, with an amazing story about the rise of technology, man's embracing of it, and the war it surely enough started with nature. "Princess Mononoke" carries the same weighted messages you might find at any ecological protest here in the U.S. but it's done in such an even-handed and fantastical fashion that you can't help but be taken in.
The animation is flawless, as I read Miyazaki personally redrew over 20,000 cells. The voice actors do a tremendous job of translating Miyazaki's words and relaying it to us for consumption and comprehension. I first saw this film back during the summer of 2001 and I easily remember the feelings I had when I viewed it. It was one of the most stunningly realized animated pieces I'd ever seen, as it made me understand the true power of animation, in any form.
It's one of my top favorite Anime' films, as Miyazaki would surpass it in 2002 with his superior epic "Spirited Away," which rightfully earned the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Hayao Miyazaki is currently one of the greatest animators, as he has made one of the most beloved Anime' films of all time. It's my thoughtful prediction that one day he'll make a superior animation piece that could be the one to top them all off...
10/10