Miyazaki's first true masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2008)

In an ancient Japan, at a time when Gods and demons walked the earth, a young prince Ashitaka defends his village from a furious demon. Ashitaka slays the beast, but is cursed to suffer an early death. His only hope is to travel to a forest where the Great Spirit is said to dwell. As Ashitaka approaches his destination, he gets in the middle of a war. On the other side is an iron town, lead by Lady Eboshi, who wants to expand their town and live in peace of the beasts. On the other side are the Gods and animals of the forest, who also want to protect their homes. In the forest lives also San, a young girl raised by wolves, who fights for the forest and is after Lady Eboshi. While trying to find a cure for himself, Ashitaka also tries to put a stop to war that will have no winners. But how does a cunning monk Jiko fit in this picture?
"Princess Mononoke" (Mononoke-hime, 1997) is maestro Hayao Miyazaki's first true masterpiece. I'm not saying his previous movies would be bad; on the contrary, you can read my reviews of them and know I love them. However, "Princess Mononoke", as well as Miyazaki's later film "Spirited Away", reaches a whole new heights. In this film, Miyazaki returns back to his anti-war and protect the nature themes that he already had in "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". Especially the mindlessness of the war is well shown in this film. Miyazaki has avoided the cliché situation that on the other side are good guys and on the other bad guys. Both sides have their reasons to get rid of the other one. Both are good guys because they protect their homes and communities, but both are also bad guys: iron town wants to destroy the forest and the beasts want to kill humans. By making Ashitaka, an outsider, the main character we are able to see the war also as an outsider's point of view. We understand the reasons behind both sides, but we can also see that this war will not bring a happy ending to either of the sides.
The first time I saw this film I was truly awed. Still at the time being relatively unfamiliar to Miyazaki's works there was nothing that could have prepared me for this. Visually this film is so much more powerful than anything I have seen from Disney or in any other western animation (or in most of Japanese animations for that matter!). The only animations to come to same level with such detailed designs and visual awesomeness are Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" and Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira" (both also from Japan). And what would Miyazaki movie be without the music of Joe Hisaishi. From the epic opening score to the beautiful theme song, Hisaishi offers only the best.
It should also be mentioned that "Princess Mononoke" has a surprisingly good English dub. I usually prefer original Japanese audios, often finding dubs either lacking or going over board. Only few times do I find dub to be as great as the original audio (anime series "Fullmetal Alchemist" is one of these cases). In "Mononoke" the English lines are written by Neil Gaiman, author of the books "Stardust" and "Neverwhere". This might explain why "Mononoke" is the only case when I found the dub even better than the original audio. This has never happened before or later to me. Japanese audio is by no means bad, but talented dubbing cast (including Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Billy Bob-Thornton) seem to bring just a little bit more life to it.
"Princess Mononoke" is an awesome movie, both visually and as a story telling. It has great characters, meaningful story, beautiful score and sequences that make your jaw drop. To me only "Spirited Away" tops this as the best Hayao Miyazaki film.
NOTICE: unlike other Miyazaki films, this can not be recommended to the smallest of the family. Some scenes during the battles are rather graphic.