Really amazing fantasy.

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2002)

It's really interesting. Princess Mononoke was so amazing that it forced me to seek out and see as many of Miyazaki's other films as I could get my hands on. This wasn't as easy as it sounds, since even though Disney owns the American distribution rights to all his earlier Studio Gibli works, they keep not releasing most of them. However, after watching a number of his films, I really came to love and appreciate what Miyazaki does as a film maker, and to really be in awe of his talent and mastery of dramatic story telling. I awaited this film's release in the U.S. with much anticipation, and I got the chance to see it last night at an advance screening here in L.A. I wasn't disappointed. There are many review on here, so I'm not going to go into plot details, but I'd like to say, in response to some other user comments that I didn't find the story structure episodic at all, but rather extremely tightly crafted, with not a wasted beat. Everything was setup and paid off beautifully, and the story structure blossomed like a flower. We were transported deeper and deeper into this beautiful universe out of Miyazaki's imagination, and allowed to see such amazing things. I was particularly moved by both the polluted river and the train transporting dead souls. Both poetic anthropomorphisms were subtly expressed, and masterfully expressed. Ten out of ten. One of the best films I've seen in awhile.