As much as an animated adventure it is a beautifully realized fantasy, more richly imagined, dramatically compelling, artful and mythic than George Lucas's cinematic Happy Meal from last summer. This one has stars, wars, phantoms and menace, but assembled to create an exciting story rather than a shopping list. And, best of all, no Jar Jar. From a startlingly vivid opening image of Ashitaka riding his red elk through sun-dappled woods and the early attack of a giant boar perpetually consumed, as if in flames, by teeming worms that shift their shape from careening beast to sinister insect, the imagery is gorgeous and vital. His creations are expressive but never cute, and sometimes downright majestic, as well as so precise in even the most miniscule detail that a big-screen viewing is a must.
Tomorrow Never Dies .
At least that film had a formidable Bond femme in Hong Kong's Michelle Yeoh, who seemed to have a greater grasp of English than this film's vacuous Denise Richards as Nuclear Physicist Barbie. Vying for Bond's attention is the slightly more competent but still lightweight Sophie Marceau. Robert Carlyle, a terrorist with a bullet in his brain that severs sensory connections as it slowly kills him, could have made for a playfully menacing reflection of Bondian cool, but Carlyle is underused and Pierce Brosnan doesn't have the necessary Connery-bonded edge to make it pay off. Still stuck in sluggish, overstuffed Roger Moore mode, the series needs to get lean and mean again. Put in a call to Russell Crowe, get back to basics, and renew the nearly expired license to thrill of this 003 on the 007 scale.