Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke is one of the films that made anime popular. It utilized the abilities of animations to create worlds of fantasies perfectly. The story is set around the Iron Age, where man and beasts fought against each other. The main character is Ashitaka, the last prince of his people. His village was attacked by a demon, a boar driven mad by the weapons of man and he was cursed when he touched the beast. He left his village to search for a cure, and “to see with eyes unclouded” the hatred that created the demon.

Storywise, Princess Mononoke managed to develop the characters perfectly. The storyline might sound cliche, but it still made the characters real enough for the audience to feel for them. As expected from a Hayao Miyazaki film, the story wouldn’t have seem out of place as a Disney film. (without the violence…hmmm…on second thought that’s quite impossible)

Graphically, Princess Mononoke is one of the best anime movie I’ve ever watched. The animations were Disney-standards, something that many other films have tried to match. (Titan AE for example) In fact the US distributor is actually Disney itself. (Studio Ghibli was the producer, Disney only did the english dub) The colours are rich and as usual, a mixture of cell-shaded characters with painted background is used to great effect.

The version I’ve got is the US dub. Princess Mononoke gets my vote for the best english dub I’ve ever heard. I do not know if the animation was redone for the dub, but the lip-sync is perfect! Never once throughout the movie did I feel that the characters were talking without moving their mouths or vice versa. I had to check AnimeNFO.com just to confirm that Princess Mononoke was not made in english…

Princess Mononoke is one of the movies that realy got me into the story. The director, Hayao Miyazaki, is one of the leading anime producers in the world. His other words include Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro. (my next watch)

Final Score:
9.8/10