La princesa Mononoke

Im a Big fan of Miyazaki... This movie is Definitely in his top 3...

Princess Mononoke's story is very in depth and it grabs your attention. Time after time. You may have to watch it a couple times to catch everything but you will fall in love with the characters and story every time you sit down to watch it

As for the art... Its Visually stunning yet again. Everything is depicted so well in Miyazaki's artwork from the humans to the Forest gods and everything in between

this definitely worth watching.

And if you like it you should definitely check out some of his others like Castle In The Sky, Howls Moving Castle and Spirited Away

This seems to be Miyazake's most personal work, clearly a serious design. It is set in an imaginary time which blends the time of the ancient gods (Shinto style, gods of place and nature) with the settlement of humans and the coming of metalworking and war. The world is not in balance, and a distant conflict between industry and nature has wounded one of the gods of the forest, which is then killed by a sentry boy as it rampages into farmland he guards. The evil controlling it transfers to him, beginning a slow takeover, and he must journey to the origin of the conflict to find a way to cure himself and incidentally, as he will learn, to try to restore balance. But this is not a simplistic tale, he finds there are other characters in play, and there is good and evil in everyone, and no easy balance. The Princess (Hime) of the story is a mysterious human who has been raised by wolves (which are themselves powerful forest gods, a little reminiscent of the Amerindian Coyote myth), who becomes both his ally and his enemy. The story is not easy to understand. It has many Japanese mythic elements but even then, it is a work of Miyazake's unique imagination, and is not intended to be simple or to have a clean resolution.

The animation is spectacular, and unusual, with new elements even for Miyazake and marks a new departure for style which you can see continued in his next film, Sen to Chihiro - more nature, more wild, more jamming on elements from Japanese myth and folklore. And, continuing the trend to be more personal, concerned with ethics and character, and less sci-fi. There are at least half a dozen well developed characters threaded through the story, and their animation is wonderful in displaying subtle character.

The original Japanese soundtrack has some amazing singing and draws upon some of the best talent available for voices - in Japan, Miyazake is universally known and this was a masterpiece carefully crafted. Japanese television documented a lot of the production. The English translation drew on some good talent but they seem not to have "gotten it" quite so intensely as the Japanese crew.

If you haven't seen Miyazake, give it a try (but maybe look at Sen to Chihiro first, or even Laputa or Kiki's Delivery Service, for easier and lighter introduction to his work). Some say he is the Japanese Disney, but I don't like that. His work has a depth and sophistication that goes beyond Disney cute. There is no other animation like it. This is truly an adult work: children might like some of the visuals, but I doubt that many kids below teen age will have any idea what it is all about, and even adults will get more out of this each time you see it again.

Fantastic film! It makes me speechlessly. Good dialogs, beautiful soundtrack,incredible animation effects (take a look at the rain, at the movement of the grass, hear the sounds of the steps) and interesting characters,who are everything but ordinary. Ashitaka is captivating (what a strength, what a heart, what a soul!); San (the Princess Mononoke herself) is intriguing; and Lady Eboshi is ambiguous -is she the villain? I don't think so. After all, who can blame her? Don't let the over exploration of themes related to ecology discourage you. Go ahead and watch Mononoke. It's a totally new way of treating the conflict between men and nature, which is far from its ending. Definitely, a jewel among the predictable animations of Disney and Pixar's also predictable jokes. There are no jokes here. TAKE A LOOK AT IT!

The first time I saw Princess Mononoke I was completely moved and surprised. Since it was a Studio Ghibli film dubbed by Disney I liked the fact that it wasn't a "they all lived naively ever after" film. There were no complete "good" or "bad" guys. Even Lady Eboshi the most antagonist character in the movie had a reasonable motive for trying to get rid of the animal gods and cutting down the forest. Although it her actions were environmentally damaging and wrong in general, she did it to help her people survive which is what all the species on Earth strive for. Another wonderful aspect of the plot is that it sends a message - Protect the Earth and all will survive in peace - a message either discreetly or strongly portrayed in many of Miyazaki's films. Perhaps the portrayal of this message (and the tiny hint of San and Ashitaka's romance and Moro's views on nature) was what made the film so touching to me.

Like many Miyazaki movies, the animation (as always) is wonderful and nicely detailed which is also another quality that genuine Disney films lack (thank goodness for Studio Ghibli). The music was beautiful and well suited to the movie.

The only predicament to the movie is that it is a bit downbeat and does not contain much happy laughter (oh well, I can watch My Neighbor Totoro - also a good movie - for happy laughter.).

10/10 - And my favourite movie of all time.

Princess Mononoke is one of the best animated movies I have seen in a long time, and is up there with Studio Ghibli's best along with Spirited Away. I will say I am probably biased, as I am a huge Studio Ghibli fan, and love all of their films, I even like Cat Returns, which along with PomPoko is considered as one of the weaker Ghibli efforts. The animation in Princess Mononoke is absolutely stunning, with rich detailed backgrounds and brilliant character animation. The image of the Stag actually made my jaw drop. The music is fantastic as well, and although environmentalism is a subject matter very difficult to get right, what the filmmakers succeeded in doing was making a highly intriguing story that was not only original but succeeded in not being preachy at all. The film is also helped by the high calibre vocal talents of Minnie Driver, Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thornton et al (voicing quite remarkable characters) and a strong script. True, some of the images like the Demon Worm, may frighten younger viewers, but it is fair to say they were very powerful. All in all, Princess Mononoke is breathtaking and I recommend it highly. 10/10 Bethany Cox