bavski-knovril

Most of my male anime-fanatic friends avoid this film like the plague because it has the word 'princess' in the title, urging connotations of pink jewelled wands and plastic long-haired horses. If this applies to you take note:

-It's about a girl who was brought up by giant wolves and spends every waking hour coming up with plots to savagely kill her nemesis.

-The other main character, Ashitaka, kills a giant demon-boar thing and his arm gets possessed by the evil from given off by the demon which will ultimately consume his whole body and kill him, but gives him a sort of super-power until then which causes the arrows he shoots to dismember almost everyone they hit.

-At one point in the film there is a blind boar the size of a house who's thirst for human blood is not extinguished even when he is pouring his own blood out of every orifice.

Knucklehead appeal aside, by the end of this movie you will probably empathise with many of the lead characters - Mononoke: the savage wolf-girl, Ashitaka: the demon-possessed country bumpkin with a heart of gold, and even Eboshi: the woman who shoots iron bullets at everything that moves, but who hides a soft spot for lepers...

Oh, and the visuals are beautiful, and Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack is awe-inspiring. Highly recommended

The cultural mismatch between the cats and Haru provide some moments of pure laugh-out-loud comedy lacking in some of the more popular Ghibli films such as Nausicaa and Mononoke.

The fact that the film is compact gives it a fast-paced feel which makes the audience feel swept of their feet, as the lead character Haru literally is during the film. Unlinke Totoro, there is no danger of falling asleep due to this movie. Although not quite as grand as the bath-house in Spirited Away, the kingdom of cats does have a truly cat-like feel and the lack of fanfare and fireworks does feel more like the kind of understated, laid-back welcome that a cat might offer.

Rather than a chronological 'sequal' to Whisper of the Heart, it almost feels like this film could have been based upon a novel written by the character Shizuku from from the earlier film, bringing the cat-statue Baron to life.

Overall: a film with a youthful charm which kept me smiling long after it had ended.