Review by newsuneed

Everyone says this is great, but meh. It's a cartoon about mysticism and spirit-wolves and gods and demons and ancient gods of the wilderness and a heroic quest.

The animation is very well done indeed, apart from the anime-standard big-eyed look, which always reminds me of Margaret Keane or Precious Moments or "Go, Speed Racer, go!"

It's a Japanese cartoon, dubbed into English with major league American actors including Billy Crudup and Minnie Driver and Claire Danes, but the voice work sounds like a first table-read.

The original Japanese voices, subtitled, must've been better, but between the big eyes and the spirit-wolves there's no way I'm subjecting myself to another two hours of this, in any language.

If you can get past the big eyes - obviously, I couldn't - it's visually a great movie, but I'm reminded of something my wife said several times: If the reviews keep telling you a movie *looks terrific, and that's all they can say, it means the story sucks." Unless the movie is Koyaanisqatsi, the story is what matters, and the story in Princess Mononoke is boring.