Princess Mononoke

Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god," transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature.

Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. Recommended for ages 12 and older. --Sam Sutherland

The video and audio quality is the sort that you would use to show off your new home theater system. In fact, I found the Japanese soundtrack to be richer and better dynamically balanced than the English track (!). Disney/Miramax really took advantage of the format by including BOTH the Japanese and English opening titles and credits -- they are automatically selected depending on your choice of language via an angle switch. Transparent and ingenious. There are two sets of subtitles -- one for the English track, and the other is the literal translation of the Japanese (since some liberties were taken in creating the English script).

Disney was originally going to release "Mononoke Hime" without the original language track, which created an outrage among anime fans (who, myself included, signed a massive internet petition which eventually turned the tide). I applaud this decision, as well as the splendid attention to detail. It has made this incredible movie an even better value.


Poor voice acting (dubbing), no Dolby 5.1   March 21, 2000
113 out of 170 found this review helpful

The movie itself, certainly in its original Japanese form, gets 5 stars in my mind. But this version is sub-par: the only Dolby encoding listed as of this review is 2.0(! ), and the voice acting involved in the English dubbing, as well as a lot of the script "translation", is horrific. Whoever was in charge of casting, and more specifically casting Billy Bob Thornton and Jada Pinkett Smith should lose that day job in a hurry; the southern drawl and South-Central L.A. accents invading the old-Japan setting of the movie are an assault to the ears and stomach. The only redeeming voice in the bunch belongs to the wonderful Minnie Driver, in her equally wonderful performance as Lady Eboshi. The English translation of the script is also a joke. It takes several creative liberties with the original story, with the laughable excuse of making it more "palatable" to North American audience tastes, which does Miyazaki's work a disservice and is an outright insult to intelligence. The greatest gift DVD fans of this movie can get is an original Japanese version of the movie with sub-titles available as an option, recorded in Dolby Surround 5.1.