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Princess Mononoke

Al Gore, eat your heart out. Hayao Miyazaki has outdone you. The world’s destruction is actually the fault of one greedy animated individual, not global warming. “Princess Mononoke” is the tale of a young boy out to rid himself of a curse befallen him, a direct result of the destruction of the natural world and the entities which inhabit it. Before his recent surge in popularity the past few years, Miyazaki’s films were unknown outside Japan and the anime world. This film, which is blessed with quality acting talent from the likes of Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton, Claire Danes and Billy Crudup, was his first to grace the American big screen, thrusting him onto the critical radar and paving the way for his eventual recognition, a.k.a the Oscar win, which this reviewer simply can’t speak highly enough of. Mononoke follows a beloved concept also touched upon in Miyazaki’s first feature film “Nausicaa”: the struggle between man and nature. It’s not a solitary man against any one terrain, but all men, and their incontrollable desire for more resources, a greed which sucks the planet dry for the other, more populous forms of life. And we get to witness firsthand what happens when nature decides to fight back.

The film follows Ashitaka (Crudup), a prince from a faraway land who becomes stricken with a curse destined to eat through his body. He leaves the land in search of the cure, following the original path of the curse, out west toward the more civilized, industrial towns. He encounters a dual-struggle. Lady Eboshi (Driver) runs Irontown, a sprawling medieval metropolis chopping down the forest and digging into the ground in order to expand. Her latest campaign is to destroy the spirit of the forest, a god-like figure who takes the form of a deer when in the forest. Eboshi is currently facing opposition from Princess Mononoke (Daines) and her wolf family, lead by her surrogate mother XXX (Anderson). Mononoke and XXX want to stop Eboshi from destroying the forest before all the inhabitants die out. Ashitaka drops in literally in the middle of it all, and becomes a mediator of sorts, siding with Mononoke at first but understanding Eboshi’s dream for a bigger, brighter world for humanity. You see, we haven’t actually reached the point of no return like we are facing today, in the film; expansion is just beginning and thus understandable.

I’m not ashamed to say I am envious of Miyazaki’s storytelling ability. He cuts out real emotions, real stories, and infuses them into his characters like a first heartbeat. The film is a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally; you’ll want to enjoy the great outdoors for as long as possible after watching the utter catastrophe humanity places on the planet. The voice acting is solid, with the only exception being the solitary fact that Claire Danes comes across as a real princess’ princess, not a down-and-dirty, rugged princess of the forest who sleeps in the dirt with wolves. But hers is forgivable since she does enough to blend in well with the rest of the cast. She adds just enough flair, like all the other actors, to complement the animation. Many people have said, and I thoroughly agree, that Miyazaki’s films are not animation. Animation is simply the format to which his stories take, but ultimately they are true pieces of art, like the golden days of cinema that portrayed real stories that elicit emotion from those who take part. He is a dying breed of filmmaker, and we are certainly lucky to have him and his wonderful films.

Written by: Jason Villemez

Reviewers Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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