Princess Mononoke - Reaction

[Japan]

An epic, masterful animated film by Miyazaki. It's a fanciful, memorable film with a mythic story involving men literally trying to kill the old gods (who represent nature). In particular, the hero finds himself in the middle of a war between a mining and gun building colony (i.e., humans and technology) and the creatures of the forest (i.e., nature). The hero is overflowing with compassion. He attempts to save everybody, on every side of each battle.

Everything in the film is richly alive and imagined. The creatures are visually (and conceptually) inventive and stunning. In addition, some vistas are tremendously beautiful.

The movie is slow in short segments, perhaps because it occasionally conveys information through exposition, not action. Nevertheless, the movie is usually quite exciting. Indeed, the climax involves multiple scenes and lasts thirty minutes. I kept thinking each scene was going to be the last. I was wrong multiple times. Note, however, the movie continuing was natural; I wasn't disappointed by or frustrated by the length of the conclusion.

The film explores some of the same themes as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds, such as the importance of living in harmony with nature / old gods. Making an interesting statement, the film presents no easy/clean resolution. Also like Nausicaä, this film has strong female characters. One new theme explored here is prejudice. The film shows how prejudice, which can lead to hatred, can literally possess someone.

The subtitles in the version I watched almost went by too fast to read at times.

Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, has a great quote about the movie:

"We are presented with a haunting, even unsettling magical mystery milieu of frustrated gods, angry spirits and overmatched humans in which images of startling beauty alternate with violent acts and nightmarish terrors as if that were the most natural thing in the world."

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000406-161,0,7199564.story

Neil Gaiman has some interesting thoughts on the movie (1, 2, 3). He was involved because he wrote the English translation of the script. As I watched the Japanese DVD with English subtitles, I don't think I saw any of his work.