Like an acquaintance's b-day party, I enjoyed this one without feeling overly passionate about it.
In fact, I really wish this movie had been 'Princess Mononoke' and not what it was, because it would've been fascinating to watch a movie based on an enigmatic young woman who leaves her people to live with Gods and spirits in nature.
The film should have instead been called "Prince Ashitaka", because he's the true focus of this fantasy anime. The well-written story follows his hero's journey from his lost natal village to the magical forest where he fights both natural and supernatural monsters.
The animation is fantastic, the editing is on point and the arc of the film is satisfying, I just didn't find myself mentally cheering for the good guys to win and praying for the bad guys to lose.
Literally my favorite movie. I first saw it when I was 10 and have loved it ever since. I love it's environmentalist message and gives me greater pause to consider our effects on the earth we live on. It has, in my opinion, only gotten more relevant in time, especially in light of the recent election here in the US. It makes me work on striving to see with eyes unclouded by hate even when the horrors of the world make it hard to do so. I see something I didn't notice before each time I watch it. It is simply a masterpiece.
this is one of the movies that I've been planing to watch since forever ago
and now that I've finally watched it im a little annoyed for not watching this masterpiece so long ago
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Princess Mononoke’:
Is this not practically the same storyline as Avatar? I wouldn’t be surprised if Cameron found inspiration here.
The little tree spirit Kodamas were kinda eerie but super cute. And the fact that they had buttcheeks inspired a chuckle or two.
I dunno, y’all… I know this is beloved… I am understandably in the minority here… I can respect the art, the symbolism and the message… but this type of storytelling is just not my cup of tea. It just all feels a bit convoluted, there’s soooo much going on, characters are not fully fleshed out. And it’s all simply too fantastical for me to become invested enough to care.
I absolutely love studio Ghibli movies and I thought I'd seen all the best ones. This is by far a masterpiece and as of now my favorite Ghibli film. I've put off watching this movie for far too long and when I watched it today I was shook by how incredible it is. If you're thinking about watching it- watch it immediately ASAP!
In "Princess Mononoke," Miyazaki crafts a mesmerizing symphony of visual splendor and thought-provoking themes, which, in my estimation, is one of the finest examples of animated cinema. The film's narrative, though set in the realm of fantasy, explores profoundly real issues - the struggle between industrialization and nature, the complexity of morality, the price of progress. It transcends the typical 'good versus evil' dichotomy, instead presenting characters with depth and ambiguity, all with their motivations and flaws. The animation is breathtaking, with each frame bearing the painstaking attention to detail characteristic of Studio Ghibli's work, creating an immersive world that's as enchanting as it is perilous. The orchestral score by Joe Hisaishi complements the film's tone beautifully, with its haunting melodies underscoring the moments of joy and sorrow. "Princess Mononoke" is not just an animation - it's a philosophical and ecological epic that challenges and inspires, leaving an indelible impression.
Gods and demons, wolves and boars, cute little bobble head spirits, some blood and gore, a shit ton of talking animals and an outcast Pokahontas princess. Princess Mononoke delivers a good adventure but... compared to Nausicaä, Nausicaä takes the cake! They share themes on environmentalism, strong female leads and impressive world-building but all of these aspects are done better in Nausicaä.
The biggest drawback for me is the characters: Nausicaä has one strong main character that drives the whole movie while Mononoke has two main characters but they feel diluted. Ashitaka isn't very interesting as a character and Mononoke feels underdevelopped and isn't central enough. I wanted more of her story or a flashback or something. I had a hard time connecting to any of the two and because of that, the romantic aspect is lessened.
For a movie that's considered a masterpiece by most, i'm surprised to see how simple and by the book the story is. It doesn't necessarily bring anything exceptional. The ending even more so. I feel like I never got used to the talking animals, i've hardly ever had that problem before but for some reason it was a complete turn-off here. It felt so jarring when the wolf started talking, it could be considered a twist because hell that surprised me. I think it clashed too much with the serious tone of everything prior to the wolf talking.
Brilliant score, beautiful animation, imaginative creatures and mythos, love the more mature tone compared to other Ghibli films. A good watch overall, it just doesn't live up to the acclaim this movie has.
Great visuals, a decent plot, and nothing extraordinary to offer contrary to popular belief..
I like it, but it's not my favorite anime by a long shot. I like it more than Spirited Away for example, but I don't think it's as good as Your Name (I know, that is a completely different kind of movie, but still...). The story is fun and still relevant in 2023, but I found it a bit too long. I like the characters, their fun and weird. It did bug me that (it looked like) they didn't bother to animate the talking gods at some points. It felt like there was another character speaking off screen a few times, which really took me out of the experience. All in all, fun movie.
Animations provide such a brilliant vehicle for storytelling. It's untethered by the limitations of reality. You see Studio Ghibli's works and you'd realize how even adult themes can also work in the form if presented well.
This is my second Studio Ghibli movie, the first being Spirited Away (2001). In a sense, you may think that in 1997, Miyazaki was already writing on the themes of Avatar, the 2009 film.
It's 14th-century Japan. The spirits are real and so is humankind's greed. There is a power struggle between the forest spirit and the lady of the iron town. Our protagonist, exiled from his clan, is engulfed in this power struggle unwittingly.
There is violence so this is not a kid's movie. Miyazaki goes to one of the oldest power struggles. It is in a way a struggle between eastern and western thought. Enterprises and profiteering vs communal living and harmony. Unfortunately, greed has survived and we no longer see the spirits among us. Call it magical realism if you may, but Miyazaki's spirits are relatable. You fall for their simplicity and crave to wind the clocks back to the 14th century. It is perplexing that almost everyone would feel for the forest spirits without realizing or conveniently ignoring that they represent the iron town. The incessant march of capitalism will ruin us all.
In a way this an old story. It was probably old even in 1997. Still, in 2023, it had a lot to offer. When you conduct an experiment and plot data points on a graph, there are some which are outliers. Sometimes your experiment execution is wrong and sometimes the points are wrong. Movies like these are the outliers on our entertainment spectrum. They tell you which direction is right. Depending on how far away your graph is from them, you know how much of a correction you still need to do.
Great music that amazingly builds the atmosphere of this fairy tale about maintaining a balance in the development of civilization.
I appreciate "Princess Mononoke" from a singular point of view. In medieval Japan, it was the female chieftain Eboshi who saved the minds and bodies of leprosy patients who had been discriminated against. She appears to be a bloodless, evil woman, but she is really a woman unlike any other woman in modern Japan, adored and respected by the men, and yet she controls the entire organization, which could be called a gang. She overcomes the old stereotype of women as dirty. Although only San stands out, she is also a fine leading lady.
My favorite Miyazaki film. Simple stunning! Love the characters and the story.
my fav ghibli movie ever, such a masterpiece :sob::sob::sob:
Beautifully unique, well-crafted film about the importance of nature and harmony in this world. A grandeur experience, paired with neat animation and beautiful visuals.
Moro is my current infatuation from this movie and my profile pic (more like GIF) says it all <3
Well and I do love wolves in general but....
I found this movie really interesting, but difficult. Maybe it is due to my western education. It is very different from Disney movies. This is an animated film for all family because its subject is greater than a simple story, it talks about life, human relationships and our relationship with nature. Characters are very complex. There are no true villains or so I understood.
If there is a reason this movie is legendary, I must have taken a very wrong turn.
I'm sorry, but the story is just boring. A deer God? Demon boars? Really?
I didn't find anything catching in the story. Maybe kids would like it, but not me. I tend to analyse the story, and if the story doesn't make too much sense or is at least interesting, I dislike the movie.
Studio Ghibli never ever disappoints. The mythology used here to elevate the issue of industrialisation vs nature is insane, and so striking. The attention to detail always blows me away.
This might be one of the best Anime movies I've seen, despite being over 20 years old at this point! The beautiful hand-drawn animations and moving music create a magical yet imperfect world. An imperfectly human world. This movie holds its ground against the many movies that depict the Humanity vs Nature archetype. You cannot help but be provoked by the fragility of life and the depiction of life and death in the movie perfectly describes how life ebbs and flows. All of this heavy and philosophical reasonings about life are nestled within a story that even a child could understand. No character seems to be truly evil, and the only one that seems truly good is Prince Ashitaka. But even he is struggling with his corruption.
This was a masterful story that kept me in awe and entertained all the while a philosophy of life was weaved throughout. Well done Studio Ghibli.
Got a chance to rewatch "Princess Mononoke" after years thanks to the Japanese movie theaters initiative to bring back Studio Ghibli classics to the big screen. I was surprised to find it way more mature, grim, and violent than I remembered.
The film deals with the relationship between man and nature as a problem that cannot be ultimately solved. Mankind's instinct is to progress, destroy, and conquer, but it's ultimately doomed to extinction like any other species, no matter how advanced its weapons become. Nature, represented by the gods of the forest, may seem to be subject to mankind's domination and manipulation, but still remains the only irrational force that can give and take arbitrarily. Ashitaka's position is neutral; he is just doing his best to keep living aware of his condition as a human being and avoid conflict. None of the characters is truly good or bad, but conflict is inevitable as part of our nature (corruption even drives Ashitaka to unwillingly kill people).
The art direction is flawless as always, this time focused on the equivalent of Japan's medieval age and its animistic beliefs. Every Studio Ghibli film has its own unique atmosphere, but the mystic, grim mood of “Princess Mononoke” is still unsurpassed. Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack also heightens the epic quality and intensity of the film, with some of his most famous compositions. It gives me goosebumps every time.
My only complaint is that, like in most of Studio Ghibli's films, the ending felt rushed despite the extremely long, slow-paced buildup.
I really enjoyed this movie, like most of Hayao Miyazaki's well known work. It was just way too long.
I'm convinced this is the film Studio Ghibli spent its early years building up to. While previous efforts like Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro contained mythical elements - sleepy deities, spritely spirits, magic-tinged talents - the influence of god-level beings often feels secondary, relegated to a few enchanting (yet fleeting) glimpses. In Princess Mononoke, such divine creatures are essential, active participants. They speak, argue, swing their weight around. We aren't left to guess about their opinions or motivations, because their words and actions carry such a resonant influence. It's mesmerizingly effective, a contrast between the seemingly petty concerns of human tribes and the mass and muscle of a much heavier entity.
Mononoke represents a huge step up for the studio, particularly in that sense of scale. Rather than maintaining the quaint, intimate essence that typified their early output, this time Ghibli has gone sweeping and epic. Everything, from the ambitious, enveloping symphonic score to the wide, gorgeous landscapes and distinct environs, emphasizes this point. We've left the village to find there's a broad undiscovered world out there. Yet the distinguishing little touches and unspoken human gestures haven't been lost in the transition, either. It still looks and feels like a Miyazaki movie, calmingly earnest and heartstrong, but the canvas is larger and more potentially powerful. And man, do they make the most of that promise.
I remember watching it when I was a kid and it seemed really creepy. Now I'm 26 years old and it still creeps the hell out of me.
A great poetical film. The animation is fantastic!
Epic story and breathtaking visuals.
Another great movie by Miyazaki, solid 8.5 stars. It was really sad to see forest Spirit die because of greed. As many movies of Miyazaki this is a critic of society, we have greed, hate, destroy the environment and mass murder animals so that we can eat their flesh.
Phew< A lot happens in this film. It has an epic scope: political strife, eco-messages, natural and human violence, romance, deception, misguided philanthropy. Where to begin? First, I'd issue a warning that about the violence, unfortunate word choices and uncomfortable life situations for consumption by young audiences. This was unexpected, so I spent quite a bit of time surreptitiously observing my 9 year old viewing companion for adverse reactions. We also had a good debriefing conversation on the way home from the movies. I feel confident that I did not return her to her parents scarred for life (once again >phew<). Apart from those concerns, both she and I really enjoyed the movie. The artwork was superb, the characters were well drawn, the action was fast paced, the suspense was compelling, the voice talent was superb. Truly, is there another studio that surpasses Ghibli in its field? I give the film an 8 (great) out of 10. (I will have to come back to this review with my young reviewers rating and reaction (our conversation never circle back to those basic conversational points we usually cover on the drive home, but, hopefully, we'll revisit those and share them here.) [Anime Adventure]
As habitual from Ghibli, very well drawed, but the story of pig gods, and wolf gods i simply doesn't like it.
the story is bad
As a kid and young adult I was never into Manga or Anime or Japanese culture, so I believe that I've actually never seen a Japanese Anime before this one. I did watch the Last Airbender series, though, but even though they use the typical Japanese Anime style I'd feel like cheating if I'd list that as an Anime, because it's a US production.
However, as someone that is interested in movies and talks to other movie enthusiasts, there are certain Anime movies that you will simply hear popping up. Director Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli productions for instance, and Princess Mononoke as one of his works is - according to many - something you should have seen. His works are celebrated as classics, even among non Anime-enthusiasts, his movie Spirited Away is listed in Steven Jay Schneider's !1001 movies to see before you die", and in the IMDB Top 250 movies you'll even find 6 of his movies, one of them being Princess Mononoke. This is just one reason why I always planned on giving those movies a try - I just never came around. Another one was just added recently as I started learning Japanese and saw it a good practice to watch movies in Japanese. And a third reason was a recent special in a YouTube format I like to watch (for the German readers: "Rocket Beans TV's Kino+"), where the guests talked about their Top 20 anime movies.
So finally I got myself the Blu-ray to もののけ姫. I actually really wanted to get the Japanese releases on Blu-ray but as they are extremely expensive, I settled for the German Steelbook releases which look fine as well (but unfortunately don't feature the Japanese Titles). Mononoke was the first I got, because it was the one with the lowest availability. It wasn't the movie that I was interested most in (that is actually "Spirited Away" but that is already out of print :( ), but it became the first I watched.
As someone who isn't that deep into Japanese Anime Culture the movie was somewhat confusing at the beginning. There where a few things I did not pick up, and this might have also been due to the fact that I watched it with original soundtrack and German subtitles - I feel like it's much harder to read subtitles on animated movies than it is on live action movies. But even though I was sometimes a bit confused about the behaviors, I generally enjoyed the movie. It had a few really cute ideas, e.g. I enjoyed the "Kodamas" as they are called - the wood spirits. And I liked the general idea of the Shishigami - the forest spirit. I did expect this movie to be much more about the girl (called San, not Mononoke - also she is not really a princess - so the title is a bit puzzling) though. However it is told entirely from the perspective of prince Ashitaka, who is actually a prince who got attacked by a vengeful spirit and tries to find a cure/and or the cause of the demons existence and finds it in Lady Eboshi and her Iron Town, who seek to destroy the forest and by doing so defeat all the Gods and spirits that dwell in it.
As you might already have heard out of the small plot summary, this movie bears a deeper meaning, and it is really strange from any western movie, because even though we get a typical antagonist, we actually never ever really get a showdown with her. She is still treated as someone who is good and protected by our protagonist, even though her actions are pure evil and threaten the world and are the cause of curses and wild demons savaging the nearby villages.
All in all, it's an interesting movie, it has a deep meaning that we should all think about, yet it is also really strange and at times confusing. I feel like I'll have to watch it a second time, and maybe at least once with German dubbings.
I was excited though. The art is beautifully done, and there are really creative ideas that went into this movie. I am probably still not an Anime/Manga guy - yet even I can realize that it is worth a watch.
Reviewing a film two decades after release is a fickle matter, and while the initial impact and cultural context are lost to the new viewer, the themes and messages aren't. Princess Mononoke is a proud and patient venture into the literary familiar.
I guess it is good for anime. It did look amazing. I'm thinking anime is just not my thing. Why do so many have to be about demons and spirits? I just can't relate. It was a real struggle for me not to fall asleep in the middle of it. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to find anime a bit too ridiculous.
Unbelievably amazing movie. I first saw this before it was translated while with a dear friend. I next saw the preview screening only to discover Neil Gaiman was sitting behind me (he adapted the English translation). Very cool guy to talk about it briefly.
Watched it again tonight (for maybe the 5th or 6th time). So beautiful. And the music is perfect.
The kiddos loved it. First time for them.
My first gory anime. Loved it back then and love it now.
epic just epic and wow i have nothing to say
I seriously think this is the best animw movie EVER!!!! No competition
This is one of my favorite movies. Its set in the middle ages of Japan where gods and demons still walk among us. The prince Ashitaka must go on a long and difficult journey to get rid of curse that slowly eats him alive. He makes new friends and enemies while he is sucked in a war between humans and boars 5 meters (16 feet) high. This movie should have gotten an Oscar for animation or at least been nominated. Its sad to know that outside Japan this movie did not receive the credit it deserved.
Shout by Maarten DelfgouVIP 2BlockedParent2022-03-15T10:58:38Z
The original title of the film is Mononoke-Hime.