Princess Mononoke (2000)

DVD

In a time when ancient gods dwelt the forests of feudal Japan, a young man by the name of Ashitaka is cursed while defending his village from a Boar god named Nago. Nago had been shot with an iron bullet, the pain filling him with hatred and turning him into a Tatarigami, or "Cursed god". Now, Ashitaka's only hope is to embark on a quest to find the source of the curse, and then perhaps - only perhaps - he can find a way to get rid of it.

In his quest he meets the Lady Eboshi, who rules the iron works where the bullet was forged (and who shot Nago). Eboshi intends on destroying the gods and have easier access to the sand iron resources which makes her living. The Emperor, meanwhile, has sent hunters for the head of the Shishigami - the Deer god - who is Giver of both life and death. Finally, Ashitaka meets San, known in the iron works as the princess Mononoke, a human girl raised by wolf gods and who now fights for their cause.

In the ensuing battle between Man and Nature, Ashitaka must find a way to lift his curse...

The Good...
As a fantasy "Once upon a time..." story, Princess Mononoke ranks as one of the best. That also holds true as an anime movie: personally I place it right above Ninja Scroll and Akira, and just below Ghost in the Shell (which is the movie that inspired The Matrix the most). Its creator Hayao Miyazaki is considered one of the best anime artist and writer ever, and with good reason (think of George Lucas in Japan). When Mononoke hit theaters in Japan in 1997 it broke the box office record, which was later broken by none other than Titanic; but in 2001 Miyazaki reclaimed the title of the biggest hit in japanese cinema with Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.

The music, composed by Hisaishi Joe, is exceptional, and immediately transports you into the world of Ashitaka and San, sounding both fairy-tale-sque and historical. The main theme is my favorite musical cue, followed by the Tatarigami's theme.

The Bad...
There's really nothing bad with the movie itself, but the dubbing is terrible. Yeah, it does have an All-Star english cast with Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Cudrup, Jada Pinkett-Smith, etc., but that doesn't mean it will translate into a great dubbing. Anderson's voice as Moro the two-tailed Wolf goddess is specially irritating, as she sounds like she has a severe sore throat. The japanese version of Moro is done by a man, and even knowing that Moro is female it sounds much better and appropiate than Anderson (it's one of those weird anime things that voices are sometimes done by the opposite sex of the character). I'm not a fan of dubbing, any kind, but specially anime dubbing since the soul of the movie or series in question is lost in the translation and voice-overs. So, those who hate to read subtitles I advice you to suck it up and try to in this case, and don't believe in all the hype that Disney has tried to make with the voice casting.

It has three language tracks: the original Japanese track (which Disney almost didn't put in if not for enraged anime fans), English track, and French track (eh, beats me...I don't know why would you want to watch this movie in french unless you don't know a word of english and can't read the subtitles, but even this track sounds better than the english one).

Featurette - Is this supposed to pass as a featurette? Five minutes of interviews with the english version cast. That's it. Thanks, Disney!

Trailer - It's the english trailer; there must be like hundreds of japanese trailers (I have seen some of them and believe me, there are LOTS), but none are here. Oh well...

And that's it.

I guess all that is left to say is this: anime creators should avoid Disney whenever possible for distribution purposes. This was Miyazaki's big mistake; once Mononoke failed in the US box office Disney resented having made a deal for it and basically forgot about the movie. So the DVD that we get is full of nothing except a great movie. A very harsh treatment for such a masterpiece...