"That's a nice-a donut."
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Princess Mononoke (1997)
From director Hayao Miyazaki and the folks at Studio Ghibli is Princess Mononoke, another animated tale of fantasy adventure and fun. They have given us a lush, colorful world, filled with many strange creatures and other things that defy our imagination. One could quite easily spend hours admiring the handiwork.
In the story, the warrior Prince Ashitaka is hurt while saving his village from a big vicious boar. As it turns out, the boar was a demon and inflicted a cursed infection on the prince that will eventually kill him. Inside the boar was an iron ball, and Ashitaka leaves town on an adventure to ...find something. Possibly to learn the meaning behind the iron, or to perhaps find a cure. Along the way he meet many interesting characters, including a short strange man with a red nose (voiced by Billy Bob Thornton in the English-language version), and in the Great Forest he meets San (or Princess Mononoke), a young woman raised by wolves. Then he finds Irontown, an iron mining town run by the alluring - but evil - Lady Eboshi. The iron and accompanying greed by the town have wiped out much of the forest, making the boar god and Great Forest Spirit very angry. Ashitaka must walk a delicate line between siding with the human or the animals, while at the same time he must deal with his disease, which continues to grow.
Things are very "green" in this fantasy world - both visually and philosophically. The movie ultimately boils down to a simple battle of good versus evil, but the morality tale is cleverly masked in shades of grey in the deep, stirring adventure of Prince Ashitaka. The thing that really gives the movie depth is that it isn't just the forest and its animals that are fighting against the humans, but also different factions of humans are fighting against each other. I loved the subtle humor that erupted after Ashitaka shouted that he just wanted for the humans and the forest to live together in peace. "Just whose side is he on?" someone shot back.
Mononoke is hurt some by its relatively long running time (about 133 minutes). And, with the PG-13 rating, there is more violence than typically seen in a Miyazaki film. Such as someone's arms being shot off with an arrow, another head being severed off, and plenty of blood. The violence and gore isn't lingered on, and isn't really a distraction (well, at least for an adult), but the amount of it wasn't necessary. Even so, Miyazaki is clearly on another level in terms of creating and developing original ideas - particularly in the realm of animated films. I only wish that American audiences would be more receptive to his visions, instead of the regurgitated junk that continues to fly towards us in the CGI generation.
The Verdict: B+.
Michael Bentley 8:50 AM
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