A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)

Date Viewed: Theatrical release: 1997

Details:

English voice talent: Billy Crudup (Prince Ashitaka)

Claire Danes (San, The Princess Mononoke)

Gillian Anderson (Moro)

Minnie Driver (Lady Eboshi)

Jada Pinkett Smith (Toki)

Billy Bob Thornton (Jigo)

Written and directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Score: 1/2

The Review: Anime from Miyazaki, via Miramax and Studio Ghibli. It is a quest and continuing battle between the forces for unsullied nature (Ashitaka and San) allied with the gods of nature and spirits of the forest animal clans, against the intrusions of iron-forging men and women (Eboshi) and the destruction of the forest. The beginning -- Ashitaka's encounter with the demon warthog -- sets the stage for a cast of odd characters and a familiar plot with some very different refrains. Ashitaka's goal -- "to see with eyes unclouded by hate" -- is an intriguing and compelling theme of witness, one that occasionally gets lost or side-tracked, but is guaranteed to reappear. This is the atypical "boy meets girl, girl hates boy, girl saves boy, boy becomes possessed and redeems the world" story.

As with other material from Miyazaki, although the animation itself is mediocre, some of the imagery is stunning. The mythos and images are very unusual, novel and quite different from typical Western fare. Irontown is a near monochrome image (dull brown wood stockade, iron ore rust, and forge fire orange) against the colors and variety of the natural forest. Few of the critters are "normal": the horses have horns (and are actually the mythical red elk), the wolves are gods, and the deer have faces (humanoid faces, since one is the supreme Forest Spirit). As he flows through the forest, the demonized warthog resembles the rare velvet worm species Onchorhyncus. But the most fascinating images are the tiny semi-transparent tree spirits (kodama): cute is too trite a word to describe these familiars, for they make the film watchable a second time. The sense of scale varies immensely from the very smallest kodama to the largest forest: the gods walk tall, and the transformation between The Forest Spirit and The Night Walker is chilling to watch.

As with other works by Miyazaki (e.g., Spirited Away), the polarity of good and evil is moderated. Few characters are portrayed as wholly one extreme or the other, and the polarities shift subtly throughout the film as new character traits come to the fore and other characters evolve. However, while parts of the story are fascinating, others hold little interest -- the plotting and dialog is (disappointingly) highly variable. Many of the stereotypic battle scenes are long, drawn out and rather boring (if grotesquely bloody). And some of the dialog (whether due to the translation or present in the original, I don't know) is numbingly asinine and grates against the movie's presentation (this includes a few of the common men and Jigo: Thornton got some really poor material to work with here). Overall, this film is not as consistently interesting as Spirited Away.

The primary reason I rank this film lower is because it does not sustain interest upon second viewing. My first impression from a first viewing about a year ago was quite positive, perhaps as enthusiastic as my first viewing of Spirited Away. However, coming back to it again (re-rented immediately after seeing Spirited Away in the theatre), I note the imagery is not quite as consistently engaging, the dialog often annoying, the editing not as tight, and the story a bit weaker.

(12-Oct-02)

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