Justin's Rating: If only my rash was so cursed...
Justin's Review: I'm not huge into the world of Japanese anime, but if you ask people who are, you'll probably get mad happy recommendations to see Princess Mononoke, the film with the funny name. You might also get some vague explanation of what it's about, because it really isn't an easy-to-classify movie. But the fact that this movie is drawn by supurb Japanese animator what's-his-name (I'll leave that fact to someone who actually does research), should grab your attention. Grab it by the lapels, give it a few good threatening shakes, and throw it down into the mud. What does that all mean? That Princess "My name is very hard to pronounce, sorry" Mononoke is worth your time.

Prince Ashitaka -- remember him? -- is a terrific warrior with a hair bun of steel, but an unfortunate cursed injury on his arm gets him cast out from his village. "Gee, thanks for saving our lives," they pretty much say. "But we must now turn our backs on you, because we don't want pinkeye too." Ashitaka and his trusty elk travel the vast distances of ancient fantasy Japan (about 22 miles) to find a way to lift the curse. Along the way, he stumbles onto a forest inhabited by animal gods (apes, wolves, boars, and presumably ferrets), which are at war with the encroaching rifle-developing humans. Playing the middle ground, Ashitaka takes both sides, mostly in order to get the phone number of Princess Monononononoke, who he meets while she's sucking blood from a wound. Talk about love at first sight!

A story made complex by both the genres involved (including fantasy, action, adventure, romance, and a handy class on What To Do With Lepers) and the very human themes that refuse to be classified as black or white. Everyone's a bit good and a bit bad and a LOT stubborn, and the wars that ensue -- between human and animal, human and human -- have a desperate edge to them. It's easy to take sides in most films, but Mononoke takes away that comfortable position and makes you care about all parties. The action sequences, when they come, are spectacularly breathtaking and rapidly paced. Ashitaka and Mononoke know a few moves that Jet Lee might like to sit in on, and you always got to love a film where a single arrow can decapitate a samurai warrior.

More than the story, which has a grand epic feel to it, is the animation. I was never quite fooled into believing that it was completely realistic in its conception, but it comes pretty darn close. The backgrounds (trees, lakes, cliffs) are just as detailed and animated as the characters, and I found myself marveling at the small things, such as how the initial barrage of rain drops speckle a rock before the storm begins. I forgave the sometimes slow plot for the breathtaking beauty that is doled out as a reward. In fact, I was only disappointed with Mononoke herself, who wasn't quite as pretty as Ashitaka gushed on and on to be.

Princess Mononoke is a very different movie than you've ever quite seen, but that can be a good thing. Right? Different is good? Hey, come back here and stop conforming when I'm talking to you! As in most Japanese films, there's a lot of deep spiritualism going on, and a theme that goes along the lines of "Let the humans have a fully industrial society, as long as they don't chop down any trees." I seriously want a tree spirit doll, those cute little smurf-like freaks that rattle. On the featurette track, Gillian Anderson said she got one, and that means that I should too.

DnaError's Rating: Astounding Anime Awes
DnaError's Review: I do not like anime. This is hearsay as I am a visual artist and as such, requires bowing to the carefully stylized feat of our Japanese masters. No matter how many times I say the aesthetic does nothing for me and that the plots are written by blind monkeys, meddlesome fan boys still shove their tapes in my face, screaming that THIS will be the one show to change my opinion on the genre.

Princess Mononoke is one of those movies.

The visual are amazing, but that's almost commonplace. Miyazaki's clean lines avoid all the excessive and annoying deformations of most anime. The characters are naturalistic, expressive, and well designed. Justin gets it wrong by dismissing it as not quite real enough. The facts that it's not real is the point. It's an alternate world, one-step removed from reality, lushly detailed and beautifully composed, but by no means "real". If you want realistic, buy a movie that doesn't feature drawings walking around.

But good artwork and steady draftsmanship to not a great movie make (see Metropolis). What makes Princess Mononoke stand out is its careful attention to story. Translated from a Miyazaki script by the fanboy idol Neil Gaiman, the movie is at once a myth, an eco fable, and a war story. Bursting with the earnestness of a genuine epic, the yarn spills out terrifying demons, feral warrior-princesses, shadowy monks, and resolute doomed heroes. It is engrossing and expansive, addicting in that woozy movie way.

There are nits to pick however. While the Voice Acting is leaps and bounds above your typical anime fare (Billy Crudup and Minnie Driver are standout), Claire Danes lack the animal intensity of Princess San's wild upbringing and Thorton's voice just seems out of place.

In the end, this mythic tale of lost wilderness and ecology doesn't offer any easy answers. Unlike your boilerplate "Captain Planet" stories, it admits that it's frequently not a balance, but a terrible battle between man and nature. And nature isn't the passive, helpless creature in the crosshairs of Big Bad Industrialist. The movie doesn't shy away from he blood and gore of the conflict, but it doesn't relish and soak in it. This is world in transition, from the rule of one set of Gods to another, and there is no silver medal winner in war. (It might be interesting to see how this same theme played out in American Gods, another Gaiman work). At its best, Princess Mononoke captures the awe and tangible wonder of ancient places. The ethereal vision of spirits rising from the wood and of powerful springs which hold terrible forces. It's the kind of thing Disney hasn't been able to do for years, and the thing I wished more anime was able to do.