It is through this unlikely pairing that the forest is saved. While San hates humans, she falls in love with Ashitaka because he believes that humans and nature can coexist in peace. San and Ashitaka come from different backgrounds, San being raised by wolves, while Ashitaka was raised by humans. San (Claire Danes) is the titular character of the film, “Princess Mononoke” whose literal translation is more akin to “Spirit Princess”. Along the way, he encounters, and falls in love with the “Wolf Girl” San. His journey finds him caught in the middle of a conflict between the gods of the forest spirit and the people of “Iron Town”, a mining town that is attempting to cut down the forest to get to the iron under the mountain.Īshitaka just wants to do what is right, but in a war between nature and humans, which side is correct? This becomes a central question that the film poses.
In the process of defeating the monster, Ashitaka becomes cursed, and is told by his village witch woman that he is going to die as a result of it.Īshitaka leaves his village in an attempt to find a cure. Ashitaka (Billy Crudup) is a young boy who is simply trying to protect his village when he is attacked by a boar god that has become a demon. One thing I found that Princess Mononoke does better than most is that it has some very diverse characters that grow as the film progresses. I will refer to the English dubbed version throughout this piece since it is the only one I have seen, though I have heard that the Japanese version is even better. While it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that makes it better, I appreciate a number of aspects of the film that I feel makes it stand apart from its peers. I’ve been asked by many of my friends who were fans of Japanese Animation why I liked it more than some of Miyazaki’s other films such as Spirited Away (2001), etc. Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997) is a mold-breaking animated film that, in my opinion, hasn’t been matched in quality by another film of its type since its release.
WATCH PRINCESS MONONOKE MOVIE ENGLISH DUBBED TV
In the interest of diversity I figured I would depart from my pieces on traditional films and TV shows and instead reflect on an animated film for a change.