A young prince, Ashitaka, finds himself forced to confront a rampaging giant boar
in an attempt to save his village. He defeats the boar, who was a god turned demon,
but not without great cost to himself: He himself becomes cursed by an evil fed by
hate. It begins in his right hand and is soon to spread through his entire body,
first eating his body before it devours his soul. A piece of iron ore is found in
the body of the boar, and so Ashitaka is sent out to find out what caused the boar-god
to become a demon so filled with hatred.

So begins the tale of Princess Mononoke, a beautifully animated epic from
Hayao Miyazaki. Before I get into the best of the best, however, I think I'll get
into the downside of this movie.

It's dubbed.

Yes, that's right, when Miramax decided to release this into North American theatres,
they decided to dub it into English. The English producers, however, decided to choose
people whose voices actually fit the characters they're playing. There's Billy Bob
Thornton as a monk entirely lacking in morals; Gillian Anderson is the voice of the wolf
goddess; Claire Danes provides the vocals for Mononoke herself; Billy Crudup is the man
behind Ashitaka; and then there's Minnie Driver and Jada Pinkett Smith. I'll admit,
having a man with a southern-accent do the voice for a monk may not suit the feudal Japan
timeset, but at least the man doesn't over play the role. On the contrary, much like all
the other vocal talents in this movie, he instills the perfect attitude for the character.

I think that's why I forgot that this movie was dubbed ten minutes into it. The actors
provide the perfect attitude for their characters and don't play up their roles as has been
the case with other dubbed anime. Essentially, their voices become the characters, fitting
the roles perfectly even if you take into account an accent or two that doesn't fit the
time period.

And then there's the script.

The movie was originally written by Miyazaki himself. However, that was in Japanese, and
it needed to be translated and then adapted for North American audiences. The job of adapting
the script went to none other than Neil Gaiman himself. Gaiman is the man behind the beauty
that many comic book fans know as The Sandman: Master of Dreams, a storyline of which
actually won a sci-fi award (which it had more than deserved). Gaiman is a critically acclaimed
fantasy writer, having also written short stories and even entire novels. I'm a big fan of
the man's work on his Sandman series, and so I know how elegant he can write dialogue
and narrative. Therefore, there was no one better for the task of adapting this epic dthan
Gaiman himself. And thank God he was chosen, because he does a better job than, I think, anyone
else could ever have. This is the first time in ages that I've felt actual sympathy for a
character in an animated movie since... umm... well, suffice it to say that it's been a while.
Not only that, but I actually found myself caring for the characters, with no little thanks
to Gaiman's masterful writing.

The score to this movie is also amazing. I haven't heard music this beautiful since Jurassic
Park or Phantom Menace. Whoever wrote the score to this film could be easily compared
to the masterful John Williams. It soars when it needs to, it's ominous when it needs to be, and
it evokes tears when the occasion arises. Trust me, the music you hear during the closing credits
is by far some of the most beautiful you'll ever hear.

As for the animation, well, it's quite simply superb. From the opening, when you see the cursed
boar charging through a forest, you'll find yourself short of breath. When I see strikingly beautiful
animation, I always find a small lump in my throat. That lump made its appearance the second the
movie began with some of the most lush backgrounds you'll ever see in an animated epic. That lump
never went away, either. I was ready to cry at any point, this movie's animation was so beautiful
and so well done. It's beyond smooth, and when it needs to be it's as fast as lightning. The
smoothness is shown throughout the piece, but the utter quickness of the animation is shown best
during the battle scenes, specifically when Mononoke and the lady Aboshi are fighting with their blades.
Truth be known, every time a blade is drawn and swung, the movement is so quick that you can't help
but find yourself short of breath.

That's another issue: The action. This movie is mostly story, I'll warn you now. The newspaper
reviews may lead you to believe that Mononoke is at least half battles, but it isn't. There
are relatively few battle sequences. But that doesn't mean that when a battle occurs it's tame.
The violence in this movie is often brutal: heads get lopped off along with arms, men got shot, caught
in explosions.... It's quite nasty at times, but always captivating.

And yet, if you're going to see this movie, you'll want at least a half-decent story. Mononoke
does not dissapoint. As I've said, the prince Ashitaka goes off in search of how the wild boar was
infected by an iron ore, which drove it to madness and therefore to become a demon. He finds the reason
at Iron Town. The citizens of this town mine iron for a living. Their leader, the lady Aboshi, is
waging a pointless war with the spirits and animals of the forest in an attempt to take the land away
from them. She wants to be able to get at the soil, and to do that she needs to cut down the trees, and
to do that she needs control over the forest, and to do that she needs to defeat the gods of old. Mononoke
is her nemesis, a young girl raised by the wolf-goddess.

As is quite obvious, the movie sends an important message about what happens when man tries to take
control of nature. Bad things are bound to happen, and the more control you try to take the worse things
are bound to get. It's a message we, as the arrogant race we are, would do good to remember.

This is, to put it quite simply, a masterpiece. It's no suprise to see how this movie was second only
to Titanic at the Japanese box-office, while winning Japan's equivalent to the Oscars for best picture
in 1997. I must urge you to see this movie in theatres while you can. I was fortunate enough to see it on its
official opening night, and I would gladly go to see it again.... Truth be known, I'd like to see it another
five or ten times, it was that good.

With a moving plot, good voice-acting, a superb script, beautiful musical score, and animation that will
simply make you want to weep it's so beautiful, Princess Mononoke is one of the best movies I've
ever seen. Do yourself a favour and go see it. That's all I can say.

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