The Houston Chronicle 

November 05, 1999, Friday 2 STAR EDITION 

SECTION: HOUSTON; Pg. 16 

LENGTH: 462 words 

HEADLINE: Good animation isn't enough to save slow-going 'Princess Mononoke' 

SOURCE: Staff 

BYLINE: JEFF MILLAR 

BODY: 
   "Princess Mononoke" should delight fans of anime, which is what animation is 
called in Japan, where this unusual film was made. 

It is quite lovely to look at, and it is certainly something that 
American/Western animated films are not - folkloric, philosophical and 
thematically complex. Don't expect a Disney or Warner Bros. film anytime soon 
about the conflict between nature and industrialization in the Middle Ages. But 
I found the film slow going. 

It was a huge box-office hit in its country of origin. Writer-director Hayao 
Miyazaki based his epic-sized narrative on bits of Japanese folklore. The film's 
been overdubbed into English from a screenplay by Neil Gaiman. 

Ashitaka (voice of Billy Crudup) is a young warrior who has received a death 
sentence. In a battle with a huge beast - a Godzilla-sized boar covered with 
toxic worms - he has been wounded. To survive, he must trek west to discover 
"the source of hatred." 

Man has just learned how to forge iron. The Tatara tribe members are ironmakers, 
a craft that requires the despoiling of nature for firewood and ore. The gods of 
the forest have created monsters such as the huge boar to protect the forests 
and its creatures from the encroachment of Lady Eboshi (Minnie Driver), the 
leader of the Tatara clan. 

On his odyssey Ashitaka encounters a Paladin monk-for-hire, Jigo (Billy Bob 
Thornton). He then meets and eventually allies with Princess Mononoke (Claire 
Danes), also known as San, a human foundling who has been raised by a wolf god, 
Moro (Gillian Anderson). 

The forest monsters will gather for a final assault upon Iron Town while Lady 
Eboshi sends the monk to kill the Forest Spirit, rendered here as an ethereal 
deer. 

The characterization and beliefs of Lady Eboshi characterize the subtlety 
unexpected in an animated film. She is not the simplistic, eco-rapist villainess 
one would expect of a tree-hugging fable. She gives jobs on her Iron Town 
foundry to lepers and to prostitutes she's liberated from the city. Although she 
does intend to kill the forest god, subjugate the animals and cut down the 
old-growth trees, her goal is wealth for all; she's not a tyrant. The film's 
hoped-for outcome is not a righteous winner and a deserved loser but the Asian 
objective of harmony. 

The voice performances are not that good, but then Gaiman's English dialogue 
isn't that good. The animation is quite spectacular ("painterly," one feels 
obliged to say). 

The PG-13 rating is for explicit but not gratuitous violence. But kids will 
likely find the talky parts boring and are poor candidates for an audience. 

"Princess Mononoke" 

Starring: Voices of Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver and Billy Bob Thornton 

Now showing: at the Greenway 3 

Rating: PG-13 (for images of violence and gore) 

GRAPHIC: Photo: Gillian Anderson is the voice of the wolf god Moro while Claire 
Danes is San (color)