DVDs/Blu-rays
DVDs in Collection: 2,325
Page # 1662

zcna| Princess Mononoke
ID:
Japan 1999
Comments:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki
Producer: Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Toshio Suzuki, Seiji Okuda, Yutaka Narita
Cast: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, John Di Maggio, Claire Danes
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Fantasy

Running Time: 134
Aspect Ratio:  1.85:1 (NTSC Widescreen)
Sound: Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English, French
Features: Anamorphic
Color
NTSC
1.85:1
Studio:  Miramax DVD Region:  1 PG-13
DVD Release:  Dec 2000 Discs:  1 (Cloud) []
Purchase: 
Reviews:  This epic, animated 1997 fantasy has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, Princess Mononoke represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylized approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here.

Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god," transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature.
Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. Recommended for ages 12 and older. --Sam Sutherland


Click on Title for International Movie Database link, click on Cover for Amazon link!

Close window


Created using DVDpedia on MacOS X Panther