Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by animation, I watched way too many cartoons and would often drawn them myself. I never thought of animation as "real art" or anything fancy, just one of life's simple pleasures. Sure Disney had made some ground-breaking animated features, and technology was allowing for more and more detailed and intricate animation techniques, but no animated film had ever moved me as much as a Godfather or Unforgiven or Dr. Strangelove, that is until one fine day in 1999. I was in high school, and Princess Mononoke was premiering at the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, I was pumped as I really enjoyed Castle in the Sky and Totoro, so I went to the theater with a few friends and was absolutely clown away for this. This film is so spectacular in almost every way and every piece comes together perfectly. The animation is top-notch, not that shoddy 1980's anime style, but the mind-blowing animation techniques that made Miyazaki the maestro his is today. The score by Joe Hisaishi is tremendous, though at times it may seem a bit overly dramatic (I mean this is an animated feature, not Lawrence of Arabia), but this is the ultimate animated epic, so it fits in well. The plot is dense and the characters are well-developed, there are no true "good" or "bad" guys in this film...and Miyazaki includes his favorite underlying theme of Man vs. Nature throughout. Some may argue that Spirited Away was Miyazaki's crowning achievement, but I believe that Mononoke Hime is his true Masterpiece.
Review of Princess Mononoke
