Princess Mononoke was one of the most successful Studio Ghibli films made along the likes of Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies. Being very well received critically and slowly building itself up box office wise, Princess Mononoke remains even to this day as one of the most cherished movies. While the movie is still home its fair share of issue that keeps it away from the holy levels that it held up as, its hard to ignore the pros for this great movie. In a world of gods and demons, a young prince named Ashitaka (voiced by Billy Crudup) is cursed after killing a possessed god, meaning he will slowly be consumed by the demon’s mark and die. Leaving his village to find his fate, the prince comes across a industrially successful village led by Lady Eboshi (voiced by Minnie Driver) who wishes to rid the world of the animal gods of the world to return them back to mindless animals, mainly the wolf tribe along with their human adopted daughter, Mononoke (voiced by Claire Danes). Caught between the two worlds and stuck on a time limit for his life, the prince must find away to calm both the humans and the animals and find the right middle ground before chaos unfolds. Mononoke, on the service, doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary at that time, at least in terms of the message and story as environmental protection movies were all the range around the late 90s. However, much like most of Hayao Miyazaki work, it creates an incredibly unique and lively movie with great artwork, themes and characters to truly spice up a familiar idea.

Making anything about saving the environment can come off as too mindless and rehashed or even too preachy and overzealous, as was common around that times with examples like Captain Planet, Dances with Wolves, Ferngully and Avatar. All those properties were practically mindless about their own stories and instead let the message run their movies, effectively leading them into the ground. This movie takes a far more laid back, subtle and interesting approach to it. Not only is the premise for it much more front and centre, but the world itself is just brimming with character. This world it creates feels like a real world despite all the mystical elements in it, the message about the environment isn’t as obviously a focus as others of its type are. The movie doesn’t really feature one specific bad guy throughout the majority; almost every character that has a purpose in the movie is given a genuine reason for their actions and it never feels black and white, much like the topics in real life surrounding the conservation of wildlife, its not easy. The movie has a breath of Zelda in its regards to its locations and creatures, but with that extra level of Japanese creativity for each design and backstory to feel that much more grandiose and important. While the movie’s first two thirds are incredibly engrossing, the last third of the film gets a bit lost within itself. Despite how good the pace of this movie is (making two hours feel short), the final mission seems to lack that sense of immediate tension and impact the rest of the film did; the message gets a bit too obvious at this point, the threat is dangerous but quickly resolved, the characters are a bit sporadic in the decisions, and since it’s the film’s ending, it doesn’t match the level of build-up the rest of the film did, ending on a mediocre note.

The film is home to a lot of likeable characters that not only make this vibrant world that much more interesting, but also features that extra added element of realism that can come from these performances. These people feel like real people in their reactions, urges and motivations around this incredibly dangerous and larger scope conundrum and none of them are basic black and white stereotypes that would fit easily into this story, no one is completely good or evil. One of the best examples of this is from Lady Eboshi voiced by Minnie Driver. She is probably the closest thing to a villain this movie has and yet, she is a great leader and motivational figure for this town’s survival; she heals the sick, she cares for her people, its an admirable figure despite the actions she wishes to take, a lot of the characters are like this in the movie.  The voice cast for this movie is packed with a lot of great talent and all of them do really well; Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, Keith David, Gillian Anderson, Jada Pickett Smith, etc. The problem of the movie comes from its leading characters, both are pretty flat and don’t offer much compared to the side characters. The prince is fine for his role and his goal is interesting to start with, yet he suddenly turns into the peace talker for the movie and only goal seems to be pronouncing the usually subtle message. The weakest part of all is strangely enough the movie’s titular character, Mononoke Is not a good character. There’s little attention given to her and when there is, its more on the forced weak romance given between the her and the prince rather than any character. Claire Danes herself does a fine enough job but she does not leave any impact as a character afterwards.

Like what is common with most of Miyazaki’s work, the art style and visuals are remarkably drawn and composed. The movie is surprisingly lacking in any bright colors or lighting, but the choice moments given still lead to some very calm and beautiful moments throughout the movie. The forest is effectively mysterious and filled with simple beauty, the open fields allow for some great shots of the open sky and even a few action scenes, and the towns feel that great mix of lifeless and alive at the same time; being devoid of nature but filled with human activity and energy. The linework on the characters are incredibly smooth and expressive which allows the action to be that much cleaner and more precise especially combined with the surprising amount of grizzly imagery in the film. With how well it can capture the light and mystical side, it can also capture the dark and aggressive side as equally effective; anytime the demon essence is feature, it feels like it occupies its own space in the best way possible, with its unique motions, colors and musical theme. The score itself, done by Joe Hisaishi, matches the film’s operatic tone and elements with a score fit for a fantasy video game, not overly pronounced but still very beautiful to listen to.

Princess Mononoke manages to make its pro-environment story work due to the fact that it’s not a movie created solely around this forced message, it’s an important and meaningful message PUT INTO a greatly told and made movie. With Miyazaki’s clear love for both animal and machines, it never feels too one-side and clumsy, it’s a great telling of an obvious message. Along with some great characters, talented cast, haunting visuals, and timeless appeal, it’s clearly one that deserves some good praise. However, due to the weak main characters and the messy final act, the movie doesn’t quite reach the level of perfection that the world has held it up to all this time, but nevertheless still a worthwhile movie to sink your teeth into. Nature vs Humanity made even more extreme with gods and demons, it has enough of each side for everyone to appreciate something in this film.