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SvennoJ on 04 March 2013
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1. Princess Mononoke, 1997, Hayao Miyazaki


This movie has it all for me. Love, hate, revenge, fate, acceptance, spirituality, independence, compassion, greed, equality, (im)mortality and last but not least progress vs nature. Above all it's a great adventure in an amazing world. The characters all feel realistic with their own motives, no one is simply good or bad.

It is a pretty long movie too, at 134 minutes it's the second longest animated movie according to imdb, and the longest of Miyazaki's movies. However it never drags or feels like things could have been skipped, the pacing is perfect. There is simply a lot of great story to tell.

The english dub is pretty good too, the voices are well done. The only problem I have with it is that it slightly alters the script. I prefer the more literal english sub. The english dub adds things to the script here and there which isn't really neccesary. For example when Ashitaka has to leave the village it's clear enough that it will be permanent, the english dub didn't really have to add 'You are dead to us from now on', 'To see with eyes unclouded' sounds more poetic then adding 'by hate' at the end.
Some things get translated that I would rather have had left for a commentary track or a documentary short on the back story. Adding the extra stuff in the script diminishes the movie experience a bit imo.
Other changes don't make much sense at all, for example when Okkoto the boar god is near death the english dub says, "Don't touch him, he is no longer a god" while the sub says "Don't go near him, the curse will fall on you". Why change that?

Luckily the music wasn't changed, and it's my favorite musical score as well. I'm eagerly awaiting the blu-ray version as the 384kbps 5.1 DD dvd track does not do it justice. I don't expect as much visual upgrade from a blu-ray release as for spirited away but you never know.
I'll gladly pay the extra for a Japanese import for this one as Disney has been very slow in releasing the blu-ray versions. (Howl's moving castle finally has a date, may 21, 2.5 years after its release in Japan)

I'll close with a little timelapse video I put together recently, with music from the movie and some scenes blended in. Best viewed in 1080p of course :)