Hey folks, Harry here. Right now... this very second, I see Robogeek's visual scanners scraping this page and.... suddenly... SQUELCH! That was the sound of Robogeek screaming. God I hope Claire Danes hasn't screwed this film up. After MOD SQUAD and BROKEDOWN PALACE I was ready to not see her on screen for a while, but if she has 'valley girled' MONONOKE HIME.... ARGH! I've seen this film undubbed and with no sub-titles and enjoyed the hell out of it. I've been dying to see the film projected, and personally I'd prefer an original undubbed, subtitled (written by Gaiman ala Anthony Burgess' subtitles for the Derpardieu CYRANO DE BERGERAC). Sigh... Oh well, maybe it isn't as bad as this spy let's on.
Hey Harry, Love the site. Been reading it since the buildup of Starship Troopers, one of the decades best sci-fi. I caught a screening of Princess Mononoke a few weeks ago here at a Sony Loews in Manhattan. I haven't seen any posts on your sight and I just got the time so I thought I would write a mini' for you.
Let me just start off by saying that I have no idea how this movie became the top grossing anime in Japan. If you liked Wings of Honnaimese then you will enjoy this film, if you are more of a fan of action packed films like Akira or Vampire Hunter D, than you will probably find this film lacking as I myself did. To sum up the plot, a hero gets cursed, leaves his village, meets a couple of girls, some wolves, and spends some time in a forest. There is the pretense of a moral lesson dealing with nature and pollution but one would expect this to figure in with the conclusion of the film. One of the biggest problems with the script was that nothing was really in a different place when the film ended then when it began. The head nemesis actually states that she will do what she did again, and everyone goes along with her. The characters were mildly interesting, including a forest god that is just outright WEIRD. The animation however was excellent, top notch, reason enough for some to see this movie..
The biggest disappointment for me were the voices. Claire Daines makes the Princess sound like some reject valley girl. When she tells the hero to leave the forest it sounds like a spoiled brat complaining to her mother for more allowance money. Billy Bob Thornton put absolutely no effort into this film, save for reading the script into a microphone. His character is one of a wise appearing short guy, (not yoda like, but more like a tricky leprechan) who pops up now and again throughout the film. it could have been one of the funnier roles with some effort put into it. Hopefully they would re-record the part, the character would be better off mute than as it is. Minnie Driver and Gillian Anderson were really good. Minnie was much better than in Tarzan she brought grace and strength to her character, ditto for Anderson who had a touch of synth added to her voice to add to her characters spiritual side. There are some really cute ghost critters in the forest but if you hated the ewoks then you will really despise these guys. Well I loved the ewoks and I found these guys to be the best thing about this film. Princess Mononoke does run a little long so I hope they cut something else. Most of the others seemed to agree, really laughing out loud at Claires sorely out of place vocal talents. I would say save your money but if everyone goes to see this it will increase the chances of some other great anime making it to our theaters, and God for bid we see a decent Godzilla on the big screen.
If you post this, call me GayZilla
