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Miyazaki's finest film for sure.

Remarkable. Beautiful. Extraordinary.

One of the best Anime out there!
a 20 out of 10.

This movie left me with a feeling of all the ancient Japanese beliefs of long ago.
All the spirits/demons/creatures of the forest, and the way the characters interacted. All was portrayed beautifully.
And my god, the forest! I couldn't stay concentrated on the characters for some of the times because my I was too stunned by the beauty of the forest paintings in the background.

I loved the overall concept, the animation, the characters.

This movie has a touch of magic to it.

AMAZING FILM!

This Definitely was one of my favorite movies :3 I remember I had watched the movie at least like 7 times when I was younger.

You'd be surprised how many of the "adults" are not even as enlightened as children. Ever wonder why there are still wars and famine in the world? Humanity has a long way to go.

Do not belittle "moral story for children".

With that point being clear, I'd add that Miyazaki in fact considers his works to be movies for children. So in that sense his focus on a moral teaching in every one of his stories is not that surprising.

That said, this movie is amazing for many reasons I'll comment someday, just saying this is my first anime (not counting childhood shows) and what definitely made me become aware of what this way of art and expression is able to give.

Simply astonishing. This is Miyazaki's grand opera. Joe Hiaishi's score is devastatingly powerful. And the flippin ARTWORK...

The only one of Miyazaki's films that I could honestly call "Flawless". His others are "Amazing" and "Incredible" but this... this is perfection. not because it's super deep or complex, but simply because I can't imagine it all meshing any better.

^Exactly my thoughts. Also, I probably would have given this a 10 if they hooked up or if they had a better character build up. Nonetheless a great movie and is very rewatchable ^^

I think the same thing. Why the heck couldn't they end up together? I know they said their reasons but come on that would have been such an epic end if he went and became Jane's Tarzan in the woods. I still really liked it tho. definitely a great classic film. 9/10

spirited away>monoke hime>howl's imo :)

I hear you man, except I'd have to say that for all of the Ghibli movies I've watched so far. XD

That was pretty awesome. Wasn't my favourite ending, but still an entertaining movie. Characters were pretty awesome. 9/10

One of the best movies of all times. Love the soudtrack.

I remember that there was always something about this movie that bugged me and that I’ve rewatched it as an adult I can see what it is. This movie has no real moral message.

The main theme of this movie is humanity vs. nature. All the problems of the movie occur because the people of Iron Town are destroying the forest to produce iron, but it also shows that the iron is the only thing that allows those people to have a life worth living. Whatever lessons the movie provides in one place, it contradicts in another. The conflicting nature helps to make the movie entertaining in my opinion, but undermines what moral lessons it tries to provide.

The end doesn’t bring any resolution. The forest will still try to protect itself, and the people will start destroying the forest again when it is necessary to maintain their quality of life. The main characters never really developed in any meaningful way as well.

What the movie did well was that it was able to catch the feeling of an epic. The story really did involve humanity and nature, and not just representations of them. The battles were grand and tragic, the forest was stunning, and the characters were interesting though one-dimensional. This is one of the best examples of how to tell a story, though I don’t think the story itself was that great.

I think that, actually, the point of the movie is to end in an utopia state: that is, the people realize that they need to live in harmony with the forest and will try from then on to take this lifestyle.

The fact there are not villains in Princess Mononoke doesn't mean that there aren't actions to be condemned and characters to be redeemed; it's not that humans and forest animals are both violent because they enjoy killing and destroying their enemy, they are violent because they feel themselves threatened, and therefore need to get rid of the thing that has turned into a menace to them.

This movie has a strong message, in fact the whole movie is built around the message, which basically is that war and confrontation only leads to more confrontation and there will never be a winner; and in this context of human vs nature it applies for a lesson on respecting nature, or more likely, on a mutual respect.

I wouldn't say that the conflicts are made attractive or specially entertaining, not at all. In fact there are more scenes showing the results of the battles than the battles themselves, and the violent acts are crude and creepy, even -specially- those comitted by Ashitaka.

Started out pretty amazing and awesome, but went downhill near the end, got too cheesy in my opinion. I would have really liked if at least some of the 'evil' people would have died painfully. Eboshi was a hypocritical b1tch, who didn't look like she cared about her people as much as she said. A minute ago she was just going to kill a god to please the emperor and now she is like "I love nature! We should live together! A wolf taught me that by eating my f*cking arm! Yay!" The other one is that Jiko guy, he was also a bastard, and yet he still lives on... I understand that they wanted to show that the Deer God was still benevolent, but I don't think they will ever truly change. Jiko for example will just go and kill another God at another place.
The two main characters were what made me really like this movie though. Both of them were awesome. I wish we could have seen more of them in action, especially San, I feel like she didn't get much action after she infiltrated the fort. And I also miss the romance between the two characters. They could have at least kissed or live happily together. I know how San feels about humans, but Ashitaka wasn't anything like those idiots :/
It was also weird that one moment Ashitaka had those powers in his arm with the blue snake-like things, but later it wasn't even really mentioned. They could have elaborated more on that if they brought it up.

Well, despite the things I mentioned, this was still a really good movie. Only my 3rd Miyazaki work, but so far it's better than Howl, but worse than Spirited Away. My favorite things about it were characters, the action and the main concept about the spirits of the forest. Taking everything into account, this movie gets a 7/10 from me. Could have been much better had it not lose it's initial charm and end with the "everyone is happy and the bad people don't get what they really deserve" theme.

I agree that it was a good movie, but nothing outstanding. There is sure a strong message, but the labels and/or fotos put on cigarette packages send a strong message, too, and nobody is rating them as a masterpiece ;)

I must admit that i didn't see any of Studio Ghiblis movies besides this except for Tales from Earthsea - which imho has way better music with "Teru no Uta" - especially with the scene where it used - so i can't say if this is the best Ghibli movie (which for now is still Tales from Earthsea) but it certainly isn't the best movie i've ever seen.

The music is okay, but nothing outstanding. I can't remember a single scene where it thought "the music fits perfectly" or "i want to bath in this song". The clean shots Ashitaka made were weird, too. Sure, with his "demon arm" he may have a lot of strength, but that doesn't mean you get a clean cut. The arrows would simply pass through the target, and if you want to overdo it like they did, make a lacerated wound. I mean, they didn't shy away from showing people cut into half, or losing their head, why this?

Eboshi doesn't seem to have learned too much from all this, too. Her last words in the movie? "Bring him here". So, why don't you go yourself? She is like this all the time. "Do this, do that". And while she somewhat cares about the people in the town, it's only as long as it doesn't get into her way. The people aren't the highest priority.

The forest god was probably there for millenia, and he would be until the end of time, there is no need to kill him exactly that night, while her people are attacked by the samurai, which was not really surprising. She also didn't care much about the ox herders in the beginning. Sure, you can not stop the whole caravan there, but she could have send one, or at least express her regret that she could not do something for them once she got home.

That she buys the women from the brothels is noble, same with the lepers, but that also means she has quite a lot of money, which she most likely makes by selling those weapons the whole town works for (even if it's happily) while she enjoys ordering them around (see "bring him here").

That the women and the lepers don't have anywere to go is also quite convenient.

The forest god itself was..weird. Did the want to get killed? I mean, he noticed Ashitaka in the beginning when he did not move (much) from probably several hundred meters, while he did ignore Eboshi until she shot once, and even then he only let some flowers grow on her rifle, which was not even sufficient, and he totally ignored her after that.

His design was also weird, with that head. What was the point? The other gods were animals, too. To give him a more distinct look? But why the classic stag then? He didn't even look like it was supposed to show the combination of the nature of ainmals and humans, the face was too weird for this.

Also, did Ashitaka totally put his arm around her chest there when they held the head of the forest god up? And no, not the waist. Not in the close up.

I just finished it...and I rate it 10/10 great movie although I expect that the ending will be they live together :)

I don't quite see it as a masterpiece, but I did enjoy it a lot.