Mononoke Hime

***Warning: This review may contain significant plot spoilers***


Let's start with the title - 'Mononoke Hime'. After watching the movie, one can easily concur that the title is a mismatch.

The movie starts off great. Immediately we are introduced to the main character taking down a demon god and was cursed in the process. He sets out on a journey to find a way to lift his curse. At this point i was greatly engrossed & was really looking forward. Man!! It was a big let down.

Characters:

We have a main character 'ashitaka' who is so lame and useless that if you remove him from ... the movie, the story would remain the same & not a thing would change. His presence do not impact the story in any way. All he does is postpone the inevitable. This kind of characterization applies to others as well.

We have a woman who wants to destroy forests to build guns & conquer the country . Why ?? we weren't told.

We have a emperor who wants to kill a forest god. Why ?? May be Immortality but then again it was never confirmed. All we have to go by is a conversation between two of his subordinates trying to speculate on it.

This do not stop here. Even the forest gods in the story are stupid. The best character in the story is a middle aged guy who acts as a spy and was tasked with killing the forest god.

Story:

The plot is basically a fight between forest spirits and the humans who want to destroy the forests. A bunch of random events are thrown in to make up the length of the movie. The main character remains clueless and confused throughout the story. He neither makes an effort to stop the fight nor side with one of them. He just remains half -assed wanting to stop yet wouldn't do anything for the cause.

The climax is basically a reset of the all events happened until then. All the lost forests comes back to life and all the people responsible for the deforestation remain alive vowing to restart and build even a better village.

Animation:
the animation is good but the plot & characters made it difficult enjoy it.

Wow, I am appalled. I cannot believe there are so many high ratings for this movie. During my two hours watching this "Ghibli classic," I often checked the running time, only to groan at the fact that I still had a slow hour, fifty minutes, forty minutes, etc to go before I can be freed from this boredom. Princess Mononoke is a bad movie. There, I said it. I'm sure many will disagree with me, although I have no idea why, but let me start with what was good about this train wreck.

Firstly, I'd like to say I have never truly been disappointed by ... a Ghibli film. All that I have had the pleasure of watching so far have been nothing but great movies, classics that have endured the test of time. However, this was not the case with Princess Mononoke. But, this is Studio Ghibli we're talking about. They never fail in all regards. So here are some good things about the film.

Art: 7
The art and animation are top-tier for its time. Movement is smooth, visuals are stunning, and some character designs, such as the Forest Spirit, were not given little effort. Studio Ghibli has always had great animation quality, and Princess Mononoke is no exception. Nature was drawn amazingly in this film, from forests to rivers and cliffsides, each shot and scene felt epic to view. Angles were utilized well in the film as well. However, I can't give it a ten due to some boring character designs and the fact that the movie is older, and won't have the same animation quality of today's greats like Kimi no Nawa and Koe no Katachi.

Sound: 3
I don't have much to say here. The BGM was befitting of the mood of the scenes and the overall setting of the film, but it was nothing special. Now, before I begin to completely destroy this show, I will say that I watched the English dub. That could have an effect on my rating. Are you ready?
The voice acting and dialogue in this movie is god-awful. I found myself cringing in perpetual disappointment with each line delivered in the show. The VA's were seemingly incapable of emotion, and the sheer quietness of the VA's clashed heavily with the loud BGM and SFX so much that I found myself adjusting the volume in regular intervals to be able to hear the shitty dialogue while also trying not to go deaf from the speaker-blasting SFX and BGM. This was an incredible annoyance added to an already bad movie.

Story: 5
I'll give the story credit where it's due. The multiple conflicts in the show were portrayed well in battle, and the central theme of Mononoke is great. I interpreted it as a Man vs. Nature theme showing that technology and nature need not oppose each other, and that it is humans that cause the rift between the two. This is all too true in our modern world, and I think that Princess Mononoke did well in the execution of its theme. Studio Ghibli portrayed the push-and-pull relationship between man and nature in its usual magical and unique way, and that's how you can tell a movie is a Ghibli movie. The "antagonists" had morally just motives for their relatively morally unjust actions, and that gave the conflict complexity and realism that ordinarily would've allowed me to achieve a heartfelt appreciation for the movie's philosophical nature. However, the pacing of the film is erratic. Ashitaka is immediately kicked out of his village after saving their lives, and then we're rushed into the war between the Iron Town and the Forest Gods. Ashitaka saves a wolf girl for no reason, and then nobody can decide if they love or hate him for the rest of the movie. I don't think the overall story is bad, as the theme and conflict were well done, but I was just uninterested by how the story was told. Also, what was that ending? "Cool, we saved the day! Okay, bye!" How boring is that?

Characters: 2
Ohhhh-ho-ho boy, here we go. Every damn character in this movie is dreadfully one-dimensional and incredibly boring. Ashitaka had no thought put into his character. He is a traveling village boy who has the reflexes of a god and seemingly cannot die due to plot convenience. Pair that with a bad VA and a shit script and you're in for one hell of a terrible MC. San is just as uninspired. She spends the entire movie rambling about how humans are bad doesn't develop a bit. Her and Ashitaka's relationship to one another is left completely in the water and by the end you're not sure if they love each other, are just friends, or genuinely don't care either way. Their entire relationship arc was just boring and uninspired. As for the rest of the cast, they're all the same just with less screen time. Eboshi has one interesting thing about her, and that's the fact that she's using technology to save her people. She's not entirely a bad person, but perfectly flawed and human. Too bad she doesn't get any screen time. The gods of the forest are all the same.

How to be a Forest God in Princess Mononoke:
Step 1: "We hate hooman".
Step 2: *Cliche wise saying because we are gods*
Step 3: Die.

I did enjoy the second Boar god though, for his determination and conviction. The best character in the movie is Yakul by a long shot. All hail Yakul and his wonderful benevolence.

Overall: 4
As much as I wanted to love this movie, I cannot say I enjoyed it even a bit. My rating of 4 comes from nothing over than its reputation and few good qualities in its two-hour runtime. If you enjoyed this movie, that's perfectly fine, as I can see the good that could've come from this movie. However, the execution was just too poor. I am legitimately surprised that there aren't any low reviews for Princess Mononoke. I hope that my next Studio Ghibli film doesn't disappoint like this one did.

If you are like me who hates pacifist main characters who can't take a side then you are going to hate the climax. Our annoying MC couldn't take a side even though it has been abundandtly clear what he should have done but he continues to help the "villains" who also don't get any punishment whatsoever despite all the cruel things they did. when i reached that point i couldn't wait to stop the movie since it took a really tasteless and infuriatin turn. like get a drip and do what must be done. Hated it felt like i wasted 2 hours of my life ... for nothing. wouldn't recommend at all if you hate pacifist , dumb , dispassionate MC.

Okay, I just want to go on a rant for a bit. This is crazy, how can you can you make such a good story and characters and then just fuck it all up. The first half of the movie was great, I liked the story of it and how it showed both sides of the battle. The main character wasn't on any side, he just wanted for them to live together, and how cliché that may sound, it works. Through the movie he tries to get everyone together, but he doesn't actually do anything, he just isn't fighting against anyone, he helps both parties. ... So when the humans are attacking the forest and the forest is inferior, he just doesn't do anything about it. So my rant begins: The main character just doesn't do anything about Eboshi, the one who wants to take the forest down and make more and more iron. But the main character also doesn't want for the forest to die, but is so fucking incompetent that he lets the forest spirit's head get cut off while still believing, that Eboshi isn't bad. Even when he warned Eboshi about how the town was under attack, Eboshi just didn't care and still went on to kill the forest spirit, the main character still believes in her. And with all Ghibli movies, the whole world goes to shit, but somehow everything turns out okay! The forest spirit goes to get it's head back and almost kills the entire fucking city, but when all turns out okay everyone is just smiling and they go on about their day. By far though the most infuriating part is that they don't learn anything, FUCKING ANYTHING, mc just says that he'll rebuild the city and the princess goes on to live in the forest. But Eboshi and Jiko didn't learn anything, they too just smile and say that they can't win against fools. They don't have any fucking clue what they did and they don't reflect upon it and no one tells them about the consequences of their actions. But hey, in the end we lost 2 gods, the city, the forest and a bit of the cities population, so lets just go on with our day rebuilding the civilization and smile without thinking about what we did, how we could have easily avoided it. Maybe we'll recreate it too!