Mononoke Hime
Original 2001 Web Capture Overview
Mononoke Hime is an epic story of a young man, Ashitaka, a wolf princess, San, and a woman who forged her life from iron, Eboshi. All three clash on all angles, with no certain angle being the correct, and none being wrong, in essence.
Storyline & Narrative
Ashitaka, the Prince of a long-lost clan of warriors, is propelled into the feudal world of Japan when his village is threatened by a Demon-God. Seeking out the source of the Demon-God's rage, Ashitaka comes accross Lady Eboshi, a woman who lives off of the fire of the forge with her unusual ruling style, and San, the adopted Princess-child of the great Wolf-God, Moro. Its Nature, versus Technology in a war against each other, but it is also a significant point to mention that both sides are neither wrong, nor right in this epic struggle.
Characters & Dynamics
Ashitaka is the Prince of a long-forgotten warrior clan. Bound to search out the reason for the Demon-God's anger, he is a very emotional person, with deep ties to nature, but remains an objective mind throughout the conflicts.
San is the adopted child to the Wolf-God, Moro, and as such, she does not consider her human lineage to be of any import in protecting her adopted mother's homeland, or ideals.
Lady Eboshi is a very strongly willed woman, ruling over a town on the edge of a great forest whom she has organized to defy traditions, in a noble sense.
Animation & Visual Direction
One thing will be said about the animation, it was produced by the incredible Studio Ghibli. That means that the visuals are slendid, color schemes are wonderful, and the characters are very vibrant, even in their sorrow.
Voice Acting & Soundtrack
In the English Dubbed version of the film, I thought that a few of the actor's voice-overs did not match the personality of the Character they were represented very well, at all. Big names do not mean good choices, in my opinion.
The Japanese track, however, blends the voices together phenomially well, the full emotion with each word is heard, even without reading the Subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
So, overall, the Japanese voice acting was marvelous, but the English voices are not quite up to the same level, but still, quite excellent.
