Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
Anime is one of those terms that is thrown around by critics in order to make themselves sound more important, but is never fully explained.
It is a simple term to understand. Anime is the Japanese word for animation. In the United States it has come to mean specifically Japanese animation, a “genre” which includes everything from children’s shows like Pokemon and Digimon to more mature classics as Grave of the Fireflies and Princess Mononoke.
That said, the king of American animation, Disney, recently took it upon themselves to make an English dub of Mononoke Hime or Princess Mononoke. The dubbing process is one that is very hard to do well. Anyone who has seen Godzilla vs. King Kong can testify to the painful qualities of bad dubbing. Anime fans in particular could spend hours discussing what American companies are currently doing wrong.
But Disney’s project provided a milestone for the anime community: a high quality dub. Neil Gaiman wrote the English script and voices were done by such big names as Gillian Anderson of X-Files, Minnie Driver who voiced Jane in Tarzan, and Claire Danes of My So Called Life.
Because the producers of the English version took the time to hire a highly qualified cast, the voice acting in the film rivals the original Japanese.
Gillian Anderson plays a wolf that is also a forest god, a role originally played by a man. While vocal effects aided her performance, her voice is still indescribably appropriate. Billy Bob Thornton performs his role as Jigo the Monk in a manner only he could accomplish. Both Anderson and Thornton seem to be the characters, rather than the second people to play them.
Claire Danes performances was not remarkable to speak of. Her rather non-plussed portrayal took the title character of Princess Mononoke from being a leading part to a character for the lead of Ashitaka to react to. With no knowledge of the original version, the average viewer will likely wonder why she is the title character.
Ashitaka is in truth the main character. Princess Mononoke is his story, his journey told through his eyes. Billy Crudup provided his voice, and the most amazing performance in the film. His acting was so natural and synched so well that it is hard imagine that he was not the original voice.
For people who are generally fans of animation, this film is certainly highly recommended. The visuals are so stunning that at times one might ponder if they were photographs rather than cel paintings. Emotion can be read on the faces of even the animal characters. Even if you paid no attention to the story, it would not be an evening wasted.
The story itself is certainly not a typical Disney film. It is an animated film for an older audience, with a much more complicated plot than the simple defeat of a villain. There is animated violence beyond that which American audiences are accustomed. But a viewer who is interested in the story can overlook the violence.
It is a challenge not to be sucked into Miyazaki’s tale of forest spirits and the battles of nature and man. There are no clear-cut good or evil characters; even Ashitaka has a duality and complexity to him that is more human than most modern movie characters. This is a film with a villain like Cruella De Ville who kills puppies and therefore is bad. This is a film that makes the viewer think on the ride home, to ponder what the real message is, and what he or she can take from it.
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