'Princess Mononoke' (1997) film /& 2013 stage play

[jefferiestubes8]

The fantasy Japanese fantasy adventure animation film "Princess Mononoke" (1997) is mostly hand-drawn, but incorporates some use of computer animation during 5 minutes of footage throughout the film.

Before 1999 USA release it had already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan.

"Princess Mononoke" was acquired by Miramax [owned by Disney] for U.S. distribution and the contract specified that Disney could not make any changes to the film other than dubbing it. The script was rewritten by Neil Gaiman, to make its Japanese dialogue comprehensible to an English-speaking audience.

source

dubbed into English with vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith.
The NY Post called it "The Star Wars of Animated features".
It had a 2000 DVD release in North America.

I haven't seen the film as I'm not into Anime but it looks like a Disney franchise outside of the film itself.

Now it will have a limited one-week run stage adaptation in London and Tokyo next month using large puppets. See the link for still photos and their video from Kickstarter campaign. While it is unannounced I can totally see Disney making a Lion-King-style Broadway stage adaptation in early 2015 and releasing the film on Blu-ray in 2014 months before as a tie-in. Claire Danes being in Homeland now would be a major name for marketing reasons of the Blu-ray as well as the unofficially announced The X-Files TV series remastered on Blu-ray release we should expect its first season release in the next 12 months that Gillian Anderson was in.

[TheSeeker]

My buddy actually got a copy of it when it came out and I watched part of it with him back in 2000 but I was in school at the time so I had to go home and study and never had a chance to finish watching it. What I did see I remember liking quite a bit though. I might have to track it down and give it a watch again.

[Mark_Nguyen]

It's a very good film - filled with messages on environmental stewardship, but a rich visual feast for anyone, anime fan or otherwise. Totally recommended.

As it happens, I'll be in Japan this fall, but probably wouldn't want to spend three hours watching a play without subtitles, awesome puppets or not...

Mark

[Manticore]

My favorite movie of all time. And I wish that I could watch the show in London. Sadly, as I live in Texas, that's not likely.

[Forbin]

Being a Miyazaki fan since Nausicaa, I nabbed Mononoke the minute it was available, even if it WAS an undubbed and unsubbed Japanese Laserdisc. Glorious!! Just glorious!! I couldn't understand a word, but it was beautiful.

[JD]

I'm thinking I might have to try it again. I watched it ages ago before I was into anime, fantasy or mythological type stuff, and I hated it. But now I love that kind of stuff, so I'm thinking I'd probably like it a lot more now.

[Sephiroth]

JD wrote:

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I'm thinking I might have to try it again. I watched it ages ago before I was into anime, fantasy or mythological type stuff, and I hated it. But now I love that kind of stuff, so I'm thinking I'd probably like it a lot more now.

it's worth a look, the aforementioned cgi though...stands out

[The Mirrorball Man]

As far as I'm concerned, Princess Mononoke is not only a fine movie in its own right, it's also the best, most balanced piece of entertainement which deals with environmental issues.

In the movie, nature is depicted as something precious, but its denizens are not necessarily benevolent, the main "villain" is an equal rights activists and in the end, although there's a resolution of sorts, there is no reset button and we're meant to understand that nothing will ever be the same anymore. It's truly impressive, especially when you contrast it with Miyazaki's "Nausicaä", which deals with the same themes in a much more naive way.

[Mooch]

I like pretty much all of Studio Ghibli's movies (in Japanese with English subtitles of course!), but Princess Mononoke is not a favourite. I like Spirited Away and Whisper of the Heart the best.

[Forbin]

I like them in English, with no subtitles, so I can watch the darn movie, of course.
Artists spent a lot of time and effort making those pretty pictures, and I wanna look at them, not ignore them while reading.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Forbin wrote:

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I like them in English, with no subtitles, so I can watch the darn movie, of course.
Artists spent a lot of time and effort making those pretty pictures, and I wanna look at them, not ignore them while reading.

And it's dubbed either way.

[Kibbin]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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As far as I'm concerned, Princess Mononoke is not only a fine movie in its own right, it's also the best, most balanced piece of entertainement which deals with environmental issues.

In the movie, nature is depicted as something precious, but its denizens are not necessarily benevolent, the main "villain" is an equal rights activists and in the end, although there's a resolution of sorts, there is no reset button and we're meant to understand that nothing will ever be the same anymore. It's truly impressive, especially when you contrast it with Miyazaki's "Nausicaä", which deals with the same themes in a much more naive way.

For true appreciation try watching Origin: spirits of the past, grated not a ghibli film but still using the environmentalism style message. I didn't appreciate Mononoke on my first message but after watching that I appreciate just how painfully an anime can club you over the head with it's moral message on conserving the environment.

[JD]

Forbin wrote:

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I like them in English, with no subtitles, so I can watch the darn movie, of course.
Artists spent a lot of time and effort making those pretty pictures, and I wanna look at them, not ignore them while reading.

Studio Ghibli movies are some of a limited number of foreign movies where I will voluntarily watch the dubbed versions. They tend to get some great casts for their English dubs so I don't mind, although if I have the option I'll usually watch it subbed at least once. The other ones are old Godzilla movies, since they tend to be kind of silly anyways the bad dubbing doesn't bother me, it only makes it that much more fun for me.