Ashitaka embarks on his journey accompanied by his great red elk Yakul, who’s loyalty and courage instantly made him one of my favorite non-human characters in any movie. His only chance for survival is to head West, from where the boar came, and search for a cure. A woman in the village tells him that he’s cursed and that, soon enough, the curse will spread through his body and kill him. For example, I thought the demonic snakes that enveloped the boar looked a lot like a pissed off Alex in Prototype.Īnyhow, during the battle with the demon, Ashitaka suffers a wound on his arm. In sort of an ongoing theme throughout the movie, I noticed a lot of aspects that have been borrowed – either intentionally or coincidentally – by video games. The demon itself – represented by thousands of squirming, demonic snakes – was animated with the aid of computers, but it’s a seamless blend into the 2-D animation and not a distraction at all. The “something sinister” turns out to be a giant boar possessed by a demon, but Ashitaka shows no fear, drawing the beast’s attention and soon defeating it with an arrow to the eye in a sequence in which the animation can be described as breathtaking. Ashitaka – the film’s protagonist – is startled by something sinister moving around the perimeter of his village and shows right away that he’s a badass of the highest order. Immediately, I was reminded of the gorgeous animation in Ponyo, although the animation in this film was significantly darker and more realistic, which was a good thing considering the subject matter. One thing’s for sure – the beginning of Mononoke is as intense as any live-action movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Keep reading for my full review there will be spoilers, as always. But the film is not without its flaws, and I think the praise Mononoke has received may be a tad bit overblown. So what’s the verdict? I definitely enjoyed Princess Mononoke, and I’d even go as far as to call some scenes amazing. From the comments I received on my Ponyo review, it appeared that Princess Mononoke was the consensus pick as Miyazaki’s best film, and so I was pretty excited when it arrived via Netflix a couple of days ago. My wonderful readers have made some terrific recommendations in the past – most notably on Primer and Timecrimes – so it goes without saying that I’m always eager to check out what you guys consider great. After watching and being thoroughly impressed by Ponyo, I was interested in seeing more films created by Hayao Miyazaki.
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