Princess Mononoke - Movie Review

Today, the middle ages are nearly synonymous with superstition and bigotry. Decrying witch trials and corrupt priesthoods, we hook our ideological thumbs through our progressive suspenders and sit back, having successfully shifted the focus from the death toll of the 20^th Century. But I tend to think medieval times get a hard rap. G.K. Chesterton said that modern man expects to find in the middle ages “a pessimism that is not there, a fatalism that is not there, a love of the barbaric that is not there, a contempt for reason that is not there.” What they do find is a respect for the spiritual completely absent in modern life.

And that’s my favorite part of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. It combines simple visual beauty (on a level only mocked by flashy CGI) with incredibly creative fantasy. The first third of the film is spent, mostly, in world-building, establishing an alternate reality that gave the impression of spilling off the edges of the map. I would never have predicted it, but this anime world reminds me of nothing so much as Tolkien’s Middle Earth in its intriguing depth.

It’s important to note that while it's anime, it’s not Pokémon. Miyazaki is a serious filmmaker, and to all intents and purposes, it’s a thoughtful, adult movie touching on much deeper themes than your average Hollywood flick. Fantastic creatures and verdant landscapes rear upon our sight, yet still their loveliness possesses the ability to surprise (a quality lacking, for instance, in Peter Jackson’s latest, post-card perfect vistas—his first trilogy felt less faultless, and more real.)