Princess Mononoke (1997)

25th anniversary of this film, the Japanese version, the English dub came out two years later. This was back in the theaters the other week and I had planned to see it but other things interfered. So I decided that I'd watch this and a few other of the Miyazaki classics I hadn't seen before in the coming weeks. These movies are kind of hard to get at now, I think they are exclusively through HBO Max, otherwise you have to buy them for like $20 dollars, for me that is to much for a digital copy, so taking advantage of old school DVD Netflix, yes I still subscribe to that service. However this film is very good, I wish I had seen it at the theater. 

The story is about a conflict between God's and men, there is a heavy environmental bent to the film, which seems fairly common to Miyazaki. Also common to Miyazaki is there isn't a traditional villain, here we have a group of players with various sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing agendas and priorities. Again with Miyazaki there is a very developed sense to the mythological world, despite its being basically original. I marvel at the mans ability to construct worlds, and this is a fascinating one. The story well constructed, it hits all the epic and mythic beats it needs to hit. Excellent voice cast as well. Really a joy to watch, I hope to revisit. ****