Princess Mononoke review

Last week, there was a brief discussion where a few people were praising and recommending "Princess Mononoke" in a forum I frequent.  While it was a movie I've heard nothing but good things about, it wasn't until tonight where I finally got to sit down and watch it.

Initial thoughts:  While I understand the whole industrial verses nature aspect of the movie and the animation was gorgeous, the movie didn't "do it" for me, in other words, it didn't move me emotionally.  In an animated feature, like Disney films as a child, and now, later in life, where Pixar has far surpassed Disney in the movie making industry, BOTH have done great things in touching my heart and pulling at those heart strings.  Unfortunately, I didn't get that experience from "Princess Mononoke".  I was really hoping to and it just didn't happen.  I didn't care about the princess at all and maybe it could have been partly because I didn't care for Claire Danes voice acting.  I thought the beginning was fantastic and the whole theme of battling your inner demons was well done.  In the end, I think the movie should have been called "Prince Ashitaka".

Overall, I'd have to say that there was a lot to like in this movie, but there was a lot that I didn't like.  Some of the concepts were way out there.  The box art claims that it's the Star Wars of anime and while I can put myself in the shoes of the person that said that, I'm more on the opposite side where in Star Wars I actually cared about all the characters, even the villains, and in "Princess Mononoke" the only person I really cared about was Ashitaka.  2.5 out of 5 stars.