Mononoke-hime 1997

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Hayao Miyazaki has created a world simply unlike any you've seen. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's an adult fairy tale, animation as we've not experienced it before -- exactly what devotees of writer-director Hayao Miyazaki have come to expect. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Watching this film is often like observing a group of people playing an elaborate game for which you don't know the rules. What they're doing obviously has enormous meaning for them, but that meaning is mostly lost on outsiders. Read more

Desmond Ryan, Philadelphia Inquirer: Anyone who relishes seeing the reach and scope of the genre redefined should not miss this marvelously accomplished picture. Read more

Melanie McFarland, Seattle Times: Beautifully constructed and painstakingly written, this is about as close to a perfect animated epic as you're likely to get. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Brooding, occasionally bloody and often abstract, it explores animation's dramatic potential in wonderous ways. Read more

Jonathan Foreman, New York Post: A haunting, beautiful film that holds your attention despite its length and its complex plot. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Even when animals speak, lip sync is avoided; they seem to be communicating almost telepathically, and one seldom feels that they're contradicting their animal natures. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Some of the images in Princess Mononoke are not just unforgettable, they're almost edible in their vibrantly colored beauty. I haven't taken in animation quite so hungrily since I was a kid watching Disney features for the first few times. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Boldly innovative yet eerily innocent, Princess Mononoke is unlike anything you've seen in the theaters this year. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Highlighted by a sparkling, translucent Forest Spirit that only emerges at night, tiny skeletal creatures with clicking swivel-heads, and a truly magical denouement, Princess Mononoke is still a formidable achievement, if not a resounding success. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: The entire undertaking is presented as if we're being taught a very complex lesson in enchantment and earthly conservation, and people who lean toward Japanimation will convince themselves they're watching something visionary. But it's just a cartoon. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: It's just right for the 9-year-old looking to while away a long afternoon in escapist storytelling. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The imagery, ranging from sublime mountain-smashing power to firefly delicacy (individual waterdrops splashing on a rock) is exuberant and intoxicating. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: The film's strength lies in its refusal to paint either its arguments or its characters in black and white: There are no pure heroes, no clear-cut villains and no pat answers. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: You'll see why, in animation circles, Miyazaki himself is considered one of the gods. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: This handsome, beautifully designed Japanese animated film has the size -- though not the clarity -- of a great Japanese film epic. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Utilizing traditional hand-drawn cels and some computer-generated imagery, Miyazaki brings out the animism in this emerald vision and gives it a spaciousness rarely found even in live-action epics. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Done mostly in the style of hand-painted classic animation, with occasional digital assists, "Princess Mononoke is indeed a thing of beauty and imagination. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: This exotically beautiful action film features gods and demons locked in a struggle for the future of the unspoiled forest and an elaborate moral universe that Mr. Miyazaki has created. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Unlike most animated motion pictures, which have a relatively limited scope, Princess Mononoke is an epic saga, a fantasy adventure of great ambition and extent. Read more

Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: Hayao Miyazaki is a great animator, and his Princess Mononoke is a great film. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Next to the beauty and tragedy of Princess Mononoke, Star Wars: Episode I looks like dim radiation from a dull and distant galaxy. Read more

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle: It's an art film, a densely plotted and visually stunning piece of animation, and not a movie for everybody. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: The movie has a scope that makes Hollywood's homiletic, follow-your-dream fables look even more solipsistic. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: [Miyazaki's] visually brilliant, thematically rich fable isn't just an ambitious cartoon; it's an epic, hand-drawn in pen and ink. Read more

Tony Rayns, Time Out: Superbly imagined and visually sumptuous, it's let down only by Hisaishi's sub-Miklos Rosza score. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Hayao Miyazaki's exceedingly imaginative, beautifully realized animated epic adventure has been adapted into English with tact and talent... Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Princess Mononoke is a complex, superbly rendered, and wildly eccentric anime. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Miyazaki's hordes of animators haven't penetrated beyond the skin; the moving creatures feel inarticulate and jerky, almost weightless, particularly when played against painterly background mattes. Read more