Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫 Mononoke Hime) is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli and produced by Toshio Suzuki. The film was first released in Japan on July 12, 1997, and in the United States on October 29, 1999.

It was dubbed into English and distributed in North America by Miramax, and despite a poor box office performance there, it sold well on DVD and video, greatly increasing Ghibli's popularity and influence outside Japan.

Synopsis

While protecting his village from rampaging boar-god/demon, a confident young warrior, Ashitaka, is stricken by a deadly curse. To save his life, he must journey to the forests of the west. Once there, he's embroiled in a fierce campaign that humans were waging on the forest. The ambitious Lady Eboshi and her loyal clan use their guns against the gods of the forest and a brave young woman, Princess Mononoke, who was raised by a wolf-god. Ashitaka sees the good in both sides and tries to stem the flood of blood. This is met by animosity by both sides as they each see him as supporting the enemy.

Cast[]

Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor
Ashitaka	Yōji Matsuda	Billy Crudup
San	Yuriko Ishida	Claire Danes
Lady Eboshi	Yūko Tanaka	Minnie Driver
Kōroku	Masahiko Nishimura	John DeMita
Moro	Akihiro Miwa	Gillian Anderson
Jiko	Kaoru Kobayashi	Billy Bob Thornton
Toki	Sumi Shimamoto	Jada Pinkett Smith
Okkoto	Hisaya Morishige	Keith David
Gonza	Tsunehiko Kamijō	John DiMaggio
Hii-sama	Mitsuko Mori	Debi Derryberry
Kaya	Yuriko Ishida	Tara Strong
Narration		Keith David

Additional Voices[]

Notes[]

Harvey Weinstein, the then-chairman of Miramax Films, wanted Princess Mononoke cut down to 90 minutes. In response, Toshio Suzuki came into the Miramax office with a prop katana and a verbal message stating "Mononoke Hime no cut!". When Steve Alpert, who assisted in writing the dub, informed Weinstein that Miyazaki would not agree to cut the film, the chairman angrily threatened that Alpert would never work in the film industry again if he didn't cut the film. Weinstein did give in, and the film was released uncut.
Neil Gaiman, in Anglicizing the script, chose to simplify some plot elements to provide a cultural context for phrases and actions not well known outside of Japan. Specific terms like Jibashiri and Shishigami, for example, are changed to the more general Mercenary and Forest Spirit. On the English language DVD, the subtitle options have a literal translation of Hayao Miyazaki's script in addition to Gaiman's interpretation.
When aired on Canadian cable channel, YTV, a slightly different earlier "rough-cut" version of the English dub aired instead of the theatrical version. This version features some different dialogue such as in the scene where Lady Eboshi first sees San, she calls her "Wolf beast" instead of "Princess Mononoke". The singing of the movie's theme is also left in Japanese and not dubbed into English for this version.
When the film was announced for release on DVD in North America, it was originally going to be exclusively with the English dub. In response to fans' requests to add the Japanese track as well as threats of poor sales, Miramax hired translators for subtitles for the Japanese version. This plan delayed the DVD release back by almost three months, but it sold well when it was finally released.

Transmission[]

Date(s)	Channel	Country
2005	YTV	Canada
2006	Turner Classic Movie	United States
2006	Cartoon Network (Toonami)	United States

Video Releases[]

Distributor	Year	Region	Country
Buena Vista Home Entertainment	2000	NTSC	United States
	2000	1 NTSC	United States
	2001	2 PAL	United Kingdom
Optimum Releasing	2006	2 PAL
Optimum Releasing	2014	B DVB-T
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment	2014	A DVB-T	United States
GKIDS	2017	A DVB-T	United States