Blog #5

Watching Princess Mononoke was an interesting experience for me. It’s a lot different than other films I usually watch. I prefer those big action/adventure blockbusters that usually result in a happy ending. It leaves you with a good feeling when you leave the theater. Princess Mononoke is not that type of movie. It’s so hard to emphasize with anyone because you have flawed protagonists and antagonists with good intentions. It is so real, which is amazing considering the way it’s shot. The concept is also a little bit foreign to me. I’m not familiar with anime, so I have no idea what it means when the article talks about how well the film blends environmental issues with the traditional elements of anime. One other thing that was an adjustment when watching this was the concept of all the gods. I’m used to the western, pagan belief in one god. It was strange to see incarnations of different gods for different aspects of life. One thing that freaked me out is when those worm things (whatever they are) were turning characters into demons. It made me so uncomfortable. I don’t like idea of death and especially not reincarnation where you turn into something sinister. That’s why I hate zombies so much. For all of the things that made me uncomfortable, I do believe it was a good film. The voice actors worked well with the animation (which was really good for the 90’s) and the plot played out really well over the course of the movie. There was enough battle and action to keep viewers interested. Of course, the most important thing was the message. Even though the movie is about the destruction of forests, I feel like you can get caught up in the characters and internal struggle and distracted from the point that this is about our world. It’s important to put that into perspective because there are some really important messages. While Princess Mononoke is relevant, I also feel that it is dated. The ended almost seems like a cop out; the forrest spirit’s death heals the land. In reality, there is no way for the land to heal like that. In the 21st century, we’re dealing with complex, intertwined problems where we solve one and two more happen. This is why it’s important to walk away from Princess Mononoke with a realistic view. When I read the two articles, I remember one pitted it against Wall-E and The Lorax. I didn’t like that comparison because of all the differences between the movies. Those movies were created for entertainment and money making purposes by american studios. Princess Mononoke had a bigger purpose and it was created in Japan. The american movies had an environmental overtone while Mononoke had an environmental focus. I felt like that wasn’t acknowledged in the article. Another thing that wasn’t acknowledged was the flaws with Mononoke. I feel like this movie wasn’t created with a western audience in mind. That’s totally fine, however it can be harder for engagement and can result in the movie losing sight of it’s focus. Of course no movie is ever perfect. Princess Mononoke is a great film; I want to make that clear even though I keep bringing up what it’s lacking. In terms of comparing impact of anime versus documentary, they have different audiences. Anime is better for visual learners who enjoy story telling. Documentary is better for informational crowds, often more educated. Anime has the advantage of playing to a wider crowd, however their message can get lost. For example, I brought up earlier how you can get too focused on the characters. There is a population of the audience who can’t see the allegory in the story. I think they could work off each other very well. For example if you were to watch Princess Mononoke and then maybe an Al Gore documentary and thought about how they could be connected. That would be a great way to get a lot of information from two very different, but complementary, sources. One other thing I wanted to bring up was that on the DVD, Emily played the subtitles along with the movie and that really threw me off. The subtitles were translating from Japanese to English, but the movie was also dubbed in English and the script was changed, so they were saying something different from what I was reading. There was a disconnect in my brain which might have played into my writing above.