Princess Mononoke is a quite stunning piece of animation, and an astounding example of wonderous storytelling. It's obviously a fable designed around the treatment of the eco-system by us homosapiens, but manages to be beautiful and relevant without preaching. The animation is superb, and the designs of the tree creatures, the night stalker and the forest spirit are wonderfully unique and diverse. This could never have been imagened by a Western mind, and it's obvious why Disney bought the distribution rights to this film and buried it for so long. It challenges everything we have come to expect from animation, and avoids the prancing pitfalls that are now standard from the animation we get force fed on a yearly basis. This does not pander to any group, whether it be age group or pressure group. There is violence, there is pain and suffering. This piece of film blows Disney away.

The voice talent is obviously American, and mostly they handle it well. Most enjoyable is Billy Bob Thornton's little man, sent by an Emporer to run an errand, he is an intelligent coward. It is difficult to get a real standout performance, as obviously the translation at times can be somewhat difficult, and it shows. However, keeping the script almost a straight translation from Japanese works, allowing an authentic feeling even with the American accents