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Drooled over by John Lasseter, who made "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life", "Princess Mononoke" is a highlight of The Art of Japanese Animation (Barbican 19 Oct - 11 Nov) which allows us to sample the quality and originality of Studio Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli is an outfit which has produced historical romances, otherworldly fantasies, broad comedies, and intimate character studies, and it has enjoyed immense domestic success. "Princess Mononoke", was, in fact, the most successful film at the Japanese box office until "Titanic".
A mythic epic about the twilight of the gods in medieval Japan, it is also an eco-friendly plea on behalf of nature, to which the regal Lady Eboshi (Minnie Driver) pays scant attention while industrialising her city with slave labour.
She is one of the obstacles encountered by the well-meaning Prince Ashitaka (Billy Crudup), who ventures into the beautiful, lush but unnerving woods to discover both a cure and the cause of the forest god's resulting wrath. During his journey the film makes plenty of clear (but never clumsy) allegorical references to our own world.
Unusual in its subtlety (both man and nature are viewed as alternately unpleasant or generous), "Princess Mononoke" certainly creates a distinctive other world, the spell of which is sometimes broken by the intrusion of American voices, added for the US and European release.
But the film is, on the whole, a full, meaty treat, striking not only in its subject-matter and the approach to it, but also in its pin-sharp detailing of nature and the speed and grace with which the characters move. Most of the film is hand-drawn. Hollywood this ain't.
"Princess Mononoke" is showing at , in London.
