Forum - View topicSpirited Away vs. Princess Mononoke in the U.S.
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Animegal999
Posts: 14 |
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Personally I like Princess Mononoke better because of its deeper storyline. Spirited Away is still a good film but I thought that it was a little too random. And the fact that kids were the main characters didn't really make it any better. I'm not a fan of childish romance. But Princess Mononoke had a deeper and more thourogh storyline and I liked how they had all the tree spirits and those wolves. that was cool. The beginning was a little weird the first time I saw it but once I got used to it I really started to like it. I think Miyazaki's best films are:
Princess Mononoke Nausica of the Valley of the Wind- unique story. really cool setting and style of clothes Castle in the Sky- I just love the idea!! the music was awesome and so was the Dola gang. The more kid romance was good in this one because they seemed a little more grown up than the characters from Spirited Away. |
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tarheel91
Posts: 128 |
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A lot of people need to get past whatever supposed message they think Mononoke has and try to appreciate it as a wonderful piece of art. The situation is far too general for you to be able to take any specific message out of it beyond "greed can destroy the world around you." I don't know why people have issues accepting people and things that have values different from their own.
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noobles
Subscriber
Posts: 20 Location: Sri Lanka |
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Princess Mononoke is in no way so black and white - in a different thread about anime and the environment, Dormcat gave an excellent explanation about what Mononoke is really about, so I'll just quote him (I added the bolding):
As for reasons why Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away faired differently, here's a quote from wiki regarding Mononoke's theatrical release:
In the end however, Mononoke is a dark, complex animated film with violence and Spirited Away is a lighter, family film - and family films will always have an edge in terms of numbers. Also, Spirited Away's Academy Award played a big part as well in getting extra publicity (there wasn't a separate Animation award during Mononoke's time). But even Spirited Away's distribution still wasn't handled as well as it should have, as this article from the San Francisco Chronicle about the marketing of Asian films points out:
Though now that John Lasseter (who's a friend and fan of Miyazaki) is in charge of Disney and Pixar, Ghibli's future films will probably get better marketing. |
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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I'm with you right up until the "greed can destroy the world around you" comment. Mononoke is much more complicated than that. The point is made that the Irontown residents literally have nowhere else to go, and are literally going to die if they don't fight the forest residents for the resources available. They're not trying to get rich - they're just trying to survive. One of the things I like about Mononoke is that it doesn't give us a neat, pat solution to that problem, because there isn't one - just as there isn't one in the real world right now. |
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Priestess94
Posts: 3 |
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I do agree that Princess Mononoke is more violent that Spirited Away and that Spirited away is more kid friendly. But one other point i would like to make is that, at least to me, Princess Mononoke had more Japenese and historical points in it, things that younger children might not understand. Such as why the men have on strange underwear, what lepersy is, the clothing and hairstyles. The only thing that you could really tell was Japenese in Spirited away was the names and probably the whole "bath house" thing. It might be a little off but this is the main reason Mononoke didn't do so well in the U.S.
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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In light of this explanation, I still cannot enjoy this film. The environmentalism may be but a byproduct of a deeper theme, but it is still present in the screenplay. This being a fantasy film, other methods of presenting the conflict that arises from the desire to survive could have been used, but the relationship between mankind and nature was chosen nonetheless. The fact the film ended with spoiler[the Irontown residents choosing to adopt a more environmentalistic stance] is one of the main things I dislike. Being so late in the film, it felt as if I was to interpret this choice as guaranteeing their future survival, conflicting with Miyazaki's aledged pessimism. Had the film suggested spoiler[that caring for the environment may nonetheless not in fact allow them to prosper and go on living], then I'd have found it a far more challenging and memorable note to end on. |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 481 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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The protagonists from Castle in the Sky also seem more grown-up as a result of the Disney dub, which cast them as kids in their late teens rather than their pre-teens. To this day, the controversy over that decision hasn't died down, but personally it's no big deal to me; while the leads are indeed the main characters (and I have nothing against Van der Beek or Paquin's acting as the characters--they were fine IMO, just not as good as the others), Castle is more of an ensemble piece, which is why characters such as Dola and her pirates, and of course the bad guy Muska (a role that Mark Hamill absolutely nails in the dub) get a chance to stand out. Purists will probably crucify me for saying this, but I personally like watching this film better in English, because it has lots of fun voice actors and I thought they made some clever choices in terms of casting (the leads were less so, but not the worst I've heard). Anyway, I don't think audiences were really ready for Mononoke, what with its dark storyline and occasionally shocking violence; it would've had trouble in U.S. theaters either way. Spirited Away is similarly rooted in Japanese culture, but it did (marginally) better, partially because it was more kid-friendly and had Lasseter's backing. |
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Michiko_ross
Posts: 8 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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Hi to everyone!!!
I think Spirited Away has a more appealling and understandable story line than that of Princess Mononoke, although i like both of them, Princess Mononoke's story line is a bit way out there... |
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