Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)

The good: wondrous story
The bad: the ending is...lacking
Mankind's appetite for consumption has taken its toll on the nature and as a result, a war between the forces of man and the forces of nature is ensuing. Meanwhile, a young man named Ashitaka kills a boar-god in defense of his village. He becomes infected with the evil which enveloped the god and he sets out to try to find a cure.

At over two and a half hours, Mononoke tells a dazzling tale about the conflict of men and nature. And as such, the animated gloss gives way for a serious adventure which has significant parallelism with our times. How can mankind co-exist with nature? What responsibilities do we have? These are just some of the questions which will pop up in your mind as you witness the unfolding of the tale.

It helps greatly that the animation is as usual wonderful with extremely creative touches not present in most other animation. Hollywood has a long way to go before it reaches the level of animated story-telling which Japan has in droves.

If you stay away from the lackluster English dub (Claire Danes is merely decent, and Billy Bob Thornton is horrid) you'll find a film, which may not be as great as Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away is still right up there with the best films, animated or not, of all time. (5/5)

*Fun Fact: The film is top 132 in IMDB's list of the top 250 movies of all time.