Limited theatrical release in the United States: October 1999.
(100 votes)
2
Theatrical release in Japan: July 1997.
(100 votes)
3
The budget for PRINCESS MONONOKE was $19 million, more than double what Studio Ghibli had spent on their previous films.
(97 votes)
4
At the time of its initial release, PRINCESS MONONOKE was the highest-grossing domestic film in Japanese history.
(94 votes)
5
The U.S. release featured an English adaptation by popular comic book and fiction writer Neil Gaiman, and the vocal talents of actors such as Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, and Jada Pinkett.
(84 votes)
6
"Mononoke" means "spirit of a thing," such as an inanimate object, a dead person, an animal, a human, or a goblin. Totoro, from director Hayao Miyazaki's MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, is also a mononoke.
7
San, the princess mononoke, is supposed to resemble a figure from Jomon-era pottery.
8
Ashitaka is a member of the Emishi tribe, who lived on the northeast section of the main island of Japan. They were defeated by the Yamato dynasty and disappeared from ancient Japanese history.
9
The film is set in the Muromachi period (1392-1573), a time when there was little distinction between peasants and samurai, and when women had much freedom. The setting is crucial because Miyazaki did not want to make a samurai film or a costume drama.
10
Miyazaki started thinking about the film as early as 1980. He originally planned to make a film about a princess who is forced to marry a mononoke.
11
Sketching sessions were held in the Shirakami Mountains and the Yakushima area of Japan.
12
PRINCESS MONONOKE is the first Studio Ghibli film to extensively use computer animation. However, computer graphics still account for only about 10 percent of the visuals; the other 90 percent is traditional hand-drawn animation.
13
Joe Hisaishi's score employs the pentatonic scale, a five-note scale often used in Asian music.
14
Miyazaki wrote the lyrics to the "Mononoke Hime" theme song.
15
"We are not trying to solve global problems with this film. There can be no happy ending to the war between the rampaging forest gods and humanity. But even in the midst of hatred and slaughter, there is still much to live for. Wonderful encounters and beautiful things still exist."--Miyazaki, in a statement quoted in PRINCESS MONONOKE: THE ART AND MAKING OF JAPAN'S MOST POPULAR FILM OF ALL TIME
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