It didn't flummox the US. It flummoxed Miramax, which is what the article is saying. Miramax wanted Mononoke Hime to be a 90s Disney film, and when they couldn't cut the film into one, they gave up on it. It really highlights how badly Hollywood used to gatekeep entertainment by owning the distribution tools.<p>You can thank Netflix for changing that. I worked in Hollywood when Netflix rolled out House of Cards, and it was nothing less than a revolution for the execs at the time. Netflix terrified them. Before then, every entrenched name in Hollywood mocked the internet as something consumers would never prefer for movies. However, Netflix created a place for big budget, niche content in a way that forced Hollywood to sit up and take notice. If Netflix hadn't happened, nothing would've changed.<p>And thank God. I remember seeing Mononoke Hime in the theater, and it was my first introduction to anime. It was a breath of fresh air for me in terms of entertainment. I was so tired of western film at that point and it made me aware that there was so much more out there if I was willing to look for it. Nowadays, it hardly requires looking.
I watched it as a teen at a friend's house around year 2000. Might have been an early bootleg, he was really into bootlegged Japanese VHS tapes. I found the story and tone really disturbing. I remembered it this way, and wasn't really interested in seeing it again.<p>Didn't watch it again until maybe a year ago when my wife wanted to watch it. She's gotten really into Studio Ghibli and we've been working our way through the catalog. Even so, I was actually still hesitant to watch it.<p>I found it much different than I remembered. Layered story with actual shades of gray that Hollywood isn't capable of producing. Only movie I can think of where there are multiple factions and none of them are clearly good or bad. Compelling narrative all around. It's genuinely a masterwork only outdone by Spirited Away.<p>Point of my story is, I wasn't ready for it, I don't know if America was.
The thing that gets me about Spirited Away (and most
Ghibli films) is the sense of being transported.<p>The characters at the end are no longer in a place where they can go back to “the way things were” but somehow it’s okay. So there is this pain but in the end it’s ultimately cathartic and you feel joy and hope.
>> Graphic and bloody violence is a key element of Princess Mononoke, making it far from children's fare (Credit: Alamy)<p>No, no, no. That is <i>exactly</i> what children want to watch. It's their parents who don't want them to watch it. Kides themselves are all over this stuff and the moment they're old enough to get their hands on it, they binge on it.<p>Speaking as someone who once was a child (with a splatter-gore phase no less).
My personal recomendation for HN users to get into Ghibli is to start with The Wind Rises. It's more recent (2014), and loosely based on a true story/biography. No crazy monsters or spirits. It also emcompasses creativty, engineering and hard work as the main characeter design a fighter plane. Truly a masterpiece that resonated with me<p>Of course the other ones mentioned in this topic are good too.
My first exposure to Anime was a duped VHS copy of Akira in 1993. Holy cheese and crackers, what an experience. My jaw was dropped the whole time and even during the credits my eyes were glued to the screen. Even as my high school friends got up, turned on the lights and puttered around getting ready to go home I couldn't move I was so transfixed.
Princess Mononoke is what you get when you make Dances with Wolves/Pocahontas/Avatar, but with the humanist perspective that people everywhere are both good and bad.