The US version of Mononoke Hime

• Roger Ebert wrote an article about the Telluride Film Festival, and started it with very positive comments about the Princess Mononoke screening there.

• Roger Ebert's Interview with Miyazaki - An excellent article!

• Roger Ebert's Review of Princess Mononoke

• Rotten Tomatoes PM Review page - A collection of reviews, over 90% positive! ^_^

• PM Review by Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety Chief Film Critic

• NY Times review (free registration required to view)

• indieWIRE: Miyazaki, God of Anime, Comes to America with Mononoke

• A Miyazaki Interview at AnotherUniverse.com - This is an excellent article. They also have an interview with Neil Gaiman.

• A Miyazaki Interview at Hollywood.com

• VFXPro has a Miyazaki interview

• US News: Disney's new release is daringly . . . un-Disney

• Princess Mononoke Preview by Film.com

• IGN Movies Exclusive: Princess Mononoke Pictures

• NY Times article: A Darkly Mythic World From Japan Arrives in Hollywood (free registration required to view)

• StayTooned PM dub review

• Los Angeles Times has two articles:

  Charles Solomon's article and interview on Mr. Miyazaki and

  Valerie Reitman's article on Princess Mononoke

• EON Magazine Princess Mononoke feature, including comments from Billy Crudup, the voice of Ashitaka.

• NY Daily News Online: Animated Genius, including comments by Miyazaki on anime.

• Salon review of Princess Mononoke

• Village Voice article: Bittersweet Sympathies

• USA Today article on PM and Pokemon, with glimpses of Disney's plan for the future releases of Miyazaki films.

• EX Magazine editorial on PM

• Slashdot.org(!) article on PM

More Reviews at Nausicaa.net

More Articles at Nausicaa.net

Fan Reviews at Nausicaa.net

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US Release Checklist

Soundtrack

Princess Mononoke Soundtrack, Milan Records, release Oct 12 (Info)

Books

"The Princess Mononoke: The Art and Making of Japan's most popular film of all time", release Oct 1, (Hyperion Books, 1999) (Amazon.com entry)

"Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation," release end of Sep, (Stone Bridge Press) is the exclusive, fully illustrated, definitive book on the major works of Miyazaki. We should have it in-house September 13, and it will be available in bookstores by the end of September. To read more about "Hayao Miyazaki, Master of Japanese Animation" visit http://www.stonebridge.com/miyazaki/miyazaki.html

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Subtitled Version

Probably video release only.

According to Hollywood Reporter (9/30/97), Michael Johnson, the president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said that it will be released in both dubbed and subtitled versions, predicting that older audiences will prefer to see the latter.

(September '98, Jeremy Blackman's questions answered courtesy of Martin Blythe of Buena Vista.)

Q: Will there be subtitles of the other films [other than Kiki's Delivery Service] ?

A: Most likely. Everything depends on how we do with the sub-titled KIKI.

Q: For the subtitles, will they be based off existing sub scripts, a direct translation, or use the dub scripts?

A: Direct translation then approved/changed by Tokuma/Ghibli.

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Comments by Neil Gaiman (newest first)

About Neil Gaiman

Gaiman is the creator/writer of the monthly DC Comics cult series "Sandman" which has won numerous honors including the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for the Best Writer four years in a row; the Best Graphic Album - reprint award in 1991, and the best graphic album - New Award in 1993. In addition, at the annual Harvey Awards, Gaiman was named Best Writer two years in a row, and "Sandman" was named Best Continuing Series in 1992. "Sandman" #19 also took the 1991 World Fantasy Award for the best short story - the first comic book ever to be honored with a literary award. The Sandman collections have sold over 750,000 copies in paperback and hardcover, and Warner Bros. has optioned rights for a "Sandman" feature film.

The script was finished in June or July (1998), and they have already recorded half of it...
I'm really happy with it. It is an astonishing film. I've seen tapes with some of the voice parts
on -- Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver and Gillian Anderson so far
and it's really tight. Sometimes I miss lines I wrote that didn't work because they didn't quite
match the mouth movements, but that's
one of the things you just have to put up with when you're doing a foreign script. It will be
released commercially into cinemas in '99 -- exactly WHEN in '99 is up to Miramax.

"I couldn't be more excited to write this script"

"My goal is to remain faithful to the story while providing a translation that a non-Japanese audience will be able to follow. To that end, I've been researching Japanese folklore."

I'm not actually translating it. There is already a literal translation of the 'Great Beast, who comes from a place no-one knows, still your wrath and do not stay here" kind. What I'm doing is turning it into lines that people can say.

As for why:

A) Harvey Weinstein asked me, and he asked very nicely.
B) It's fun. Everything else I'm working on at present has to come out of my head. This already exists, so I get to use a different set of writing muscles.
C) It's a challenge. I've never done anything like this before, and probably never will again.
D) If Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ashitaka, I get an autograph for my 12 year old daughter.
E) I like the film.

This information has been obtained mainly via the Miyazaki Mailing List, with at least the following contributors:
Ryoko TOYAMA, Shun CHAN, Andrew Osmond, Yasuhide MOHRI, Jeremy Blackman, Isaac Alexander

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© Studio Ghibli / Nibariki / Tokuma Shoten / Miramax.
Used without permission for Miyazaki awareness purposes.