• Up to 2.4 billion yen (US$24 million) was put into the production of Mononoke Hime, making it the most expensive animatied movie ever made in Japan (the previous record, Akira, cost around 1 billion yen). The film is 133 minutes long, and uses around 144,000 cels, which explains for the quality of the animation.

  It is also the first time that Miyazaki has used computer graphics in his film. Studio Ghibli brought in several Silicon Graphics workstations, which were put to use in the production of the film. More than 100 cuts feature CG.

  

• The film is not Miyazaki's first Mononoke Hime. Back in 1980, Miyazaki had ideas of a story based on 'Beauty and the Beast', in which a princess was forced to marry a mononoke by her feudal lord father. Miyazaki had wanted to make it into an anime, but eventually nothing came about (Laputa was made instead). Miyazaki therefore compiled his imageboards into a picturebook entitled Mononoke Hime.

  The story in the picturebook has nothing in common with the one in the movie. In fact, Miyazaki almost changed the title of the movie to Ashitaka Sekki (The Tale of Ahitaka).

  
  

• Princess Mononoke tramples Spielberg's dinosaurs! In just over a month after it hit the theatres, Mononoke Hime had grossed 6.3 billion yen (S$54 million dollars), attracting up to 7.7 million viewers across Japan. Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park brought in five million viewers during that same period.

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