Princess Mononke: Miyazaki's Curtain Call

Princess Mononoke was to be Miyazaki's last film - and it shows. It feels like a last statement. It feels like a film he put everything he possibly had into it, and then some. It shows in every single frame of the film. Following perhaps in the wake of The Lion King, the lighting and volume and colors in the traditional 2D cells are a leap above all his previous films. Also, the motion is far more exciting and stunning than his previous works... from Princess Mononoke invading Lady Eboshi's village with the stealth of a ninja and mastery of her blade, to the truly innovative motion of the demon possessed boars.

The first time I saw those demon possessed boars was in my local art house theater where the film was playing in late 1999 - I remember being blown away by them. At that time I was confused by how the effect was even done. If was all traditional cell animation the amount of man hours required to pull it off was hard to contemplate. If computer animated it was impossibly well integrated with the 2D aesthetic!

Now, over 10 years later I still find myself marveling at the effect. It really stood the test of time. I'm also now aware that it indeed utilized state of the art computer animation. But it still stands in contrast to most 2D/3D hybrid animation, including use later in the film when the effect feels off as computer animated vegetation and shrubbery grows as a result of the metamorphosis of the Deer God. The demon possession animation however is brilliantly executed. The motion matching with the 2D cells is flawless, and the frame-rate is reduced in the 3D demonic worms to that of the rest of the animation - this is a rather bold use of restraint since one of the great things about 3D animation is that the in-between frames come for free, and thus brilliant fluidity comes for free - but this fluidity was sacrificed for the overall flawless hybrid blending. But perhaps what fooled me the most was the actual shading of the CG effects. We had all been exposed to Disney's 'toon shading in the Lion King, and that was great... but it's taken to another level in Princess Mononoke. If you pause a frame you can swear you can make out actual strokes of the paint brush. This was clearly a pioneering effort in utilizing new technology to achieve truly novel and mind blowing visual effects. I must applaud Miyazaki and his team for how well it was done.

Miyazaki pulled out all the technical stops to create his Curtain Call, which, as we now know actually turned into the dawning of a new era for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli to create technical world class animation that is in a league of its own.

Miyazaki also pulled out all the stops in delivering a story, themes, and philosophy. That though, is another blog post entirely. I'll save that for next week after I've had a chance to view the film again.