Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke is an anime film animated by Studio Ghibli that premiered in Japanese theaters in July 1997. Hayao Miyazaki wrote the original story and directed the 133-minute animated film.

In Muromachi-period Japan, Prince Ashitaka defends his Emishi village from a rampaging demon boar corrupted by an iron bullet lodged inside its body. The wounded beast curses Ashitaka's right arm with a spreading infection that grants superhuman strength but will eventually kill him. Ashitaka cuts his hair and leaves his village on his red elk Yakul to travel west in search of a cure for the demonic affliction. He reaches Iron Town, a settlement founded by Lady Eboshi where forest clearing for iron smelting has sparked an armed conflict with the animal gods of the surrounding wilderness.

Masashi Ando served as supervising animator and character designer for the film, while Joe Hisaishi composed the symphonic musical score. Yōji Matsuda provided the Japanese voice for Ashitaka, and Yuriko Ishida voiced San, the human girl raised by the wolf goddess Moro. Studio Ghibli used hand-drawn animation across more than 144,000 cels alongside two minutes of digital graphics. The film earned 19.3 billion yen at the domestic box office in Japan and grossed over $160 million worldwide. That domestic total established a new box-office earnings record in Japan until 2001.

The English-dubbed version first opened in North American cinemas in October 1999 with a theatrical script written by Neil Gaiman. Princess Mononoke won Picture of the Year at the 21st Japan Academy Film Prize in March 1998, becoming the first animated film to win the top award. The film also received the Best Film prize and the Readers' Choice Award at the 52nd Mainichi Film Awards in 1998. Japan submitted the film as its official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998.