For example, the first time you see the gorillas of the forest, they are telling the wolves that they want to go to war against the humans.
But with the talking animals, Miyazaki is showing us that we should treat nature more like other people and less like disposable objects. The gorillas express a desire to eat humans, the boars are all obsessed with going to war, and one of the wolves even makes a remark about biting Ashitaka’s face off. Now, these talking animals are nothing like the stereotypical Disney cute, fluffy talking animals. One element Miyazaki uses in “Princess Mononoke” to encourage human respect towards nature is the personification of animals. Ashitaka’s curse is healed by the forest spirit, and he decides to help the reconstruction of Iron Town while San decides to help rebuild the forest. The poison-like substance, which has now disappeared, managed to destroy Iron Town, but Eboshi vows to build back Iron Town with more respect toward nature. Ashitaka and San take the forest spirit’s head from Jigo and give it back to the headless body of the forest spirit, which revives the forest spirit and brings life back to the forest. Jigo tries to escape with the forest spirit’s head, but he is eventually surrounded by the poison-like substance. They successfully bring down the forest spirit and take its head, but the death of the forest spirit causes a flood of a substance that kills everything it touches, including all of the plants and animals of the forest. Eboshi teams up with Jigo, a mercenary hunter, to obtain the head of the forest spirit, which is said to bring eternal youth to the one who possesses it. She and Eboshi are bitter enemies, and although she tries to kill Eboshi a few times during the movie, she never succeeds. She, like the other animals of the forest, hates the humans for what they’ve done to the forest, and she hates Ashitaka at first too, until she discovers his pure intentions of bringing peace between the forest and the humans. She is a strong woman who is very kind to the townspeople, but she doesn’t have any respect toward the forest.Īshitaka later meets a human girl named San (also known as Princess Mononoke), who was raised by wolves since she was a baby. In the town, Ashitaka meets a woman named Eboshi, who is the leader of Iron Town. This iron is very rare and gives the town a lot of wealth, but it results in the clearing of nearby forests, which angers the animals of the forest.
Going to the mountain range, Ashitaka encounters a town called Iron Town, which is a town that focuses on mining the nearby lands for iron. From the advice of the Wise Woman of his village, he travels west to a faraway mountain range in search of the forest spirit, who can rid him of his curse. The protagonist of the film, a young man named Ashitaka, successfully defeats the boar, but not before it places a curse on his arm, which will spread throughout his body and eventually kill him.
“Princess Mononoke” takes place in the Muromachi period of Japan (sometime between the 14 th century and the 16 th century.) It starts out with a wild demonic boar attacking a village. In the film, Miyazaki looks at some consequences of environmental destruction and effectively uses techniques such as the personification of animals to argue that humans should have more respect toward nature. But the way in which “Princess Mononoke” conveys its theme is what makes it so unique. The main theme in “Princess Mononoke” is pretty clear: continue to harm the environment and it will eventually be destroyed. It invites us to take a step back and examine the destruction of the environment caused by our desire for material goods. “Princess Mononoke”, an animated film by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, takes a close look at the impact of Humanity’s greed on the environment. With man-made problems such as deforestation, global warming, and pollution negatively impacting the environment, artists, authors, and directors are all starting to incorporate environmental themes into their works. Environmental themes are becoming more and more common in modern cultural products.