Pokemon and Mononoke

[Dion Madrilejo]

Mononoke Hime Comments
In it's first weekend in wider limited release it pulled down a little over
$10,000/screen on 38 screens nationwide in the US. I believe it is also
being test marketed as a full release in the Minneapolis area. When I saw it
opening night in Michigan, the theater was almost, but not quite, sold out
and made up mainly of anime fans. However, when I was buying tickets earlier
that day I saw a wide variety of people buying tickets for the film ranging
from parents with kids to elderly couples.
My reactions to the dub...it won't convert anyone from watching subs to
watching dubs but overall it was a very respectable job by almost everyone.
I felt they did a very good job with the translation although some lines
were changed so that the appropriate meaning would be conveyed as opposed to
the strict translation. I think on the most part the voice actors did a very
good job in their respective roles, especially Billy Crudup as Ashitaka and
Minnie Driver as Eboshi. 
However, Billy Bob Thornton needs to have a couple two-by-fours subtly
applied to the back of his head because he was just terrible as Jigo; he
seemed to put absolutely no effort into his role. I was also not really
happy with Gillian Anderson being cast as Moro but in hindsight she did the
best she could with occasionally hokey dialogue and probably the most
difficult role in the film to cast for (how exactly should a mother god-wolf
sound anyway?) Also, I personally don't see what everyone's problem is with
Claire Danes as San. Early in the film she sounds a bit too 'modern'
occassionally but overall she did a respectable job; not as good as Crudup
and Driver but definitely not nearly as bad as Thornton.
Overall, if you haven't seen MH on film or would like to attempt to convert
some friends into anime fans then I would recommend seeing the dub.

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Dion A. Madrilejo / d.madrilejo at worldnet.att.net
home.att.net/~d.madrilejo
DAM Good Productions
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