Parent reviews for Princess Mononoke

i would have to say that the movie is good for kids around 13-18, mainly cause the movie has some pretty graphic scenes like ashitaka shooting an arrow that completely decapitates someone's head. the movie isn't as suited for younger kids as well as my neighbor totoro and kiki's delivery service is cause it does feature some curse words such as piss and damn which isn't really suitable knowing how impressionable kids can be hearing curse words. the movie overall is fantastic and has a very well valued moral behind it all.

I loved introducing my child to this movie. What I enjoy most is the theme of honesty to emotions. “Good people” can also be bad & “bad people” can also be good. Princess Ashitaka is a great role model for children, I love his whole way of being throughout the movie. I also really enjoy the range of characters. I like how the characters resemble reality of varied personalities because this is closer to the truth of people. I love deeper concepts of humans & nature, perspective on greed & what happens if humans take what they desire even if it hurts others . I love that princess Mononoke expresses anger, is a protector, shows kindness & stands by what she believes. There is violence, I don’t see it as gory. There is so much more to the movie than violence though. It has inspired my child to say things like “I want to live in peace with the Forest & ask the trees if I can build my home here”. This defiantly came from watching this movie. I prefer my child watch this than any Disney movie because of messaging & themes. If you are hesitant to show your child, watch the movie yourself first & reflect on the messages, themes & note the violent parts (there aren’t very many) & decide if it’s ok for them to see. We defiantly have had open & honest conversations about violence because of this movie (& books on world history) so this has been a positive experience for us.

This movie shows more blood in it than probably any other movie I have seen. Multiple heads are shot off by “demon” arrows, Princess Mononoke sucks mouthfuls of blood out of a wolf god’s wound to clean it, the main character is shot through the chest from which blood flows puddles on the ground as he exerts himself to open a city gate, a man has his arms shot off and pinned to a tree where they dangle for a moment, the decapitated head of a wolf-god bites off a woman’s arm, a ten-ton boargod vomits buckets of blood repeatedly, another boar-god rots away into a reeking carcass in seconds—and that is just the big stuff. This all sounds worse than it seems however, as the film’s cartoon nature makes the gore much less pronounced or offensive. As for sexual content, the film is mostly clean although “not applicable” is definitely an inaccurate rating. A band of women, who giggle a lot, is depicted in relatively modest kimonos (basically bathrobes) which nevertheless show a little cleavage. Many of them have, apparently, been rescued from more disreputable pasts and one man describes them as having been “wasted in the brothels” (a term which is used at least thrice in the movie). The women themselves say that their new life of manual labor is better because “the men no longer bother us…unless we want them to! *tee hee tee hee*” At one point, the main character goes to visit them (not in an inappropriate way) and helps them pump the billows for an iron mine. His efforts toss them lightly into the air which they find quite entertaining, but their bathrobes rumble a bit and one women jokes to another (off-screen) “Whoops! Better keep that kimono closed tight!” As for language, God’s name is abused a couple of times and b*stard, b*tch, d*mn and H*ll are each used, but only about once each. I like this website because of the user reviews, but whoever at CSM wrote this review clearly liked the movie too much. I mean: “Language = Not Applicable”? if b*stard, b*tch, d*mn, and H*ll don’t count as foul language, there is not much that does.

Princess Mononoke was a GREAT moive, at least when I was 11 (I was mature enough and not scared of the moive). This moive is a pretty good pick for Die-hard Studio Ghibli fans (I'm one of them myself) but not for the young ones. You have blood, violence, a HAND being chopped off, and other things in the moive that the older moives didn't have. My kids adored My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and the other classic moives, but the moive really didn't hold the attention of my kids. Great classic moive, but NOT for the young and sensitive.

This is my favourite movie of all time. I watched it with my 7 and 4 year old again recently. I thought they might be scared but they weren't. My 7 year old definitely would have been scared by it when he was 4 so I've rated it 7+, but my brave 4 year old was fine with it too. It is, however, kind of shockingly violent! There are lots of very graphic scenes. I'm really surprised that the official common sense review says "no positive role models" and then points out that the two main female characters are flawed. Um, what about Prince Ashitara, who is the protagonist, and who does everything in his power to try to resolve the conflict between the two of them (Princess Mononoke and Lady Aboshi) *without* violence?

I am disappointed that Common Sense Media rated this a 2 for positive messages. The whole point of this movie is respecting nature and ending the cycle of hate before it spreads. Ashitaka is infected with a curse/disease that was spread by hate. He leaves his remote village to find a cure and to see with eyes unclouded by hate. On his mission he runs into a greedy "monk", Lady Eboshi the ruler of iron town, and San and the wolf Gods. All have certain goals that are interfering with each other. Ashitaka joins no sides and tries his best to help them all to stop fighting each other and to realize what is really important. One of my favorite aspects of this movie (and most other Ghibli films) is that there is no line between good and evil. The antagonists usually are not pure evil but are doing things for a reason but also have good aspects. In this cause Lady Eboshi has no regard for the environment and is planning on destroy the forest where the forest spirit dwells to mine more iron. She also is not too caring of the men that work for her. Her good side: She buys women from brothels and gives them jobs and even employs lepers. All these people look up to her as a savior/ruler. San who I see more as a protagonist wants to protect the forest but has no regard for any of the humans with Lady Eboshi. I think this movie is okay for kids 10+ maybe even 12+ Violence: Some people lose heads/arms. Lots of battles/blood. Sex: Some mention of brothels Language: Minimal swears The virus/curse is kind of scary in my opinion. I took my 9 and 11 year old to see it in the cinema this year. I was nervous they would leave upset with the violence and scared of the virus but they were not and it has become a favorite movie for both. They loved the characters a lot. My kids have only seen a few PG 13 movies (All the Ghostbusters movie and Gremlins (since both the 1st movies were PG!) and Black Panther and Infinity Wars).

Capital G, all time great film. Complex in story and ethics. Violent, beautiful and thrilling. A reminder that human beings are both a part of and separate from nature. Captures the essence of reality in animation and is filmmaking on par with Kurasawa and Tarkovsky.

Perfect for small kids to adults, depending on your kids.