Movie Log: Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke was supposed to be the Boys' Movie Saturday movie for last Saturday, but the usually-dependable USPS took an extra two days to get the movie to us, so we ended up watching it a week ago Tuesday.

The most notable thing is that I did not realize this movie was rated PG-13 until about half an hour in, when, a bit surprised by a few scenes of (relatively tasteful) body-part-chopping and by the use of the word "brothel," I got up and checked the Netflix sleeve. (So shame on me for not thinking of that sooner.) By that point, Thing 1 had fled for the first time (because, I hasten to add, he was worried about boring girly stuff -- he loved the body-part-chopping) and Thing 2 had fled for good (he was a little tired and just not that interested). Thing 1 eventually watched most of the movie with me, and got quite upset when, for a little while, he thought there might not be a happy ending. (He's only eight, and still believes fervently that all stories have happy endings, but he was very worried for a while.)

So I am a bad father, though I think I got away with it this time. I did mention the PG-13ness to the boys afterward, which I think will help shield me from their demands to see other PG-13 movies -- they're still at the age (or are of the type, maybe) where they're happy within their own limits.

The movie itself was quite good, though I was distracted from it now and then by managing Thing 1's reactions to it. I still like Spirited Away better (out of the Miyazaki movies I've seen), and this felt in parts like the Greatest Hits version of a Miyazaki movie -- young boy and girl thrown into danger and falling in love from Castle in the Sky, a strong ecological message from Nausicaa, and so on.

It's also now a week later, so I don't have anything very coherent to say about the plot and characters -- anything I might have wanted to say has slipped away by now. I'll want to see it again at some point, but I think I'll be seeing My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle first.