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Mononoke debuts at Comic Con
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San Diego Comic Con attendees were greeted to a special treat last week when Miramax debuted the English version of the dub of Princess Mononoke, which is still planned for a theatrical release in October. Comic artist and PM Screenwriter Neil Gaiman was on hand to answer questions.
"I forgot I was watching a dub, it was so good," wrote one normally dub-hating fan. "Claire Danes [San] was great!" Gillian Anderson [Moro] also got good reviews, as did Minnie Driver [Eboshi]. It seemed to be the general consensus that Billy Bob Thorton needed work.
But most of the unexpected praise was for Billy Crudup's portrayal of the hero Ashitaka, which one fan called "Perfect". "Ain't It Cool News", an internet film publication that was looking forward to the film, quickly published no less than 3 glowing reviews.
"Ghibli was incredibly strict with the translation," said Gaiman at the Q&A session after the screening. "There was lots of 'no, you can't say that, but this you can say.'" Translations fell under scrutiny after the scripts for Kiki's Delivery Service were based on a marginal script by Carl "Streamline" Macek, which had multipile alterations made.
The next screening of the film will be at the New York Film Festival in September.
