Parents' Guide to

Princess Mononoke

Movie PG-13 1999 133 minutes
Princess Mononoke Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

By Brian Camp , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 12+

Epic, compelling, and violent anime classic.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 12+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 11+

Based on 35 parent reviews

age 13+

Absolute Masterpiece

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.
age 14+

A content-focused review

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.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (35 ):
Kids say (114 ):

This film is a masterwork of animated storytelling from esteemed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Charting an epic battle of humans versus gods in old Japan, Princess Mononoke is filled with adventure and beauty. It boasts the scope and grandeur of a live-action historical epic yet also has the fantastic elements of animation. These elements, in the form of talking animals and a magical forest spirit, are treated with utmost realism. The animals debate their plight with dead seriousness and attack humans in murderous rage. They're nothing like the talking animals in Disney features.


The English dub features several actors well-known to British and American audiences, mixing accents from Lady Eboshi's British lilt to the monk Jigo's Southern drawl to San's modern American teenage inflections. Other famous English-language cast members include Gillian Anderson as the wolf god Moro, Jada Pinkett-Smith as Toki, and Keith David as boar god Okkoto.

Movie Details

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