Dub Talk Presents: Summer at the Movies (Season 8) - Princess Mononoke

0:00 note this is not the full film of Princess monoke rather this is a review of the English dub of Princess monoke the full film is available for streaming on Max and the Blu-ray and DVD can be purchased at the crunchy roll store or wherever anime home video is sold please support the official release sincerely the dub Talk podcast warning The dubt Talk podcast contains language and content that may not be suitable for younger audiences listener discretion is advised there will also be spoilers for various anime throughout the course of this episode please use caution in case we discuss a series that you haven't finished yet finally the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants and may not reflect the dub Talk podcast as a whole enjoy the

0:45 [Music] show hello one and all and welcome to dub talk in the premiere of season 8 of Summer at the movies my name is Stephanie and this year I'm joined by Hardy hello everyone Hardy yes sir yes you realize you realize it's been almost 10 years and you brought this realization to me when we were planning out some of the movies you and I haven't done an episode solo before no we have not no we have not not what was it we were chatting a few months back I think

1:31 when we were talking dubby stuff and um you're just like hey Steph uh I know we are not talking about some of the movies yet but I came to this realization do you want to do some of the movies together this year I'm like [ __ ] yeah let's go yeah this a first time for both of us I think yeah and then I think I know I threw a suggestion of an episode at some point uh but that's for later because I love torturing myself oh no apparently you we went over this because I I told you about this I was re listening to some of the old episodes of the podcast at work we had a bet going on and we both lost have and um long story short we may be revisiting one of the shows that one of us was

2:18 forced to watch stay tuned everyone St stay tuned uh anyway though uh this year some at some of them wow I can talk today uh this year sum of the movies will be taking you on a wild ride full of Adventure Sports and heartfelt goodbyes but today we're going to be starting the season off with a bang we get to have some jibli time ji with ji time with I think I think if I remember right um for both of us one of our favorite jibli movies uh yes it's a movie I have not watch one your favorites and me too yeah I haven't watched this movie in over for two decades so it's it was nice going and revisiting it again no I think it's been

3:05 at least for me it has to at least be 10 years maybe for me it's been a hot minute um but anyway today we're going to be talking about 1999's Princess monoke uh if you haven't heard of this film before first of all uh where have you been for the last 25 years this film is 25 years old then it's actually one of the I think one of the most wellknown of the jibli um jibli catalog actually in Japanese it's would came out in 97 so it's 27 years old oh [ __ ] yes the dub was 1999 that would make sense then right yo this this movie is old enough to rent a car and then some rent a car

3:52 it's old enough to drink it's old enough to be enlisted in a draft my cat is in the kitchen playing with toys um he's making the Ruckus uh but anyway all right if you haven't if you for some reason haven't heard of this film before um we'll we'll give you a little summary Hardy could you please give us a quick little summary of what this film is about all right from a Ann it says while fighting to save his Village from the attack of a demon god ashitaka comes in contact with it and is inflicted with a deadly curse in his search for a cure he is forced to leave his village forever and jour Journey to the forest inhabited by animal Gods there he finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and a village led by lady ibushi

4:39 yeah and then there's also this little girl who was raised by wolves so she comes into she plays a kind of an important part considering the movie's named after she is in oh my God my cat is going crackhead sorry my cat's decided to play it is 3 o'clock in the afternoon right now when we're recording this um he's having fun anyway no it's revisiting this movie I'm just going to say was very interesting especially because I think one of the biggest things with Princess monoke and can sometimes be a bon of contention for some folks is how preachy it gets about the environment at times oh yes that's

5:24 um one that's the thing with miyazaki's films yeah like there's he always centers around something and in this case it looks it's um it's environment and Humanity's hands causing like destruction which given we're in 2024 where climate change is a massive topic it it's still the movie is very poignant even now mhm um anyway so as per usual we're going to go through um the cast and character cast a character the staff and uh talk about the English dub of this old film I think the dub I think since the movie was 1997 cuz um btva has it listed as 1998

6:14 so I'm going to assume that's when the dub was out was released was in 19 1999 excuse me so this dub is at least 25 years old yes no the first time I watch this film I actually rented it from Blockbuster on a VHS tape that's how old it is [ __ ] okay mhm it would be around the time when vhs's were still a thing the version I have I told you about this cuz the vers the version you have you have the newer release from the newer Blu-ray release from G kids right uh yes yes which is stunning by the way I'm jealous because I have the [ __ ] the old Disney DVD version of it from 2001 that's how I watched it from yeah no from um the T oh wow because one

7:01 of the TR one of the trailers on my set was [ __ ] for um for brave oh nice theatrical releases for brave I'm like all right that's funny but no my releas is from the from the early 2010s I think cuz Brave was 2012 so I found that hilarious but yeah we're going to be going through and talking about stuff yeah this is probably one of the older movies we were revisiting uh up there NE close to Akira which was in the'80s so yeah I think yeah this is one of the oldest films that we've ever covered for some of the movies I believe mhm you you I think you're right yeah I think you're right um this is not including though any of like the sum of the movie ovas I

7:47 don't think CU I know yeah we're kind of cheating tradition we are kind of cheating tradition uh by uh not doing jibli as an OVA we are sort of you know it came up and wanted to cover it so Steph and I decided you know what screw it we're going to we're just going to take it it's like this is ours goodbye I think the in terms of ser in the movies General if we are including the ovas the only one I think that predes this would be Kiki mhm so I think it would I think the thr olds would be Akira Kiki and then now princess mon no fun times um we should probably get yes fun times had by all it's a what we say before recording this it's going to be a hoot nanny mhm and a hollerin a hoot and a Hollin and a

8:33 hoot and a Hollin all right we should probably get started do we want to start with the ADR staff on this yes please why don't you introduce the staff because I learned fun things while doing this all right you were like I I need you to I need you to see who's on writing this okay so this is very interesting as far as voice direction is concerned uh for our director we have Jack Fletcher now he goes way back into uh old school anime he directed old dubs like ninja scroll and the Aon flux and he also did a few a couple other uh jibli films he did Kiki's Delivery Service and what was the other one um was it um Castle in the

9:20 Sky yes Castle in the Sky that one had a Anna pacin and Mark Hamill in it I believe um yes but yeah his most most noteworthy direction as far as anime is concerned is he did the early Tini Muyo dub a lot of the ovas for that and he has largely shifted into more uh video games these days his most recent I think was Mario and Sonic at the 22 2020 games so oh that's nice that's good that's fun right now as for the adaptation or the script adaptation this one blew my mind um for a writer we have Neil gimon if you do not know who that is I'm

10:05 I'm GNA say this before you go into some credits I almost like I heard the name I couldn't tell you what he did but Hardy was like when you get to looking at his credits though sta you need to look at his credits so what has he done he wrote The Sandman Comics uh he also wrote Coraline and good omen and Beowolf and he's considered up there with fantasy writers as prominent as JRR tokken and Terry pratchet so he's a big name yeah yeah when we say bolf he wrote the script for the movie B wolf right

10:50 right so not necessarily actual book I don't think but he's also I think he ALS I also saw he did a writing on a couple of um Doctor Who specials as well right right and so his involvement with this project wasn't even revealed until 2019 so that late that late yeah holy [ __ ] I didn't know that actually yeah he just recently got credited on the G kids Blu-ray it's it's it's amazing wow I wasn't paying attention on my DVD set to see um who was listed as part of the adaptation yeah again M my set's from like early 2010s that's interesting but yeah so Neil wonder why he would have said it now yeah Neil gim's a big deal so but anyways what did we think of this

11:37 direction cuz I have my opinions and you have yours for a dub that's like 25 years old I think for the most part it still holds up rather well um I don't really have any issues with the writing first and foremost yeah um a lot of the writing seems pretty straightforward from the Japanese side of it uh but it you can tell that there is a little bit of a flare and a style to it with Neil Gaiman being at the helm of this um which makes sense because he is primarily a fantasy writer of sorts um which so it makes it much more accessible to a North American audience

12:22 because of that uh directing wise though there are some interesting choices I think uh some of which don't 100% stand like work 100% well even by today's standards um because I think some of the line reads and the direction on those can sometimes be stiff um I mostly have this issue I think primarily with Ashi taka of all people um and then there are some interesting creative choices in terms of the casting that were taken um for instance lady eosi when we get to her um she's performed by a engl a

13:08 British act uh British actress and she keeps the accent for lady eosi which is a very interesting choice and we'll talk more about that I think in a bit when we get to lady eosi but I would say for the most part the writing and the direction stand up hold up still very well but there you can kind of see at least on the directing side I think some of the flaws with early like a direction like this cuz this is in the late '90s mhm when anime is like starting to kind of get more of a Groove and especially in the English dubbing space mhm cuz this dub predates bbop which of course is the one that's credited as the turning point in

13:55 the English dubbing space if I'm remember right will be by in Japanese was 98 so I don't was like early 2000s probably probably I probably closer to 99 so yeah this was around the time this was around the time to where dubs were starting to get really good and um I think the problem with this dub in particular is stunt casting because they were grabbing a lot of celebrities who were big names at the time and just kind of sh horning them into here where normally they really don't have a place they're just getting big names for the sake of drawing in box office numbers and which is ironic with the exception

14:40 with the exception of a few including one that we're going to talk about more in death and then two that we're going to talk about in passing I think right because those three people are more are more are more welln for the in the voice acting realm um compared to the remainder however there are a few others like lady abushi again as I was looking up credits last night I noticed she was in another Disney movie which we'll talk about in a minute right um so it's very interesting yeah no I think if you can definitely tell that more time you you get a better quality effort from the actors who are seasoned voice actors than that you do from the celebrities and yes we I'll go

15:29 I'll break down what as we go on who did better and who didn't do so well yeah but uh I think it's the dub itself is definitely still listenable um there's nothing inherently bad about it it's just it comes across as awkward at a few spots so you know it's but it is it's a 25 25y Old dub I mean it is what it is uh I definitely think that JBL dubs got better as they went along but but I still kind of think that for the most part jibi dubs in general have a tendency to suffer from stunt casting because they want to get those bigname celebrities in and sometimes they just don't work but that's just yeah and again yeah

16:16 and again like because I already I already mentioned how I thought some of the Direction with um Ashi taka can kind of be sometimes stiff and stilted um with his line read in particular and we'll get more into that that but um again we're also talking about 25-year-old dub where it's from a historical standpoint is right along the cusp of when English dubs in North America started like actually giving a [ __ ] more about production value yeah because this came out around the same time is like your bbops and your Outlaw stars and your dry guns and your what you who's he what's it and whatam mallit and everything like that so who it's in what's its Galore you want think of about bus I got 20

17:03 nice so yeah it is it is an old dub it is definitely still listable there's nothing inherently awful about it but if it was recorded in modern times I could definitely see it being better now watching Jack Fletcher's Direction in video games go along he definitely got better over the years so uh we'll yeah we'll talk about it when we get into our next section A little bit as um yeah as he he pulls in his connections oh yeah we we we have we have a lot of fun with this dub honestly yeah um and of course the writing it's Neal gaming I mean how do you pull in something like that right right like holy [ __ ] so like I think the writing alone I think is one

17:51 of the most standout pieces that still holds up very well and especially because again like we were saying in the beginning one of the one of the major themes of the film itself is environmentalism and Humanity's hand in the destruction of it or the or the um preservation of it and it it can get very preachy at times I think Neil gaiman's adaptation of the writing on this is handles that those pieces very very well and still allows it to have the Fantastical elements of it because you're dealing with with animal Gods you dealing that can talk you dealing with um these different Forest spirits and these interesting

18:38 Little Creatures to which the the art style of the movie is still even though I didn't H I had the DVD quality and you had the Blu-ray I didn't get to see how stunning the Blu-ray render is and I wish I could cuz I even without that the animation style and the art for it is still [ __ ] gorgeous dude mhm it is stunning I can only I I told you this yesterday I can only imagine how phenomenal it does not look like a 27y old film it looks brand new it is I was amazed by the restoration job that g kids did for it so yeah yeah g kids they got that Oscar money now man

19:23 holy hell mhm just saying do which congratulations to the boy in the Heron yep well deserved and I want to talk about that that dumb one of these days because [ __ ] I was a girl in high school who was a fan of the Twilight franchise I want to [ __ ] talk about Robert patson in that goddamn movie [Laughter] okay I'm like I better be on that or I'm going to Riot just saying all right do we want do we have anything else about the direction writing or you want to just start talking about these performances and characters I want to start talking about our uh first Trio of

20:09 minor characters we I know we didn't originally plan on covering them but I think that they do deserve a mention um yeah a quick little mention brief passing oh God we have I didn't I didn't put credits in for any of them that's the only dropback well I I I researched them bit before uh before we start recording so I can say a few things um first of all we have lady II's secondhand man and we have Gonza uh we also have the um koraku what is his job again I forget he was the he's he's a he's a um he deals with the ax yes he or something he handles the ax

20:56 he's the ox Handler and he's one of two yeah he's one of two uh men who get injured at the beginning of the movie and are brought and rescued by ashitaka and brought back to iron toown uh we also have his wife uh Toki now oh Toki yes Gonza is played by John dagio um he mainly focuses on Western animation and video games you know him best as Bender from futureama Jake the dog from venture time and in video games you know him as Marcus Phoenix from Gears of War and Waka and Kamari in Final Fantasy 10 and 10 2 um I forgot he's Marcus in Gears of War uh John John deita has a quite

21:43 extensive um uh resume of anime uh he does he mainly focuses in background roles but you could hear him you could hear him most recently in the dub for one punch man as bang SLS silverfang right God it's been a minute since I've watched freaking one punch man one punch man I haven't even I haven't even touched season 3 I don't think and playing Toki is our first celebrity role Jada pinket Smith yeah yeah this is a wild one yes she has mostly liveaction roles obviously she's

22:29 is the wife of Will Smith and uh but she has some voiceover roles under her belt mainly Gloria in the Madagascar series and she also voiced her character in the two Matrix games uh Enter the Matrix well she voiced her character and entered the Matrix and so here's where here's where my opinions uh start to alter things oh boy boy were you not a fan of Toki not very much no not so much that interesting it's not so much that it's Jada Pet's fault it's just her voice doesn't really match the character I don't no and it's I just it's

23:17 interesting that you say that because there were moments throughout the whole course of the film and I even wrote a note down I know I know we weren't originally going to discuss them I we were only going to maybe do them in passing um it sounded like it had twinges of like a New York or Brooklyn accent at times with some of her line reads yeah yeah that's another thing we're going to visiting is that so many of these characters who are supposed to be Japanese are speaking with these these Americanized accents and it's not really mhm it's not really done on purpose because they pull out the they they cast these actors who just naturally have these accents and just say hey say this into the microphone that's the issue I have with a lot of stunt casting with celebrities is that

24:02 they're just using them to try to you know pull in box office numbers like oh this person is in this movie so I want to see them whereas with John nagio and John DEA they have actual experience in voice over they've been doing it for years and so yeah they they sound really good especially John Nam Mau I think he's probably arguably one of the best actors in the entire d because he has actual experience and John Dez koru he has a smaller role he just kind of you know plays the coward for a bit in the beginning and then kind of disappears until near the end but uh but even he he sounds more experienced than most of the rest of the cast um

24:48 right whereas you pull in j p and Smith it's just okay she's here you know you can listen to her whatever yeah she I will give I will give Jay credit though um she did definitely have the attitude for a character like Toki because one of the more important pieces of her not only her character but the women of iron toown essentially the ladies are in charge more so than the men basically and the ladies are the ones who are manufacturing and and getting this iron and melting down smelting down thank you that's the word um this iron and getting all of it prepped and all this fun stuff they are the ones hard at work in the factory

25:35 while the men are either they're the ones that got all the Sass yeah they're the ones who work hard they're the favorites for uh for lady eoh understandably so and they are very loyal to Lady eosi too because it's also stated a couple times in the film that eosi will buy out the contract of some of these women from brothel mhm so it's they become so loyal because they they she helped her helped them get out of like this bad situation and now they're very grateful and they'll do anything for her so Toki I think to Jada's credit has the attitude down it's just a very

26:22 interesting choice I think because of some of the line reads and you can tell at this stage because you as you mentioned there are a few voiceover roles that she's done since then um where they's been improving on it but you can tell that she's very Green in terms of voice over work and it definitely shows with the slight New Yorker accent that comes through during the course of the film that's that's what I that's the closest thing I can equate it to because that's what I could hear in the in the in the vocals for her and then both John dagio and John deita are [ __ ] Legends bro mhm they're two out

27:09 of three voice acting legends that are in this film we're going to get to the third one next oh yeah but and I would argue that third one is probably an even bigger Legend than these two combined oh easily that's my opinion but both of them like you're you're absolutely right you can tell the difference between who the seasoned voice actors are versus the the stunt casting and those who are not as well-versed in the voice acting realm um I think both both John's did phenomenal as well here um I think Gonza was a lot of fun for me personally because when I saw was John deagu I'm just like oh bender gets to be an

27:54 [ __ ] again awesome I love when Bender's an [ __ ] this time he's an environmental [ __ ] who just wants who just wants to be loyal to his lady and wants to kill a [ __ ] that's it but no it's it's very interesting the comparison already that we have just with these three people alone I don't know if he had anything else we turned this into a whole section of itself somehow yeah I don't know how but we did and we did it we did it live [ __ ] it we doing it live mhm um I guess do we want to talk about the next section of characters yeah let's talk about the the two Gods um we have Morrow the wolf God who looks after the forest

28:40 we have okoto the the boar who is trying to wage war against the humans with his army of of hogs and mind you Oto and his group are also trying to take avenge on oh what's his [ __ ] name I think it's Nago Nago Nago Nago who is the boore that you see in the beginning and is the one that curses um Ashi taka um in terms of who voices these two uh let's start with Morrow uh Morrow is voiced by Emmy Golden Globe and sag Award winner Jillian Anderson um who you would know for roles such as Dr Miki hotu

29:28 um in another jibli film from up on Poppy Hill uh Margaret Thatcher in Netflix is the crown uh Sarah Merit in the last king of Scotland and probably her most prominent known role would be as Dana Skelly in the xfiles franchise and then speaking of voice acting Legends um okoto we have the one and only Keith David voicing okoto uh you would know him as Bernie Basset and Roadhouse Dr facilier in The Princess and the Frog um something more recent husk from hasbin hotel David Anderson and Mass Effect and of course [ __ ] Goliath from Gargoyles from back in the

30:15 day you also recognize him in several Navy advertisements Navy yes accelerate your life the the few the the does he do the Marine commercial too I don't know if he does the pro the Marines I don't think he does he definitely does the Navy though right he definitely does the one for the Navy and uh speaking of Keith David um in case you watched our recent Pluto episode he is the voice of Dr T yes you right you're right so this is now the second time we get to talk about Keith David which is a [ __ ] Delight yes if I had a nickel for every time I got to talk about Keith David on dub talk I'd have two nickels we have two

31:02 nickel which isn't it's isn't a lot but it's weird that it's now happened twice it's so funny like God he's such a legend though dude as he doesn't really he he not only voices okoto but he has a few lines at the beginning as the unnamed narrator as well um yes to be noted um and he doesn't really Cotto doesn't even speak all that much he eventually loses his mind and completely loses the ability to speak um but in that brief moment where Keith David is talking there are times there are a few actors that I can say honestly that they could read a foone book to me and it would sound like the

31:47 most dramatic thing ever and Keith David is one of them oh yep oh hell yeah hell hell yeah I agree with that dude Goliath was my childhood same here [ __ ] Goliath was my childhood oh my God I never told this story when um we were when we were talking about Pluto um back in the late 90s because this was around the point when gargoyles was a thing um at my dad's house I don't know where we got it and I don't think we have this anymore do you remember maybe like back in the say God I feel old now saying that when um you would sometimes

32:33 have when you have when your version of interactive games like interactive board games was on a VHS tape yes and the board game there was a Garo one that I was obsessed with playing with obsessed with playing I don't think we have that game anymore and I'm so sad about it now I want to know Coy's game it's not the it's not the psych a Genesis one it's um oh they remastered the gar RS game though for Nintendo switch and that makes me happy um oh garles game VHS there it is gargo with interactive VCR board game VHS that is the one wow

33:20 this is the one gargoyle's the movie I think by the looks of it unless that's just a random I don't remember or was it Wonder Forge it's this one I'm just I'm sorry I'm just randomly looking for these oh no this is something else entirely but no that was something I was obsessed with playing when I was a kid it's not even funny yeah um I had to share that quick story no what is there to really say about Keith David dude like man basically voiced our childhood phenomenal man voiced our child childhood and he is still [ __ ] kicking ass even today mhm like I know we mentioned Pluto but I also briefly

34:06 mentioned hasb been Hotel he is phenomenal in hasb been hotel as husk like he's a [ __ ] riot you get to hear Keith David drop F bombs quite a bit in that show well yeah he's made a he's made a career out of that he's up there with Sam Jackson for dropping up a whole bunch of boms like I think the most prominent roles that I've ever heard Keith David in would definitely be Goliath more recently would be Pluto and hasb been hotel but I also I remember the Mass Effect Games Captain Anderson I think when I was in college that was when I started playing the games and that was just like that was when I was introduced to actually who Keith David was and then I also relearned not long after that I'm like wait this is [ __ ] gol I

34:52 completely forgot he was also spawn in the HBO animated series which she got to reprise in Mortal Combat oh no way mhm I'm sorry we're just gushing over Keith because we're like obsessed now we're just obsessed this man voice not only voiced our childhoods but he's a goddamn Legend yeah like for real not to put Jillian Anderson down or anything she's great too but no she um this I guess real quick um Keith David is O okoto was a lot of fun very you can tell there was like some ex exhaustion to his portrayal because he's tired he's an older God he's blind's also

35:39 blind so you can tell there's the exhaustion the frustration um but also the sense of Pride that he has um for his clan and it's it's a very fun and interesting portrayal um of this poor God kind of tragic very tragic as well it's very tragic like one of the scenes that I think is very poignant is when after okoto and the rest of his clan tried to take down um eosi and they all get [ __ ] blown all the hell um son is taking o okoto to see the um the king of the forest

36:27 spirits mhm and um he again he's blind but he starts smelling the scent of all of his comrades but all of his comrades are dead and the Warriors are just using their skins to hide the scend of humans to trick him yeah and it works and it just turns into such a sad moment for OKO okoto when he is just fooled and then he just he he succumbs to eventually he it gets figured out as both son and I think um the other wool

37:14 two uh two other moral Cubs um they just are like we ain't fooled by [ __ ] they start ripping off the [ __ ] Bor skins and then okoto starts to succumb to um becoming a demon himself and it's very sad and very tragic um because then by that point that's the point where like you mentioned earlier he just succumbs so much that he does not have the ability to actually speak anymore it's just it's a very strong and poignant moment and I think Keith David is just he's phenomenal and it's is just tragic character throughout the whole course of this mhm Jillian Anderson though at the same on to the same

38:00 credit while while she at that at the point when this was made or produced she didn't have a lot of like voice acting credits to her name at that point um I actually really liked what they do with Morrow first and foremost you can tell that there's this kind of filter attached of some sort tomorrow but at the same time and even then there is what Jillian brings tomorrow is this kind of gry growley voice to it so you can still you can still get some of the um

38:46 you can still get some of her Beal K9 yes B K9 qualities to Morrow it's honestly it's a very interesting touch they do similar I think with the other moral Cubs as well um the filtering wise anyway but I think I really I actually really like Jillian as Moro I think I appreciate how even though she is animalistic and a beast there's this sort of motherly quality to her when it comes to both sa and and her pups because interesting enough this was one of Jillian's first voice roles but she has gone on to do a lot of extensive Voice work since then um both reprising

39:31 voice roles for Scully and cameos and video games and also um doing a lot of audio books and narrations for short films so yeah yeah so this was probably one of her first but she has definitely expanded since then I think she's one of the better of the celebrities that got hired for this this this movie it still comes across at times like she's reading a script but um yeah you can tell it sometimes as just a straight read rather than mhm giving a little bit more emot emotion or emotive expression to the line but I can also honestly appreciate what what she did with the role too mhm it it I I I find it very poignant

40:20 honestly that throughout the whole course of it while she while she has this disdain for humans um she also has this sympathy and a soft spot for them at times as well obviously that's you can tell that most with son and I think one of the more interesting scenes which is not necessarily my favorite but it does have some of the more rough portrayal of the role I think is when she's interacting with Ashi taka and um telling her like what do you know like you don't know anything about son what are you going to do for her she she was abandoned as a baby when I interacted with her parents

41:05 they threw they got rid of her easily thinking oh hey I'll eat her and they're going to save themselves and instead I adopted her like what do you know of the world um it's a very poignant scene and I think it has some of the more rough portrayals rough um moments of the performance for Jillian but I think it still comes across um rather well um with the protective mother aspect right and she would go on to star in other um other jibli Associated Productions both in from up on Poppy Hill and later uh Rona the robber's daughter so oh yeah cuz I saw the Poppy Hill one I didn't see the RO I she was the narrator

41:51 oh okay yeah that makes sense that makes sense like she I'm happy she definitely expanded cuz you can tell even though it was like a rough like early outing in the voice acting realm you can tell that compared to some of the other stun cast you can tell she wanted like put the work in there right you know what I mean mhm so some of it could be for her at the end of the day could be some of the direction on it and maybe because she was still new to voice acting and especially to dubbing cuz that's another animal in of itself let's be real um and we're going to get more into that with our next two and our next four actually um because oh boy yeah from here on out next two yeah here on out it's complete

42:37 stunt casting um yep yep our next two characters are jigo who is a Traveling Monk who's actually working for the emperor and trying to get the four Spirits head and is not a is not he's willing to do pretty much anything to get it if it means betraying people if it means you know um fighting the gods he's he's kind of a yeah kind of a Shifty little character he's also ugly oh isn't he ugly that's how you know he's evil he's ugly as Sin he's well here's the thing nobody's really evil evil in this movie they're all just not sort of they're just not

43:22 good it's true yeah nobody's inher nobody's like 100% inherent evil mhm you can kind of tell that that they don't have good intentions right and speaking of people who have don't have good intentions we have lady iboshi who is the head of Iron Town and her goal is to kill all of the wildlife in the forest so that she can mine it for iron she has good intentions she personifies greed basically yeah she's she's I that's definitely something is for her the personification of greed she is very much a bad person who does good things so yeah yeah and maybe maybe not

44:09 only greed but like a sense of Pride as well exactly MH so anyway playing these characters I can't believe I'm about to say this oh Lordy what jigo is I don't know jigo is played by a cat and gold Globe winner Emy nominated Billy Bob Thorn this is an interesting one from the main character from Sling Blade the main character Willie from Bad Santa y he was also Lauren Malvo in the

44:54 Fargo TV series Dan TR in Armageddon Hank grotowski in Monsters ball among others um and playing Lady ibosi we have Emy and Golden Globe nominee mini driver who she played Skylar and Goodwill Hunting she had a cameo in golden eye and she her other voice acting role was as Jane and Disney's Tarzan yep mhm yep and boy do I have opinions on these two 're they're not really long drawn out opinions they're just opinions opinions

45:40 yes I I have a feeling you and I might have a little bit of arguments with Minnie I'm getting the vibe that that's going to be that's going to be what happens here so what let's start with Billy why don't we start with Billy Bob Thon on this he is completely utterly miscast in this I'd have no idea why they put him here it is interesting that Billy Bob thoron gets to be put here as jigo like I can early on in the film because we we first see jigo interact with ashitaka a little bit and the note I put down there down there for that early on scene was

46:26 like oh he seems kind of gentle and also guiding I'm like okay he it's a I'm not sure how I feel about it but that's the vibe I'm getting and then when we see him again and when we start to see more of him again that's where I'm like okay this is your deal huh okay I'm confused I'm confused by Billy Bob thoron is G now no I just I was about to say I was completely confused because again it's been at least 10 years since I've seen this movie right I completely forgot that jigo is actually the main

47:12 reason why the plot is what it is MHM like he's the one who's like I want the head of the force spirit for the emperor I forgot it was him who was the Catalyst of that um and if he had stayed as like a sidekick Mentor kind of role to Ashi taka I think Billy would have been okay it would have been serviceable but then when you get the actual motivations and I'm reminded of what this character is I'm like what then the performance makes no sense yeah I just want to know why this short scrun monk from Japan sounds like he's from Backwater Mississippi [Laughter]

48:05 oh and if we ever do if we ever what we're saying if we ever do best of uh summer the movies compilations that one was that one's for this episode dude this is the patreon clip right here what are you talking about you forgot we have patrion Clips this is it bud we're expecting uh jigo to put in some put in some Chaw and take a swig of moonshine just sit on his back porch yelling at them kids get off his lawn yelling old man yelling at Clouds sounding like a good old southern boy get off my property get off I'll get my shotgun my

48:53 two barrel my no my double barrel shotgun I'll pepper your kids get off my [Laughter] lawn this is why you and I need to do solo episodes more often 10 years boys and girls and nonbinary peeps 10 years and he and I have not done an episode just the two of us long overdue [ __ ] no like Billy Bob floron just confuses the [ __ ] out of me yeah and it's not surprisingly I think to this day this is his only voice over role until just

49:40 recently he voiced himself or a version of himself in an episode of Harley Quinn I think he has not done any other Voice work since well at least with Harley Quinn asked with the case that's an easy one he just get he just gets to play himself really he gets to play himself that's not a hard thing to do before he gets eaten by a tiger in Catwoman's place so nice he gets to play himself and he also gets to do pray and not dubbing right anyways that's all I have to say is you have an easy time that's all I have to say why does why does he sound like he's from Backwater Mississippi I love B so much [ __ ] no I I think like

50:27 I feel like this is I I I can agree that this is maybe like a miscast here CU if Billy was in a different role potentially I could see it working not not only just like because yes he's 100% Green in the voice acting space right you could 100% see that mhm like that's not even Up For Debate but I think like if you gave him a completely different role to play with then he might be able to be a bit more of a serviceable performance again in the beginning I was like I don't mind him as like being this guiding hand for Ashi taka I'm actually kind of okay with that it's a little rough from the beginning short and then you get to the

51:13 real reason why he's there and it's like huh H what is this but um no yeah so we're ready to move on to lady iboshi and her um driving performance oh my God are we [ __ ] serious right now Stephanie I'm almost 41 I have to have my dad jokes ready I hate you so much oh man hardy hardy I love you you'll be in my heart no matter what they say [Laughter]

52:01 okay uh so how about them apples B on [Music] your I feel like based on what you what your reaction was earlier I for some reason I think we have like you and I might actually have words like you and I might have potentially opposite opinions but I don't know I know I'm reading the reading the vibe wrong I will say this um outside of Keith David uh mini driver is probably my pick for best performances from the celebrities here and oh okay so we do have the same opinion mini driver is actually my favorite performance yeah because I think it's not so much her acting as much as it is her accent um

52:50 yeah because she is the only one in the entire movie with a British accent and uh doesn't try to hide it or anything it's an it's an interesting choice really and I don't think it affects it the performance in a negative way because like it gives lady iosi more of this like Regal Noble presence to her that's what I was going in a sense compared to the rest yeah in a sense compared to the rest of the cast so I would like I think under normal circumstances this is something that' be a really weird choice that wouldn't work but given the character of Lady abushi herself I think it works weirdly enough

53:35 like it's it's so interesting I completely forgot that ever she's per ever she's performance in the English had an an English accent to it mhm I'm just like huh and then lady iosi kicks a lot of ass oh yeah I'm just [ __ ] saying yeah she's not she's kind of evil but she's pretty awesome too so oh no yeah like lady OSI knows what she [ __ ] wants and she's going to do what she can to get it no if s her butts like it's not even not even funny like she will [ __ ] fight you for [ __ ] um and she's has this Minnie also has this air

54:22 of confidence to her which that she brings out of E as well um definitely one of the more memorable scenes would be one of the first I think the second time we actually get to meet eosi when Ashi taka talks to her and um this is when Ashi taka finds out how oh what's his nuts what's his nuts uh Nago mhm when he figures out how Nago um came to his home Village and how he ended up getting cursed was because of Lady eboshi mhm um so he approach so ashitaka approaches her and is like hey I want to know how I can remove this curse because this is your [ __ ] fault that this is

55:07 a thing right now and he's also observing things and what was what was the phrase that the old Shaman woven said seeing thing he he had he's seeing the world with eyes unclouded by hate I think that's the line yeah now that's I yeah I believe that's closer enough and that's that's on Neil gaimon's rating writing right there so that is a very poignant line MH right and I I love that line so much lady eishi is like okay you know what I'm going to tell you what I've actually been up to and she does this with such confidence she brings them over to like this back room where all these lepers are um building guns making like actual rifles for her and

55:53 she's just like has this air of confid Ence and she I think she even says to Gonza like the only reason why she's telling him this is because [ __ ] it I don't care if he knows there's nothing he can do to stop me you know what I mean um mini driver has this confidence about her with lady abushi and I think it's that confidence in the performance that basically makes me forget about the accent and makes it the whole the whole shebang works so [ __ ] well that I love it so much personally yeah that's all I really have to say before moving on to our our two main protagonists it it's very like so far in

56:41 the conversation it's been very interesting where we have for the most part with each of the SE each of the sets of characters we've had we've had at least a very good MH voice acting performance and a not so good one because you had what was it so we had had both John's versus Jada you have Keith David versus Jillian though Jillian was still pretty good right um it's just you're going against Keith David at this point I mean you can't yeah you can't win you're you're comparing apples to oranges um and then you have Minnie and Billy Bob thoron and now now we have ashitaka and Son yeah are two leads so we have ashitaka who is the prince of

57:28 this um this tribe from far in the East uh he is essentially he's our lead character the one who's trying to see the world with eyes unclouded by hate um because his ass got cursed when Nago um just storms his village and he tries to defend his village because Nago has become a demon at this stage um he travels to the west to to see what he can see and maybe if he's lucky he's able to cure this deadly curse uh along the way he meets son the titular princess monoke she was abandoned as a child uh to wolves uh in this case the

58:13 god Moro and she is raised um by Moro and is part of her family and Son hates the humans to no end and she's one of the many advocates for helping save their home in the forest and protecting the forest Spirit um so for these two uh let's I'm going to start with Ashi taka Ashi taka is voiced by Billy crudup a Tony and Emmy crudup bab crudup who is a Tony and Emmy Award winner he's the only Tony Award winner here actually it's very interesting um so he you've might have heard him or seen him in things such as uh Cory Ellison in the morning

58:58 show um Eric ma leash in Spotlight uh this is a deep cut for me and I mentioned this to you yesterday M so he portrayed Lucky in the 2013 Broadway production of waiting for Gau the I saw this production no not 2013 oh that might have been the West End um he portrayed Lucky in the Broadway production of waiting for Gau mhm which I saw when it was on Broadway in like 2014 oh wow 2015 around then and this is the one that starred um Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen oh wow yeah no it was the show was phenomenal and

59:43 um if you've I don't I'm I'm going to assume you've never read or seen the play Win For gdau I have not not yet no so first of all it's very good um it's a darker car comedy uh it's a it's a dark comedy from um Samuel Becket he's a phenomenal playright um the character SO waiting for gdau in general the main story is these two men um are waiting for gdo they're just sitting around and waiting for gdau um partway through and they're just trying to pass the time while they wait for him that's Prim that's the main story of it yeah uh partway through you get to meet um ponzo and love lucky mhm ponzo is

1:00:29 this this rich like Merchant kind of guy lucky is his essentially his stupid attendant stupid attendant stupid servant kind of deal that's who Billy played in the show and it takes it's a two act play and it takes place in two different days for each Act and the First Act lucky is very very stupid right very stupid like deaf blind all this fun stuff um and then the second act lucky has a bit more sense about him and ponzo is the one who ends up having in a rough spot so the RS kind of reverse a little bit okay um it's a very it's a very interesting play um I definitely recommend reading it sometime

1:01:16 um but probably the other main role or the main role that he's known for for uh for that he's known for uh aside from his his Emmy weding role in the morning show uh John austman AKA Dr Manhattan in the Watchmen y uh Dr Manhattan and his digital dong yep surprise um as for son our titular princess manoke we have Emmy and Golden Globe winner uh Claire Danes who has who was um been enrol such as Carrie mat in Homeland yavan and stardust Stardust which I so when I was writing these credits last night I started with ashitaka and Claire Ashi taka and son and then I went

1:02:03 to directing and the writing at the end uh I'm pretty sure Neil Gaiman wrote the book for Stardust or the script for Stardust ironically enough so that's funny uh CLA D is also Kelly rker and the Rainman and probably one of aside from Homeland probably one of her other main prominent roles would be um Juliet in the baz lurman uh late 90s film Romeo and Juliet um where we want to start with this oh boy Billy crudup does his best oh man clear Dan's should not voice act ever again I'm sorry oh

1:02:50 no it was not great oh no it wasn't great I know she was only 20 at the time that they recorded this but a lot of the actors in this dub were in like their mid to late 20s by this point I know Billy was 31 I did some math yeah I did some math Billy was in his early 30s I think Minnie was in her early 30s Claire I think was in her late 20s early 30s no she was 20 oh she was 20 yes cuz she was born 1979 and what's what's kind of icky is that in around 20 2003 to 2006 she actually dated Billy oh yeah I didn't know that yeah 11

1:03:37 year age difference oh God mhm um yeah she did this is interesting because I I'm just looking up Claire now on Wikipedia for shits and equals um so Romeo and Juliet was 96 the dub for princess monoke was 99 so that's a threee difference right there MH so that's very interesting she's not bad on screen she's not bad on screen she's just not really great behind the mic it's just I I mean I'm trying to give it a do I just I don't care for it it just sounds very very flat I didn't have I don't think I had as much of an issue with it as you did um it's not my favorite

1:04:23 performance not by a long shot cuz I I mean mini driver exists um mini driver and of course Keith [ __ ] David right um weirdly enough I think I had more problems with Billy's ASI taka rather than cla's song H weirdly enough cuz I mentioned this earlier when we were talking about the directing and writing there were moments for ashitaka where the line reads that he had were very stiff and stilted MH um and a good chunk of Billy's performance is actually kind of quieted down it's very hushed very quiet um he does get these M Mo emotional impactful moments where he gets to be more

1:05:08 angry but even then it's like the emotion for those moments are maybe at like 50% compared to where they probably should be like it's dialed back a bit if that makes sense it's it's very odd I have more issues with Billy as ashitaka rather than Claire as son Claire's son to me oh God what did I write down I think heran is fairly serviceable to be honest um she has this strength about her and also like a little bit of a sense of vulnerability during like the latter moments of the movie it's not again it's not my

1:05:54 favorite and I think she I think she does a little bit better than what Billy did with Ashi taka personally um but we're also comparing apples to oranges and two actors who have probably never voice acted before in their lives yeah yeah so it's very it's very hard to discern like how well they can do and it's even harder to discern whether or not these are performances that are worthy of these kind of lead roles if that makes sense yeah now I I I hire it up once again to stunt casting they wanted some big names and they just pulled whoever was interested and um went with it and the

1:06:41 result is what it is um I think that stunt casting in the days since has gotten better um yeah it doesn't happen as much anymore now that uh that Disney isn't dealing with JBL or anything anymore and so you kind of have a better better result it it sort of goes back to Jack Fletcher's Direction and him sort of moving out of anime and more into uh more Western Productions and video games as just not involving celebrity as many celebrity um casting

1:07:26 as as before gotcha yeah because the celebrities aren't bad actors they're just not voice actors that's the thing there's a completely different voice acting right it's a completely different animal and of itself yeah um I I will say this about Billy it's very interesting I'm looking over like his credits and philography more a little bit um he only really started acting in films in like '96 so like 3 years prior to princess mon no um but he's been on stage a lot longer right he started performing in theater in 1994 and I think like that might have a little bit of something to do with it because stage

1:08:15 performance is a another completely different animal right compared to acting in film and TV and even voice acting because I'm just looking over his act like his stage credits this man a year before princess monoke was edus oh God he did the play edus and he was edus um looks like he also did his first his first stage role was I guess America dreaming and then he did Arcadia bus stop the three sisters and Then edus followed by I guess probably a few other films and things and then he goes back to St he does a lot more stage work more

1:09:00 frequently than he does TV and film yeah cuz I mean the last thing I can even remember him being in or ever seeing him in was Watchman and that was 2008 I haven't seen him in anything since but then again I don't watch Modern TV so right the only the most I mean his award winning roles he his Emmys come from the morning show and then where did he win his Tony the [Music] Tony the Tony award was for uh he's one he's been nominated and like won quite a few more stage roles rather than um uh ah no yep I'm right he won his Tony in

1:09:46 2007 um for best featured actor in a play for the cost of Utopia I see I guess you can maybe throw cuz for Academy because Spotlight won Academy Awards I think right I don't remember you know I don't watch the Academy Awards most of the time I mean I kind of remember stuff um that was 2016 where's the award accolades received by Spotlight looking at [ __ ] because we can uh but anyways you know it won it won the Academy War for Best Picture in 2016 yeah yeah yeah but anyways stage is different from voice acting so it's it's all just sort of so Billy has a difficult time but in a different way than what Jada and Billy

1:10:35 Bob thoron have and even Claire like Billy Billy Billy's issues are a bit more of a different animal because he's more established as a stage actor compared to theater screen right it's very interesting um but no I between the two I was oh Claire ass son was serviceable I guess when it came but Billy's was like just barely there when it came to Claire it's mainly like when she's trying to be emotional and saying no she comes across extremely flat what I was reminded of actually um was I was kind of reminded of uh Scarlett Johansson's performance in the SpongeBob

1:11:22 movie and just how flat that turned out to be Daddy no Daddy no that's great I love that but anyways that's just my opinion who who cares about me so yeah who we're just two nerds on the internet um but no I I think as effectively the two leads it's okay it's like I said I think yeah it's like I said earlier it's it's not an offensive dub in any way it's perfectly listenable but if it had been recorded in this day and age I think more care

1:12:10 would have been put into it um 100% like you would have had much more Dynamic performances for for this for these roles especially for son and Ashi taka yeah 100% right cuz I mean we're still getting stunt casting using celebrities in this day and age but uh but I mean from what I hear I've heard nothing but good things about the boy and the Heron and especially Robert patson so dude I said this earlier MH if and when we do an episode for boy and the Heron I'm going I will [ __ ] fight people to be on that I think that's going to be you and Roots pretty much me and Patrick are is going to be

1:12:55 like fighting for [ __ ] to be on there cuz maybe Andrew to maybe not so much but like I saw the boy in the Heron earlier this year um with Andrew and [ __ ] oh my God Robert Paton do you know which character Robert Paton plays he's the Heron correct and most of the time the Heron is this like really short big noosed like M seemingly like really weird amalgamation of a character mhm and what Robert patson does for that is like holy [ __ ] it's one of those you just have to like see and experience to believe it's insane um from what I hear by the time this comes out it'll be out on Blu-ray

1:13:42 and DVD yeah from what I heard is that R Robert Paton is actually pretty great in anything that's not Twilight mhm oh no yeah that's what I keep hearing too um weirdly enough I heard he's pretty good in the new Batman film I what else have I se I still need to watch the lighthouse yeah I own the lighthouse I've heard that him and um William defo William defo isn't it yeah yeah I heard him and William defo are [ __ ] phenomenal in that film together MH like I need to watch that movie like Robert patson after getting away from Twilight and remember he was also Cedric DIY um in the Harry Potter franchise too after after he got away from like the mainstream [ __ ] he like blew up in a

1:14:30 different way like he just was so he was he's phenomenal and a lot more like Indie projects where he gets to like actually like Flex his acting muscles and the boy in the Heron is 100% one of those fun little challenging roles for him um now again now I want to do boy in the heron again as a as a fan of Twilight in high school I I need to talk about Robert patson like it's damn it's [ __ ] unrecognizable like legit um but anyway still back to focus around yeah back at

1:15:15 princess monoke so are we ready to move on to final thoughts sure sure what do you think of the what what do you what are your thoughts on the dub well my thoughts on the movie or it's amazing and fantastic and you haven't if you haven't watched it yet you need to do so right now whether that's buying the Blu-ray which is phenomenal looking or if you want to stream it on Max that's fine too um but yeah if you have not seen it definitely Rectify that it is a classic for a reason the dub if you don't want to read subtitles it's perfectly serviceable that's how I usually watch it um it's again it's not an offensive dub it's not terrible it just is a product of its

1:16:02 time you know like I said I originally rented this on VHS back in 1999 or so when I was I would have been 16 years old and now I'm almost 41 so that's how long it's been since I've seen this movie either the dub or sub as long as you watch this movie you need to experience it for once in your life it's a bit long it's about two 2 hours and 15es hours I think it's about 2 hours 15 minutes and yeah two and a half with credits probably yeah but anyways just once you have an afternoon available to show yourself sit down watch princess monoke and prepare to be amazed um definitely definitely I I I

1:16:47 wholeheartedly agree I think um there are there are still quite a few people that will sometimes refer to princess monoke as one of ha miyazaki's masterpieces um and I think that's still true even today uh there are a few other films that I think kind of are almost to that point again but for me princess monok has always been a favorite um yes please go watch the film about to say please go watch the show like this is not a show we're talking about movies again um please go watch the movie regardless of your your language Choice um you can do no wrong either way uh because this film 100% you need to experience it for sure um in terms of

1:17:34 the dub it's just despite the circumstances of like where it was at 25 years ago when it was first dubbed and again from a historical context this is around the point when English dubs for anime projects um um start to get more care and attention and production value um even with all that in mind I I can agree that this dub is still serviceable even 25 years later um there are it's good points like you have again like mini driver Jillian Anderson um the Legends

1:18:20 [ __ ] Joe dagio Joe deita and [ __ ] Keith David but you also have some of its flaws um both Billy Bob Thon and Billy um I'm about to mispronounce the last name crudup crudup thank you I hope said crud up again like that's not it crudup um Claire Danes uh J pick and Smith um this is one of those examples where stunt casting it does not go as perfectly as you expect um but definitely one of the highlights of the dub for this one 100% is the adaptation from Neil Gaiman he does a phenomenal job with this um directing is hit or miss again overall it's a it's a serviceable dub for a

1:19:07 phenomenal movie um and I and I agree with you if this was a dub that was produced today a lot more care and attention would have been put into it um compared to what we had gotten though it it make it's very interesting cuz there when we were talking about this too um I'm just remembering because there are actually I believe two English does from my neighbor tooro if I remember right there's one from oh God there's one from cuz this is too was from the late 80s and then yeah so there was a dub from 50th Street films late 80s early

1:19:55 '90s and then there's also the one that dis the redub that Disney did in the mid 2000s so it's very I've only known the one from the late 80s early 90s because that's the one we had on VHS at my dad's house yeah I don't recall ever listening to the Walt Disney one yeah that's the one uh the Walt Disney is the one that has the uh the Fanning sisters Dakota and alet correct as um satki and may compared to I'm looking at the cast right now Michelson and Cheryl Chase um were those roles in the uh 50th Street films version in the Stream you right streamline I'm seeing streamline in the Streamline version I personally I'd be curious to see what the newer one of too

1:20:41 sounds like but anyway I digress but yeah I think a lot more care if this was a dub that was produced now a lot more care would be put into this my only hope is if it would have been produced today that Neil Gaiman just St sticks on with the the writing because God damn it that's a highlight for this dub for me um but yeah I uh you definitely should go watch the film regardless of which language track you choose it is [ __ ] standard it's it's it's um not standard it's mandatory watching if you're a fan of anime 100% just saying um and from a historical context especially if you're a jibli fan um definitely definitely go watch this movie uh if you want to go and watch

1:21:27 this movie uh how you can do so uh there is the home video version right now from gkid which is the one that Hardy has and we've mentioned a few times uh it is also available for streaming on Mac Amazon Prime and Apple TV uh and here's the funny thing we are recording this on Sunday June 16th on Father's Day H iron um when we're releasing this cuz we're starting it off some of the movies on Friday July 13th that's the plan that when we're releasing this uh jibli Fest is going to be going on and Princess Mona no will be in theaters for a limited time July 13th

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