Princess Mononoke's story is familiar
While watching Princess Mononoke, all I could think of was how similar it seemed overall, like I'd watched the movie before but with a few small differences. Then it hit me- FernGully: The Last Rainforest. You might have vague memories of FernGully as that movie that the teacher put on at the end of the year in 4th grade, but the basic plot is there are a race of fairies living deep within the forest and Krysta, the next leader/healer in line, finds humans chopping down trees and tries to stop them. In the process, a human construction worker and bodacious babe (their words not mine), Zak, is shrunk and must learn the ways of the forest and come to terms with how bad chopping down all the trees are so he can help fight off the pollution monster, Hexxus, from completely killing the forest.
If the parallels aren't already clear, here's some further info. Hexxus is a glob of oil/smog/evil that awakens form a long sleep when INDUSTRIALIZATION comes to ruin the forest. He drinks the oil from the machines and the exhaust fumes to grow big and strong enough to take down the fairies. It is then up to Zak to pull a full 180 on his thoughts about the environment and help Krysta take down Hexxus.
Princess Mononoke, on the other hand, is about Ashitaka, a boy who lives in a forgotten tribe deep within the forest who, when threatened by a now angry god, has to find out why. On the way, he meets a town full of gun manufacturers in Irontown, which he learns is the reason the gods are turning on the forest. He then partners up with San, a girl who lives in the forest with the gods, to help overthrow the bad humans and help reinstate the gods to power.
While they do come from different countries and came out a few years apart; FernGully: The Last Rainforest coming from Australia in 1992 and Princess Mononoke coming from Japan in 1997; they both tell a very similar story.
If the parallels aren't already clear, here's some further info. Hexxus is a glob of oil/smog/evil that awakens form a long sleep when INDUSTRIALIZATION comes to ruin the forest. He drinks the oil from the machines and the exhaust fumes to grow big and strong enough to take down the fairies. It is then up to Zak to pull a full 180 on his thoughts about the environment and help Krysta take down Hexxus.
Princess Mononoke, on the other hand, is about Ashitaka, a boy who lives in a forgotten tribe deep within the forest who, when threatened by a now angry god, has to find out why. On the way, he meets a town full of gun manufacturers in Irontown, which he learns is the reason the gods are turning on the forest. He then partners up with San, a girl who lives in the forest with the gods, to help overthrow the bad humans and help reinstate the gods to power.
While they do come from different countries and came out a few years apart; FernGully: The Last Rainforest coming from Australia in 1992 and Princess Mononoke coming from Japan in 1997; they both tell a very similar story.
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