Beasts of the Southern Wild and Princess Mononoke — How 2 different types of films depict a similar theme.
Around a week ago, I had the privilege to watch the fantastic movie “Beasts of the Southern Wild” provided by my English teacher Mr Blair Mahoney. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a 2012 American drama film directed by Behn Zeitlin which talks about the modern prevalent issue of climate change in quite an abstract way. In the past few weeks, I have been instructed by Mr Mahoney to read and write my thoughts on several articles and movies on climate change which has consequently led me to watch the critically acclaimed film “Princess Mononoke” (or Mononoke-Hime) among a few other movies. While Beasts of the Southern Wild is an American film with real actors playing the cast, Princess Mononoke is a Japanese animation — though both still depict the same underlying themes of rising climate change. In the following read, I wish to discuss and compare the themes and messages in both of these movies as they ultimately seem quite distant in style but depict tragedies of the same issue.
Beasts of the Southern Wild was quite a weird film, one which left me really confused initially as the credits rolled due to its uncanny and abnormal way of storytelling. As I did not initially understand many of the various characters' symbolism, a lot of the scenes felt out of place. This film’s meaning and symbolism is definitely down to one’s own interpretation and more under the surface as there is really little meaning you can derive from just the surface of the film and what it directly tells/presents to the viewer. On the other hand, Princess Mononoke is quite an old Japanese animation (made in 1997) directed by none other than Hayao Miyazaki with Studio Ghibli, telling the tale of the film’s main character Ashitaka with the clear and heavy use of the supernatural theme.
In Beasts of the Southern Wild, we see the impacts of climate change in the form of rising sea levels. Hushpuppy, the main character’s, home which is an isolated island is predicted to get completely flooded soon to where she doesn’t have a home anymore, which does happen. What is important though, is what Hushpuppy and other characters such as Wink, Hushpuppy’s father, aim to represent relative to modern climate change problems and their symbolism. Beasts of the Southern Wild, however, don’t try to present these ideas and symbolic messages very clearly, as on the surface it is the story of a community in poverty and heavily impacted by nature and rising climate change. Hushpuppy is a very strong character in the film despite being only 6 years old, both in a will, in maturity and in strength. I personally think that she is easily symbolic of modern-day climate change activism and the younger people trying to change what is happening. On the other hand, Wink (the father)’s attitude and personality as a character are symbolic of modern-day adults, politicians and people (stereotypically older generations) who don’t care about the environment and climate change. I will get into my take on their roles later as well as other characters’ roles in the film.
Princess Mononoke as said before is an animated film. This changes its way of storytelling compared to even a film like Beasts of the Southern Wild, but I believe that it is done in both a masterful and beautiful way. The film targets and depicts the issues of the environment, deforestation, industrialisation and the battle between man and nature. Remember, this film is a solid 20+ years old now it’s themes are no less relevant today as it was in the 90s. In the film, the main character Ashitaka gets attacked by a boar possessed by “a demon”, which forces him to venture west to find a cure from where the demon came from. There, he finds the raging battle between multiple factions. There is no clear “good team” as all the factions have their own goals. Ashitaka first gets a glimpse at the “Iron Tower” which attempts to seize parts of the forest and land to make firearms. This represents modern mining companies and modern rapid industrialization which is constantly going on to help satisfy our own rapidly growing population and for companies to gain more money. The other main faction is nature. Miyazaki brings nature to life (quite literally) by creating massive animals known as gods who can command their respective species.
Bibliography (using APA referencing style)
Princess Mononoke — Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. (2021). Retrieved 16 November 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke.
Kovvali, S. (2021). What ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ Really Says. The Atlantic. Retrieved 16 November 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/what-beasts-of-the-southern-wild-really-says/261228/.
Beasts of the Southern Wild — Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. (2021). Retrieved 16 November 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beasts_of_the_Southern_Wild.
Ebert, R. (2021). Beasts of the Southern Wild movie review (2012) | Roger Ebert. Rogerebert.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beasts-of-the-southern-wild-2012.
Magazine, S., & Lidz, F. (2021). How Benh Zeitlin Made Beasts of the Southern Wild. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 17 November 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-benh-zeitlin-made-beasts-of-the-southern-wild-135132724/.