General "Did you Know?"s

[RepentantSky]

Princess Mononoke was originally something Miyazaki thought of back in the 70's, nearly 20 years before it actually started getting worked on. Miyazaki had even drawn out several images for what he thought the movie would be, but several of those images never made it into the final product, and ended up being scrapped or used in other films, such as, of all things, My Neighbor Totoro, Totoro's. Miyazaki was at first reluctant to make the film because it was so different than anything he worked on at the time, but was eventually convinced to do it by long time Studio Ghibli producer, Toshio Suzuki who had convinced him that he was getting old enough that'd he soon lose his chance to make an action film. The film really started taking off when a team from Studio Ghibli visited the same place that Miyazaki had several years prior which gave him influence for Nauissica of the Valley of the Wind. They saw a different place there with their different outlook on life. Princess Monoke's Iron Town was largely influenced by Japanese culture and the town from the 1946 western film "My Darling Clementine."

For the dub of the film, many people were asked to direct the English cast and oversee the project. Among them was none other than Quintin Tarantino who ended up backing out when he felt he wasn't right for the project and didn't want to mess it up. The voice cast for the dub of Princess Mononoke was largely made up of people who were either fans of Studio Ghibli's films, or just Princess Mononoke itself. Many of them took to watching the film several times making sure they truly understood the characters they were playing, as an attempt to get them just right.