The much-loved Princess Mononoke had its script adapted by Neil Gaiman for its English dub, at the recommendation of Quentin Tarantino.
The wonderful Studio Ghibli needs little introduction, and I can but envy those of you who haven’t seen their films before, and get to approach them all from scratch. What treats lie ahead of you.
What’s also lovely is the care that’s been taken in bringing the films to English language audiences, and that was the case with the marvellous Princess Mononoke.
But a bit more of the story of just how that got its international script has come together, and it involves some rather high profile names.
At the time of the film’s release in the 1990s, Miramax was handling the release of the films in the US. For Princess Mononoke, from director Hayao Miyazaki, it approached its prize asset of the time – Quentin Tarantino – to tune the screenplay for English language audiences. Tarantino passed on the job, but in turn recommended the brilliant Neil Gaiman get the job. Thus, Gaiman did indeed adapt the English script for the film.
Not that you’d know it, looking at the end credits, with Gaiman’s name nowhere to be seen. He’s clarified what happened in a Twitter exchange, and – as always – he tells the story better than we ever could…
My biggest secret. (Studio Ghibli asked for some of the Miramax execs to be removed from the poster and credits. The execs looked at all the names, determined that theirs would remain, and realised that mine was contractually expendable.) https://t.co/fm7BRFpp1W
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 12, 2019
Princess Mononoke is available on disc and streaming services now, and is thoroughly brilliant.
