For the first thirty minutes i was enchanted by the animation, focused almost exclusively on that, trying to absorb the beautiful scenery of forest life. The weird and eerie surprised me, in a good way. It was deffinetely not what i was expecting after watching arcadian Howl's moving castle and Whisperer of the Heart. So, yes, Miyazaki certainly gets recognition for a reason.
I can't say i adore this movie, simply because this is not the kind of fantasy that takes you to an incredible ride through some distant harmonious universe where everything seems better arranged and more connected with nature, cosmos, atoms. Here, we witness the primal murder of that magical connection.
This movie is the reality of things, it's our world, it even reminded me of Attack on titan – a feeling of grandeur, and simultaneous bitterness and sorrow. The power of this sort of artistically presented truth lies precisely in this: when we watch this story, we are not on the side of humans. That's why it's so hard to imagine Ashitaka being a real young person in our world – he's better than us, and Miyazaki needed that bridge to show us the other, balanced, tender possibility (even if in vain), and so that the movie doesn't have a devastating finale.
This is a complex story in which there's no perfect rescue, solution, or unrealistic harmony. Victims have fallen, and although hope remains in the end and nature has proven itself, our awareness of the worlds reality suggests that there will be more destruction in the future.
Princess Mononoke (although it should be named differentely) is a very good movie.