The original Japanese version is an interesting case: at the instigation of Hayao Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke is the first Ghibli film that uses celebrities to provide the voice of the main characters of this film; since then, all of the Ghibli films used celebrities to voice the main characters. The only known professional with a named role in the movie is Sumi Shimamoto as Toki, Lady Eboshi's servant.
Cross-Dressing Voices: Moro is voiced by a man, in this case Akihiro Miwa, in the Japanese version. This comes from Japanese mythology which says that wolves are always male-voiced (and cats always female-voiced), regardless of sex.
Dueling Dubs: There's three Latin American Spanish dubs, all of them dubbed in Mexico, but one of them in a different city: The Buena Vista dub, which was dubbed in Monterrey, and the Zima and Wild Bunch dubs, both dubbed in Mexico City. The Wild Bunch one, used in Netflix, is considered as more faithful to the original Japanese version, since it was dubbed from the original language, rather than using the English Miramax version as proxy translation.
The Weinstein brothers attempted to remove 20 minutes from the English release to earn a PG rating despite the Disney/Ghibli distribution agreement prohibiting any edits to the footage (as Miramax was a division of Disney at the time). When Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki found this out after a very successful screening for the New York Film Critics Circle, he sent the Miramax executives a katana with a note attached: "No cuts" — very much mindful of what had happened the last time a Ghibli film got trimmed for a Western audience. Even then, Harvey Weinstein kept trying to stand his ground, this time seeking to axe an even stricter 40 minutes behind Ghibli's backs; he only acquiesced when the PG-13 film earned a rave review from the New York Times that didn't mention the length at all. Finally, Weinstein scrapped the planned elaborate promotional campaign for the film out of spite.
When Neil Gaiman scripted five drafts for the English adaptation, Miramax ended up rewriting his scripts. Six months later, however, Gaiman returned to finish what he started, but the execs (from Miramax and surprisingly, even Studio Ghibli themselves) deleted his name from the theatrical posters and thus he went uncredited until he revealed his role via Twitter.
Fake Nationality: Tokyo native Yōji Matsuda plays the Emishi prince Ashitaka.
Invisible Advertising: According to English scriptwriter Neil Gaiman, much of the lackluster impact Mononoke made in theaters was because of Weinstein being petty. On the night before the New York Times was due to release their review of the film, both men were having dinner with Suzuki and Miyazaki. Weinstein took Gaiman aside and revealed he planned to circumvent Studio Ghibli's "no cuts" policy and remove forty minutes from the film anyways, intending to tell Suzuki and Miyazaki as much. "Tomorrow the New York Times review is going to come out and say it's too long. And then they will listen to me," Weinstein reportedly said. When the review not only ended up calling Mononoke a "landmark feat of Japanese animation", but didn't call the film long even a single time, all the fancy promotion that had been planned for the film suddenly went poof. Gaiman claims that Weinstein didn't even attend the premiere screening in Hollywood.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Disney's sale of Miramax was in the way of any possible re-release in the US for several years, although Alliance Films in Canada was still able to print its release. Miramax's rights lapsed at some point and Disney re-issued the film (officially re-printing the original DVD release from Buena Vista Home Entertainment re-badged in Disney's Ghibli package design and with almost every mention of Miramax removed) in 2012, with a Blu-ray release in 2014. GKIDS would gain the home media rights to the film in 2017 (with distribution by Shout! Factory), 20 years after the film's initial release.
Late Export for You: Of all Disney/Miramax-produced dubs released between 2000 and 2001, the one that had a long-time trouble on being released in its target country was one in Brazilian Portuguese. At first, as Disney used to have the (mostly-)worldwide rights at the time for the movie, they just screwed it especially for the Brazilian market not releasing it in any media, being it VHS, DVD, television, cinema, anything. As some media say, the company refused to do it because of its graphic content, alleging "it was very harmful to children". However, it was discovered in the same year that the Japanese DVD released at the time included the Disney/Miramax dubs, especially that Brazilian one. But... despite the good news, it remained Japan-only for a long time. The first sight for an official movie release in the country just started in 2010 through an HBO channel, but still... it was sub-only. The dub finally got its chance in the country four years after that subbed broadcast, through a DVD that is part of a special Ghibli collection.
Playing Against Type: An ADR studio variant. The first Latin American Spanish dub was dubbed by a voice acting studio located in Monterrey, Mexico named Musitrón, which traditionally dubbed stuff for Disney. This film was their only Anime production they dubbed before Musitrón stopped doing dubs at the latter 2000s.
Production Posse: There are several Hayao Miyazaki regulars in the film:
This was Tsunehiko Kamijo's second Ghibli film. He previously voiced Capo in Porco Rosso.
Composer Joe Hisaishi wrote the music to all of Miyazaki's works since Nausicaä.
Color designer Michiyo Yasuda and editor Takeshi Seyama had worked with Miyazaki since Castle in the Sky.
Short Run in Peru: The DVD release falls under this trope, as the film was released on DVD in North America on December 19, 2000, before it was in Japan on November 21, 2001.
The earliest concepts Miyazaki had that involved a Mononoke spirit was actually his re-telling of Beauty and the Beast.
More early concept art details a version of the film starring a prototypical Satsuki and Totoro in feudal Japan; it's likely that this is what provided the basis for Totoro's own film in 1988. This artwork did eventually see a public release in the art book Princess Mononoke: The First Story.
Miyazaki intended for this film to be his last, but came out of retirement after conceiving the story for Spirited Away.
During the English dub's production, Miramax originally contacted Quentin Tarantino of all people to write the script adaptation. Tarantino instead recommended Neil Gaiman to write the script as he was busy doing Jackie Brown. After Gaiman finished five drafts, Miramax went on to update his adaptation for the next six months. When that didn't go over well, Gaiman was brought back to finish the script for its final release.
This was the last Ghibli film to be made using the traditional cel animation process that had been standard worldwide for decades; starting with their next production, all of Ghibli's films would be digitally animated, with the majority of them still using traditional pencil sketches but foregoing cels and rostrum cameras in favor of digital lineart and coloring.
