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Rating: 5 stars

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All movies seen on 05/16/2015

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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

| Adventure

Most recently watched by sleestakk, schofizzy, krazykat

Overview

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

Rated PG | Length 117 minutes

Actors

Sumi Shimamoto | Ichirō Nagai | Gorō Naya | Yōji Matsuda | Yoshiko Sakakibara | Iemasa Kayumi | Hisako Kyouda | Mahito Tsujimura | Mîna Tominaga | Kōhei Miyauchi | Jōji Yanami | Minoru Yada | Rihoko Yoshida | Tetsuo Mizutori | Masako Sugaya | Takako Sasuga | Chika Sakamoto | Tarako | Mugihito | Akiko Tsuboi | Takeki Nakamura | Takako Ôta | Bin Shimada | Shinji Nomura | Hisako Ayuhara | Hōchū Ōtsuka

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Over a thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire destroyed what was left of the world and gave rise to a Toxic Jungle that has risen that no human can survive in and giant insects live and guard viciously within. Where the Toxic Jungle eases its approach, scattered human settlements have dug in, adapating to the new world and using found materials to shape homes, equipment, and weapons.

Nausicaä is the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a settlement that lives ever so close to the Toxic Jungle but who also has a vast understanding of the ecology of the Jungle. Their peaceful world comes crashing down when one of the other settlements crashes an airship at the edge of the valley carrying with it angry insects and a relic from the Seven Days of Fire that has several other settlements fighting over what they think will save their planet when Nausicaä has figured out the underlying truth of the Toxic Jungle and that relic and the other settlements plans will simply destroy all of them.

When we were ‘drafting’ our picks for AniMAYtion, Branden went right for the throat with his second pick being a Miyazaki film, which he hasn’t reviewed yet. I decided to return the favor in kind and went for the first film Miyazaki directed based off one of his stories that he’d turned into a graphic novel first. This was also before he ever founded Studio Ghibli but it’s counted as where the Studio first started. There have been a few U.S. releases and the copy I have is the DVD that got released in 2005. If you find a copy called Warriors of the Wind, stay away. This is a heavily edited version of the film. It’s the one that prompted Miyazaki to vow no edits to future films and why when Miramax was going to make edits to Princess Mononoke he sent them a Katana with a not that said, ‘no cuts’.

The film takes place in its own world, much like many of Miyazaki’s later films. Although it stands on is own there are some very obvious influences from Earthsea, Dune, Lord of the Rings, and even the Odyssey. With all the fantastic inspiration, there is also a very real world inspiration, the mercury poisoning of Minimata Bay which Miyazaki would use from how nature responded there to flesh out how the world was built with Nausicaa. There are some great themes built here about the environment, as well as the belief that not everything is evil as almost everyone here is motivated by what they believe to be the right choice to help their people to survive.

There are some amazing visuals here, but a lot of the style is still rooted in the late 70s animation look. You can easily tell it’s a Miyazaki film by the way the characters look and move but it’s a lot more rough around the edges than some of his later films and relies on some far more traditional techniques to get the job done than some of the more innovative things they’ve done. That’s not a knock against the film. This is still amazing to watch and take in and the design and world-building that went into this to make it look like a world that actually functions is outstanding.

I did watch this time with the English voice cast, all dubbed over with Walt Disney Studios participation so we get Patrick Stewart, Alison Lohman, Shia LaBeouf, Edward James Olmos, Chris Sarandon, Uma Thurman and Mark Hammill as the stars of the film. Out of them all I think Chris Sarandon steals every scene he’s voicing but a lot of that has to do with the character he’s voicing. Alison Lohman does a great job as Nausicaä and I have to admit I groaned when I saw Shia LaBeouf in the cast but he does a great job with the character. I can’t really complain about the dub at all as the cast really fit well and work well with the characters as they were animated almost 21 years before they did a voice over for US release.

This is a fantastic first film by a director who redefined what you could do with what most would consider a children’s film here. Studio Ghibli was the Disney of Japan and you can see why in almost every one of his films. Nausicaä, much like Mononoke, hits some pretty strong chords with me and the strength and selflessness of the lead characters is outstanding and not something you usually see in post-apocalyptic settings. This gives you that sense that most of those never seem to, hope, and I can’t recommend this one enough.

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