Kaze no tani no Naushika [Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind] (11 March 1984)
directed by Hayao Miyazaki
starring Sumi Shimamoto, Alison Lohman, Mahito Tsujimura, Mark Silverman, Hisako Kyôda, Tress MacNeille, Gorô Naya, Patrick Stewart, Ichrô Nagai, Edward James Olmos, Yôji Matsuda, Shia LaBeouf, Kôhei Miyauchi, Mugihito, Mark Hamill, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Uma Thurman, Iemasa Kayumi, Chris Sarandon, Paul Butcher, Jordan Orr, Ross Simanteris
|
MPAA rating: Studio: Studio Ghibli, Hakuhodo Inc., Tokuma Shoten Script: Hayao Miyazaki Music: Joe Hisaishi Running time: 116 minutes Tags: Adventure; Animation; Anime; comic-book adaptation; insects; murder; pollution; post-apocalyptic; Science Fiction; war Tactical strength: [7/10]
|
for violence
Usually, I find Disney an arrogant company that manipulates the movie and video market as if it exists entirely for the benefit of Disney shareholders. They market DVD's as "Disney DVD" as if they use some sort of unique technology for their discs than other companies, and they frequently manufacture scarcity by advertising, "Your last opportunity to buy movie X before we put it back in the vault forever." But I have to admire Disney's handling of their U.S. license to Hayao Miyazaki's entire body of films. In 1985, a studio bought the rights to Nausicaä, edited it heavily, and released Warriors of the Wind. (Even the movie poster, shown above, bears little resemblance to the content of Nausicaä.) This 1985 release apparently made Miyazaki so upset, that he determined that any future rights must include the stipulation that he would allow only dubbing and no content edits of his films. When Disney purchased the U.S. rights to all but one of Miyazaki's films, they honored his wishes and have assembled an excellent cast for the English dubbed version.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind tells the story of a distant future where warfare and mass pollution have made the earth almost uninhabitable. Huge jungles filled with toxic plants and gasses surround the nearly barren areas inhabited by humans. Princess Nausicaä (voice by Sumi Shimamoto [jp], Alison Lohman [en]) lives in a small, fertile valley. She and the other inhabitants rigorously protect their land against any of the spores from the jungles, which would soon take over their valley and make it uninhabitable. Nausicaä doesn't fear visiting the jungles on her personal jet-powered glider and wearing a protective mask. She collets samples of flora for scientific experiments, and she harvests exoskeletons shed from the great Ohmu -- giant insects that protect the jungles. Nausicaä represents an eco-friendly view of living with the belief that humans can live in symbiosis with the toxic regions of the Earth. Two other major powers, Torumekia and Pejitei, represent older, warlike behaviors, and each ends up attacking Nausicaä's valley. These other peoples believe that they can benefit mankind by eliminating the toxic jungles, and Nausicaä must use her special knowledge and rapport with the Ohmu to protect her people's land.
For entirely hand-drawn animation, Nausicaä has some incredible visual effects. As Nausicaä flies around on her glider, we view her from many angles, in and out of shadow, and through the toxic jungles. Several places do have animation problems. At one point, hoards of Ohmu stampeded into the desert separating the toxic jungle from Nausicaä's valley. The art depicting the swarms of Ohmu look primitive compared to most of the generally superior details in the rest of the film.
If you listen to the hype from the DVD extra features, you would think that director Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli has produced every anime movie in Japan. I don't want to downplay Miyazaki's importance in the field of anime, but I found the self-promotion a little hard to swallow. The documentary does provide some interesting information about Studio Ghibli and the primary personnell there, but you also have to recognize that the documentary ignores the existence of any other anime studios. Also, the DVD offers a second disc that provides a full-length storyboard detail with the accompanying soundtrack. I will generally watch short documentaries about storyboard to final production, but I personally don't have any interest in watching the entire feature as a storyboard.
