If you've been reading my reviews, you may remember that a couple of weeks ago, I did a double review that included Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie, Ponyo. After finishing that review, I thought to myself, "I really like Miyazaki's movies, but there's several I haven't seen and several I've only seen like one time a long time ago." So I decided to throw about 6-7 on my Netflix queue and dedicate a series of reviews to one of the best and most famous directors of anime movies around. I'll be reviewing them in order of release date and limiting myself to movies made with Studio Ghibli (I don't think he's done much else, just covering myself here from people claiming I'm missing something).
And with that, I'll go ahead and jump on in to my first review, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaa is set in a post-apocalyptic world 1000 years after war, particularly due to massive behemoths called Giant Warriors, has destroyed most of the ecosystem as well as crippled human civilization. The remaining humans now live in fear of two major threats - an ever spreading poisonous jungle called the Toxic Jungle and massive, sometimes violent insects, particularly the enormous Ohmu.
Our title character, Nausicaa, is a princess of one of the remaining human civilizations, a small peaceful tribe that has settled in the Valley of the Wind. She believes in peaceful coexistence with both the jungle and the insects and is trying to develop a cure for the jungle's poisons to save her people. One night, a plane crashes in the valley carrying important cargo for the militaristic Tolmekians from the weaker nation of Pejite that they are occupying. The cargo turns out to be a dormant Giant Warrior that the Tolmekians plan to use to burn down the jungle despite the warnings from ancient tales. Now Nausicaa must find a way to stop war from breaking out between the various human groups as well as the insects and stop the destruction of the jungle that is more than the poisonous threat most people see it as.
The story of Nausicaa is very well done, a well told story of war and peace and the different approaches to human-environment interaction. On the note of the environment (which is sure to come up a lot in this series of reviews...), I have to say I feel that Miyazaki's typical environmental themes feel much more heavy handed in Nausicaa than they do in a lot of his other movies, though this may be my spotty memory of some of his films. In the end it doesn't detract from the quality of the story, but it does lead to the story coming off as a bit preachy at times.
The characters were good enough to serve the story well, but they were nothing amazing or anything. Nausicaa herself fills a pretty typical role as a pacifistic leader trying to stop wars and killing, and while she fills the role well as a courageous and inspiring leader, she doesn't feel too new or unique. Asbel, the fighter pilot from Pejite that Nausicaa saves from enraged insects, was a decent character but in the end felt pretty unimportant. Yupa, the wise sage and mentor character, had a couple of heroic moments but also felt somewhat unimportant by the end. The warring antagonists stood out, providing a nice contrast to Nausicaa's pacifism and having some generally good intentions behind their actions. In the end though, Nausicaa is the one carrying the story and she does a pretty good job.
When it comes to the art, Nausicaa displays Miyazaki's usual beautiful traditional style of animation and is definitely great to look at. The animation is great as well with a lot of the flying sequences and battles moving very well. The movie is one of Miyazaki's earliest, however, and the art and animation do feel a bit dated when compared with some of his later works. There are several scenes with either no movement or very limited movement. Still, the artwork is really good and definitely pleasing to the eyes.
The music in the movie did a pretty good job setting the mood, but the individual tracks themselves weren't too memorable for the most part. There was the recurring, surreal "la la la" chant, but that was more memorable for being a bit weird than anything else. The dub cast pulled in some big names like Miyazaki's films tend to. However, like several other aspects of the movie, they felt good but not amazing. Some roles I liked were Chris Sarandon as Kurotawa, one of the antagonists and Patrick Stewart as Lord Yupa.
In the end, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a great movie I recommend to anyone. The storyline and art are great, and the other aspects are definitely good enough to make it worth a watch. It's not one of Miyazaki's best movies, but it's a really good movie worth checking out.
Join me next time as I review Miyazaki's next movie, Castle in the Sky.
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