BACKGROUND
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is the second feature film directed by legendary Japanese Director Hayao Miyazaki who has since gone on to make anime classics such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and most recently Ponyo. Nausicaa is Miyazaki's first original film and because of this film's success it launched his career. A Year later the success of this film led to his production company known as Studio Ghibli that would go on to make more of Miyazaki's work as well as some TV shows and other films. This film marks the beginning of Miyazaki's long and impressive career.
PLOT (Taken from IMDB)
In the far future, man has destroyed the Earth in the "Seven Days of Fire". Now, there are small pockets of humanity that survive. One pocket is the Valley of Wind where a princess named Nausicaä tries to understand, rather than destroy the Toxic Jungle.
REVIEW
Beautiful. There is no word other than beautiful to describe how good this film is. This is the first Hayao Miyazaki film I have seen and let me tell you that this will NOT be my last. Every scene of this film is beautiful. It is like looking at a painting for every moment in the film. The animation is fluid, stylized, and breathtaking. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the screen but animation is not the only thing that makes this film work. The story is honestly fantastic with great memorable characters.
It is also great to note that the english language dub of the film done by Disney has some incredible voice actors playing the parts which include Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, and Shia LaBeouf. By watching this film I could tell that every one of the actors really cared about making it a great film and it shows.
This film captures everything that I want to see in a film. It has action, adventure, memorable characters, and heart. This film has no flaws in my opinion and it is one of the best films that I have seen in some time. I urge you to go out and see it if you haven't already.
Overall Thoughts
It's a beautiful and an example that animation can be used to tell and portray beautiful stories and create memorable characters that really leave an impact on us.
SCORE
5 out of 5
