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The first-ever full-length feature film helmed by and featuring a story and characters created by Miyazaki-most well known in North America as the director of the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away is Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It embodies nearly everything the world-renowned animator is reputed for; gorgeous animation, deep moral themes, and epic imagination.
 
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Nausicaa tells the story of Princess Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind as she works to help her people overcome the hardships of living in an environmentally devastated land. She is respected by and takes a leading role within her culture not because she forces herself into the high position, but because she is worthy; she is one of only a few who are brave and capable enough to venture into the toxic jungles that have engulfed most of the planet. She scours the poisoned lands for many reasons: to find any materials or resources her people can use, to study the wildlife, and to search for answers. What happened in mankind’s past that caused the earth to become so uninhabitable? Why is the nature of her world so seemingly bent against the survival of her people?  
 
If the basic story feels similar to 1999's Princess Mononoke, well, it is. The same themes dominate both films: how mankind is powerful enough to affect the world around him for better or worse, how everyone is capable of good as long as they are willing to recognize their own faults and understand people who are different. But Nausicaa (and thus Mononoke), though sharing the same morals, feel different enough from each other to be their own distinct stories. Nausicaa is far more of a sci-fi film with dramatic airship battles high in the atmosphere, gigantic otherworldly insects flying and crawling and slithering throughout lush and colorful jungles, and advanced technologies intermixed with such fantasy staples as surrealistic sequences with knights in full armor charging alongside powerful tanks and artillery cannons as massive airships take off in the background.
 
I know this for certain now; Miyazaki absolutely loves flying. Be it the sense of freedom, of epic adventure, or of singular beauty that arises when watching a character soaring high in the clouds in a biplane, on an airship, atop a flying dragon, or with a glider the guy loves to include at least one sequence of flight in nearly all of his films. Quite a few of Nausicaa’s sequences take place high in the clouds, and they are some of the film’s most exciting and beautiful moments.
 
The animation is twenty years old, and as such, it looks less smooth than Studio Ghibli’s later films.  But while Nausicaa may lose to more recent Ghibli films when comparing technical detail, the film utterly destroys most other animated works in terms of sheer scale and depth.  Nausicaa is bursting at the seams with life.  Watching the main heroine run through the colorful jungles, soar high in the clouds atop her tiny glider, work on her own to halt the doomed outcome of entire nations, endure horrible pain for a just cause- such images burn themselves in your memory; this is not a film to be forgotten.
 
Disney has got the voice work down pretty well.  Alison Lohman voices Nausicaa with a free-spirited, lively young tone that fits with the active character.  Uma Thurman, Patrick Stewart, Edward James Olmos, and Mark Hamill round out the rest of the cast, but their
performances aren’t particularly noticeable.  They all work, mind you, you just won’t tell that someone is even his or her voice. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Disney is going to continue to do a relatively fine job of importing the rest of Ghiblis films in the future.  I can’t thank Disney enough for finally bringing these films across the Pacific for us North Americans to enjoy, especially Nausicaa. 
 
There are many reasons to be impressed by this film: the creative artistry, the deep yet balanced story, the array of great characters.  But most impressive of all is how the film holds up to, and crushes, so many of the animated works of the modern industry. Rather than derivative entertainment, Miyazaki's films are full of depth morally and artistically, and Nausicaa is no exception.  This is one of Miyazaki’s most stunning and engaging motion pictures.
 
Jonathan Avants 4/3/2005

 
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