Review of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaa is a pretty interesting experience for the way it so clearly feels like an incredibly early Ghibli film while still immediately bringing a very strong artistic voice to the forefront, with a lot of elements present here being ones that would go on to form the backbone of even stronger movies later down the line. I think that one especially interesting aspect of this is the way that the setting feels considerably less lush and whimsical than the vast majority of the studio's output feels, there's no sense of beauty in a lot of the small aspects as much as this looming sense ofdread in this dreary world that is being slowly overrun by a horrible decay. Even most of the kinder locations still feel closer to a refuge from the inhospitable wastelands that have ravaged the Earth, and I think this is definitely the strongest part of the narrative, and makes those few moments of natural beauty that end up appearing later on feel all the more impactful. This is further all reinforced by the large insect creatures crafting an atmosphere that feels considerably more alien and hostile due to the inherently far less emotive nature of these giant hulking exoskeleton beasts.

Unfortunately, while the setting is incredibly evocative, I feel like Nausicaa suffers a bit from biting off more than it could chew and being left with a lot of ideas that could've used a bit more time to really flesh out. The whole environmentalism and pacifism stance that the film delved into felt a bit rough with how many different motives seemed to be brought up throughout without spending all that much time on any of them. While one possible take that you could have on this is that it represents the seemingly infinite reasons why war leads to destruction and misery, but on the other hand, I just don't feel like even this is developed that much either, instead usually favouring clunky and very heavy handed dialogue that often feels like it just keeps repeating some variation of "don't kill each other" over and over. It doesn't really kill the film since there is still such strong storytelling from other avenues that make for an awe inspiring journey nonetheless. The final 10 minutes are especially great from a visual perspective, with the encroaching chaos and hopelessness from all sides being one of Ghibli's finest moments in general. All in all I feel like despite how great this really feels, it would have been elevated if the pacing was either taken up a notch, or the film was longer to further complement the slower nature of the bulk of its runtime, which would've turned this great movie into a potential masterpiece. Still very worth checking out on its own merits as well as being an interesting starting point for one of the greatest animation studios out there.