Review of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a fantastic story about a young princess named Nausicaa as she battles deadly plants, animals, insects, and humans to rescue the Valley of the Wind and the world. It has nonstop action for almost 2 hours that’ll keep you wondering what will come next, because you won’t, and it makes this movie a lot of fun from start to finish. It’s definitely worth watching if you enjoy anime movies at all. The filmaker is Hiyao Miyazaki, a world famous artist that has produced megahits such as Lupin III, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, andmost recently Ponyo, just to name a few. Most everything he’s done has been extremely successful; Nausicaa was one of his first classics as it was made in 1984.
The Story takes place in a bleak future where people are losing their control of the world to poison plants and giant insects. At no time does it lose you as the action carries the movie but within all the chaos is an epic about man’s harm it could do to the earth. Like most Miyazaki films it has a all themes tied in some way to nature. All that being said it is one of the strongest points of the movie.
The Sound in the movie is split in two parts (I watched the newest english dub): Amazing dialogue and voice acting versus terrible music. The voice acting cast is awesome with some of the best in the business lending their voices such as Patrick Stewart (who did a great job in Elder Scrolls IV), Uma Thurman, Shia Lebeouf, and Mark Hamill (who made one of the classic Simpsons appearances). Not only does it have the star studded cast but all of them deliver. The other actors rise to the level of their counterparts too, giving wonderful performances across the board. I can’t think of one character who I didn’t end up believing was genuine. In my opinion this is the best aspect of the movie. The sound effects are effective…(sorry). Nothing seems out of place or makes a sound different than what you’d expect. The music on the other hand feels very dated. The lackluster 80’s beats feel forced onto the movie and never impact it much at all. This is the biggest drawback of the movie as the score carries zero impact. Action music doesn’t get your heart racing at all and the mood setters just make you wonder when the silly music will pass. Thankfully this part of a movie can be easily overcome if the rest rocks. This one does.
The characters aren’t all that memorable but they do what they’re supposed to. The majestic princess, the powermonger, the great old warrior; many common stereotypes of anime characters appear with Nausicaa in my opinion standing out the most. Helped by a great job of voice acting, she is fearless and leads for the entire film, even when challenged by others. Her will is displayed greatly and makes you want to root for her to succeed. The animal and plant drawings are really imaginative but at some points that can be a drawback as some things look, in my own opinion, utterly ridiculous. Not all are bad though, as many things look like they could be on our planet at some point. More reasons to watch and judge for yourself though.
To sum up this anime has it all except for the scant but bad music. It even has gunships shaped like actual guns! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys anime movies as you may find this among your favorites, especially if your the environmentalist type..