Forum - View topicREVIEW: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind BD+DVD
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I found this particularly disappointing. Nausicaa comes to be a (kind of) pacifist heroine the hard way; by killing in a passion and then regretting it, but her opposition to violence in the rest of the film comes off as holier-than-thou rather than drawn from a deeply painful personal mistake.
For example, I think the awful Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ was a deliberate attempt to remake Nausicaa with more complexity (see how nature is depicted as dangerous and even aggressive) but it's as if the makers couldn't get it to work and tried far too late to retreat to something simpler resulting in the mess that was released. Miyazaki himself remake Nausicaa with Princess Mononoke anyway, as this article points out. |
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MetalUpa1014
 Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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A common misconception is that Nausicaa is supposed to be a Christ-like figure. This actually wasn't the intention of Miyazaki at all. Back then at least, he had a strong distaste for organized religion and didn't believe in a world that was created by a god. I imagine that he still probably feels the same, though Spirited Away was obviously influenced by Shintoism and kami. Either way, like most Japanese people, Miyazaki doesn't belong to to any specific religion or belief. The spirituality is mostly just out of tradition.
On a side note, ANN should totally review Warriors of the Wind as an April Fool's Day joke. |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind suffers from the same problems as all other anime films based on incomplete manga. Akira is this way as well. Pure visual spectacle, but storywise oh boy it's a train wreck from A to Z. The real Nausicaa as someone else said is Princess Mononoke. But the 1984 film, I just can't warm to it having read the entire manga before having had an opportunity to watch the film. It's too superficial a film, even Laputa is a better well thought out film than Nausicaa. Miyazaki's first major film, but a film so flawed that I just can't comprehend why it's considered Miyazaki's finest or at the top. Oh well at least he gave us Princess Mononoke so he's forgiven.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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Flaws aside, Nausicaa remains my personal favorite of Miyazaki's works. It's the most grandiose of his films, and the only one I'd classify as pure high fantasy, which is a genre I love. Nausicaa herself is such a strong, good heroine, and an archetype of so many that followed. Impossibly good, as Todd states? Perhaps, but that often comes with the genre, and sometimes I think we need that pure ideal as something to strive for. I really need to get my hot little hands on that Blu-ray.
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andyos
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 262 |
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Great review! Thinking it over, though, I'm not sure that Miyazaki is any more 'adoring' of Nausicaa than he is of Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. Okay, so Nausicaa has the prophecy bit, which I agree is ham-handed, but apart from that they seem pretty much on a par to me.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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This quote expresses well the comparisons I have made between Nausica of the Valley of the Wind and the rest of the films from Hayao Miyazaki that I have watched. I recognize that Miyazaki's films are well crafted, but they have usually not captivated me like Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday. Nausica (and to a certain extent Princess Mononoke) is the only Miyazaki film that has impacted me and captured my imagination. This is especially true during the first 20 or so minutes, where Miyazaki does a great job introducing a very interesting setting. I also wish to see more of Nausica's universe, but the movie ended at a great spot. |
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Lord Dcast
 Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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This technically isn't a ghibli film, but it is an amazing Miyazaki film.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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I thought the studio that made this was later brought and renamed Ghibli. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Nausicaa was originally produced by Topcraft. After it succeeded, Tokuma Shoten funded the founding of Ghibli with Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata. The film is now owned by Ghibli, released under the Ghibli label, and has the Ghibli logo before the film. It's more accurate to say it didn't used to be a Ghibli film. But it is now. |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 481 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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Thank goodness "Warriors of the Wind" is a distant memory. And to think it almost crushed audiences' chances for discovering Miyazaki's work stateside! This new Disney version is a VERY nice welcome. I DO have a few quibbles against it: Shia LaBeouf is too stiff as Asbel, at least initially, and even though Alison Lohman does very well as Nausicaa overall, I do agree that there were a few places (note: FEW) that weren't quite as good as others. Everybody else was great, though; Patrick Stewart was a treat as Yupa, having Jack Skellington/Prince Humperdink in the dub was a bonus, and the cameos by the late Tony Jay and Jodi Benson were a treat. I was also glad Mark Hamill got to have another role in Nausicaa, especially since he did such an outstanding job as Muska in Castle in the Sky. Luckily, unlike his co-stars in that dub, he isn't wasted, nor does he underwhelm. (That is to say, I found Mandy and Cloris when they returned for The Wind Rises and Ponyo to be wasted and underwhelming -- they don't get much to do.) Not here, though; Hamill still sounds edgy yet not as evil as his Muska (and a good thing, too; the Mayor of Pejite isn't a villain, just a flawed authority figure who is motivated to do what he feels is right, even if it means performing an outrageously barbaric act.
As for the movie itself, I had seen Princess Mononoke prior to Nausicaa, and back then I didn't quite make the connection. But viewing the latter film today made me realize that this movie is something of a prototype to Mononoke. The archetypes found in the 1997 film are here: the compassionate protagonist (with a brief violent outburst), the innocent homeland, two kingdoms at war where both leaders are not outright "evil", just motivated by their own rage, the forest and its inhabitants, the supporting protagonist (Asbel, or San) eventually joining forces with the hero/heroine to set things right, etc. The list goes on and on. Perhaps because I had seen Mononoke a lot more than this film, I have a preference toward the latter. But that is in no way a negative against Nausicaa. It's still a very fine movie, and it holds up surprisingly well for a 1984 animated feature. Even though it wasn't technically made by Ghibli, there are still trademarks in this film that the studio would go on to be known for. Those insects are intimidating, though. I dread the idea of encountering a massive dragonfly, centipede, or even an "ohmu" in real life. Joe Hisaishi's music is great (his scores always are) for this picture, but it DOES feel somewhat dated at times. At least in Laputa he got the opportunity to give his limited but still gorgeous score the orchestral treatment it deserved. It would have been nice to have this one get a similar treatment. Oh well, that aside, a fabulous movie either way. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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In the past I've written plenty on why the movie, its themes and its aesops just do not work, but I've never really talked about the man behind the vision.
The plot comes across as something a naive and inexperienced fifteen-year-old wrote with starry visions in their eyes. Which makes it all the more odd that Miyazaki was already forty-three years old when the movie was released. A lot of people give him a pass saying he was at that time still forming his ideas, but he was obviously middle-aged; not a spring chicken just starting out knowing nothing about the real world, but rather a fully-formed and experienced adult who should know better. Idealism is a fine and dare I say important attribute to have at any age, but it needs to be tempered with realism. I do not think it is wrong to have expected more nous, more subtlety, more finesse and more insight from Miyazaki. And yes, dare I say, less hypocrisy. |
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 363 Location: Finland |
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I strongly disagree. The tracks used in scenes taken place in the Sea of Decay wouldn't sound as otherworldly or the scene showing annihilated Pejite as gloomy if they used an orchestra instead of synths. They were also clearly composed with specific instruments in mind, instead of imitating orchestra, like some synth scores do. |
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Right on board with you there. I've watched Nausicaa many times, and as the flaws start to slowly come to me with each viewing, I can't help but forgive them because it is such an immersive and grand experience. Yeah the pacing is slipshod, yeah Asbel does like nothing in the movie, yeah Nausicaa is a Mary Stu, yeah the ideologies towards nature aren't as nuanced in the movie, etc. but it is still just so meticulously and beautifully animated and composed that I always get an overwhelming sense of awe from each viewing. I like the manga much better, but this is still one of Miyazaki's top in my book (not my absolute fav though). |
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lizardking461
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Good to know you're the sole arbitrator on 'how the world works'. People on the internet sure are funny. |
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Lord Dcast
Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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That makes a bit more sense. Apparently there's a studio Ghibli marathon on SBS in Australia coming soon. I'm recording all of them. Yes, ALL OF THEM! |
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