Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

So, guys, this entry right here is about to start off a new series of reviews for a little bit and that's my reviews for all Studio Ghibli movies. If you don't know, Studio Ghibli is Japanese animated studio that's created some of the best and some of the most famous animated movies ever. So many people have spoken about their movies and talked about how so many of their films are absolutely incredible. So, towards the end of 2021, I started getting the DVDs of their movies and I recently finished getting them all and watching them. Something else that's really cool is that Disney is actually what helped bring them over from Japan and dubbed almost all of them. Some were dubbed by another company and only one wasn't dubbed at all. So, I got curious to check them out and got them all and watched them and, I'm not gonna lie, I was surprised by how some of them made me feel. I heard from people about how some were so emotional and wholesome in so many ways. I already knew some of them would be extremely emotional and I already saw some reviews for a few, but I kinda forgot about some of them before starting and I think that was a good thing because watching them blind made me love some of these in different ways and it was incredible experiencing them like that. The studio was founded by Hayao Miyazaki and so many people have praised his geniusness and I completely agree. Having finally been able to watch these movies, I'm a huge fan of him now. I know he didn't work on all these movies, but he has done a lot of them and he is responsible for these being made anyway. So, now that I'm finally finished watching them, I decided to review them all. I realise I haven't done a series of reviews for movies in a long time, but this is my first in a long time, so, let's begin with Studio Ghibli's first real movie, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. Like almost all the other Studio Ghibli movies, I had already heard great things about the film beforehand like I said, but, it was great to go in the way I did and appreciate this for what it was. The story follows a princess named Nausicaa who's from the Valley Of The Wind. This is also a world after a war that destoryed so much and now she's trying to get humanity and nature to coincide while there's also a dangerous and poisonous forest as well. But, after the valley is attacked by people from another kingdom, led by a woman named Kushana, Nausicaa's Dad is killed but she still agrees to go with them to stop the violence but they're attacked and Nausicaa then meets a prince named Asbel who wants her help in a fight but she wants all fighting to stop period and he eventually comes to agree too. So a lot of the film is them travelling from place to place and meeting different people while trying to find the right thing to do, especially since this world also has these giant bug creatures that Nausicaa is trying to help too. So what I really like about this film is actually something that I think Studio Ghibli films do really well a lot of the time and that's have a slow pace, but still making its world and characters incredibly interesting. I don't think that works for all their movies, but, when it does, it's some of the most facinating stuff I've seen in a movie in a long time. These movies are really slow paced and this film is no different. I can imagine some people being kinda bored by that, but I think the majority would find this incredibly captivating. What I think helps that a lot is the worldbuilding and the way this film does that is interesting because the first part of this film is mostly a lot of explaining to get us to know what this world is like and how it works and it's done kinda slowly, but still in a way that's incredibly interesting and then the second half is about a lot of action where Nausicaa and Asbel are trying to save everyone in the valley and the bug creatures that're being lured there to destroy it and so there's a lot of action and all that in the second half that gets us invested since the first part built up these characters and world so well. It's also fun to follow the villains here too. It's hard to explain but even though you could see Kushana and her henchmen as hateable for what they do, there's something about them that's really fun to watch too that I really love. I also love the look of this film. All of Studio Ghibli's films look amazing with feature film anime animation and it's always phenomenal, and that's really impressive since this was made in 1984 and this stuff looks beautiful to look at, especially the scenery. I love how a lot of the stuff that's used here is really creative like the technology. Again, the fact that this was made in the early 80's makes it really incredible to watch and see what they came up with. I also love the different relationships everyone has like how Nausicaa is really well liked the valley and her relationship with everyone there is really sweet and her relationship with Asbel is nice to watch, especially the scene with them in that cave under the forest, and Kushana's relationship with her main henchman is fun too. A lot of that can also be attributed to the characters themselves, who're really likeable. Nausicaa herself is probably my favourite. I know that's a very simple choice, but I really love her maturity in the film as well as how she handles different situations and how she goes through the film in different ways is nice to watch too. I also really loved the climax too because it's fairly tense, but also really interesting. Like I said, people are trying to lure these huge bugs to the valley to destroy it so Nausicaa is trying to stop it and the way it happens is really nuts because she's trying to get the baby back to the others safe but then she's covered by some light with some illusion and that helps. Again, it's nuts, but the way Studio Ghibli does all this stuff a lot is crazy but still believeable and satisfying a lot of the time. The dub in this is really fantastic. The dub for these Ghibli movies are always fantastic and this one has a great cast, Alison Lohman as Nausicaa, Patrick Stewart, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, Chris Sarandon, they all do a amazing job. I just really loved this film. It's one of my favourite Ghibli movies. I was just really happy to discover this movie when I did and be able to see why people get so into these movies and I would definitely say check this out if you're an anime fan and if you're just curious at least. So guys, that was my review of Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, thank you all for reading, please comment down below to tell me what you think and I'm really excited to keep talking about the rest of the Studio Ghibli movies.