View Larger Image |
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen, Animated Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 118 minutes Studio: Buena Vista Home Vid Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-02-22 Buy from Amazon |
 "One of the greatest films,anime or other wise! After 20 yrs"Like one of the other reviewers, I too was introduced to this film in the late 80's under the title, "Warriors of the Wind". My brother in law had rented the movie for his son. The entire family watched the movie and loved it. When I first saw this film, I thought even then, it was a great movie.. even for a cartoon. In those days, I had no real appreciation for animated films as art as I do now. This movie helped change my views of these kinds of movies. Even in the edited, bootleg, incomplete version of the 80's "Warrior's", few animated films can match it. Princess Mononoke doesn't even come close. "Superb movie, great DVD"As other reviewers have said, this is Miyazaki's best, and one of the best movies of all time, in any genre. The new Disney DVD release is good. The visuals are wonderful -- great color, very crisp, very clean. The transfer does justice to Miyazaki's sweeping, highly detailed visual style. The English dub is also quite good. It's quite faithful to the original dialog, with only a few cringe-inducing moments. The voice acting is sometimes rather flat, though, lacking the emotional intensity that it deserves. The audio is quite good, though the sound effects sometimes get pushed farther down in the mix than they should. Overall, the English translation, voice acting, and audio mix is significantly better than that of the "Castle in the Sky" DVD. Not quite as good as the original Japanese audio track, but very listenable. The DVD extras are pretty skimpy, but then with a movie this good, who needs extras? Highly recommended. "The greatest anime film ever made"I cannot descibe how important this film is. If this masterpiece does not change your life, or make you want to change the world- well, you have lost yourself. Maybe Joe Hisashi's greatest soundtrack ( which is saying alot). Forget about Lord of the rings, or star wars, this film is the beginning of the Miyazaki universe. Laputa takes place "somewhere" in this world, as does Princess Mononoke. The review before mine is much more detailed- all I can say is that This is in my top 3 favorite films of all time! Allow yourself the pleasure of experiencing this. my Teto! "Nausicaa soars"First of all - I have loved this movie since I saw it in 1986 in Japan as a kid. I first saw images on a huge screen inside a mall in Tokyo. I gasped and oo'd and awe'd until my Japanese host family decided they had to take me to go see it. It is truly awesome on a big screen, even if you don't speak Japanese. That being said, the disney release is the best of at least 3 translation/subtitled versions of Nausicaa that I have seen. They did a very good job of expanding the dialogue a little bit so that the plot is comprehensible. I will admit it has huge appeal to chicks. Being a chick I love the theme, love the heroine and I love how she's basically on no one's side - she's on the side of reason and sanity! How many heroes in most action flicks shout that the killing has to stop - how many stand up unarmed against what is wrong? That is what makes her so appealing to me. The big powers in this world are nuts. Though some have commented that they seem dated and cold war like, I think some of it is quite topical to this day and age. These powers are fanatical and willing to kill each other indiscriminately and at any cost - that is probably a familiar thing in any era. There are always little countries being threatened by bigger ones. There are always powers who think they are good, right and justified in what they do, no matter how powerful or big they are.  "Starts slow but builds up"It took a while for me to start liking this film. It starts with presenting the setting: a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Greed has caused a global ecological disaster. Only a few places are still fit for humans to live. The Valley of the Wind being one. Even there there are dangers of climate extremes and mutated animals, but it will have to do. Nausicaa's people try to build a new society, one that is in harmony with nature, but they do not know how. Only later in the film do they learn that even they are causing great damage to the environment, and misunderstanding the signs. While Nausicaa's people try to learn from their mistakes, others try to revive the old and dangerous technologies and use them for conquest. Like so many other would-be world conguerors they cloak their ambitions by claiming it is all for the common good. When Nausicaa escapes the invaders she learns the awful truth of her world. Humanity has misunderstood everything again, but this time there is a chance of redemption; that is if she can make anyone listen before it is too late... One thing that is interesting in this film, and in Princess Mononoke also, is the Japanese ambivalent attitude towards authority and duty. If I understand the Japanese attitude correctly you cannot do anything wrong for as long as you honourably do your duty. Since even the conquerors sincerely believe they are acting in the common good they cannot be totally evil. Therefore you do not see this manichean division into good and evil as you see in all Hollywood films. The problems and solutions described in the film become more complex and more interesting. |
