A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: Nausica‰ of the Valley of the Wind

Date of original theatrical release: 1984

Details:

Voice talent (English version): Alison Lohman (Nausica‰)

Mark Silverman (Jihl)

Tress MacNeille (Oh-Baba)

Patrick Stewart (Lord Yupa)

Edward James Olmos (Mito)

Frank Welker (Goru)

Jeff Bennett (Gikkuri)

Mark Silverman (Niga)

Shia LeBeouf (Asbel)

Uma Thurman (Kushana)

Chris Sarandon (Kurotowa)

Mark Hamill (Pejite Mayor)

Written & directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Score: +

The Review: Finally, a quest come true. The original version of Nausica‰, released uncut, with English dubbing.

This is an epic animation, at an epic length of nearly two hours. It is richly endowed with multiple plot threads, including: marginal human survival after an (ambiguous) global catastrophe; fears of the advancing Poison Forest; an adventuring heroine from a windy coastal village; conflict between the remaining isolated tribes; fears of the revival of powerful and undiscriminating ancient weapons; and a biological mystery. These are all woven together reasonably well, although the conflict with the nearby village Pejite -- and its level of technical sophistication -- seems a bit forced.

This film was pretty much the incept of Studio Ghibli, and one of the first anime to reach the attention of Western non-habitues. In my limited experience, Nausica‰ is not typical in the genre of anime (but I can hope to be positively enlightened) -- complex plotting and characters, imaginative backgrounds and situations, very much non-standard mythologies.

The first release of Nausica‰ in the English-speaking market is the stuff of legend, nearly a horror story: brutally cut in length and poorly translated, it was poorly reviewed and rapidly vanished from the market. Even with its horrible reputation, this version has proven impossible to find. The original (undubbed) Japanese version has also been scarce for the past decade. However, apparently Disney (who has been a partner on a few previous Studio Ghibli releases, including the award-winning Spirited Away) reached an agreement with Ghibli for the creation and release of an original, unedited, re-engineered and re-voiced version, which is at long last now available. It has been worth the wait.

The original form of Nausica‰ was a seven-volume manga (full-length cartoon book) from the pen of Miyazaki. Only the first few volumes appeared to serve as the nucleus for the film, leaving one some (vain?) hope for the future.

The voice actors chosen for the English over-dubbing include the famous and obscure, but young and old alike do an excellent job. This is made easier by the minimal oral armature involved (straightforward cel animation), but there is still some degree of skill involved.

Significant care has been lavished on the ecosystem of Nausica‰ and it has been well conceived as art. The design of organisms highlights the imagination of the creator and gives the viewer many treats: awesome (and awful, in its original sense) plants of all sizes and shapes, both marvelous and cute critters with some fascinating biochemistry, and some odd tidbits of (possibly engineered?) geology. Miyazaki's approach to animal and spirit design started here, and their variety and novelty shine through this and most subsequent films.

But there are some aspects of biology that shade into fantasy, mostly having to do with size and scale of the critters. If you are informed by JBS Haldane's On Being the Right Size or Knut Schmidt-Nielson's (1972) How Animals Work, then you'll find the armored Ohmu a bit of a stretch. (Interesting, though.) And there are similar problems with the underpinnings of the Poisoned Forest.

Likewise, there are some aeronautical extravagances that occasionally intrude upon the flow: flying fortresses at least as large as today's 747, caricatures that would seem un-airworthy, but are supported with antiquated technology and an unspecified fuel source.

The myths of the past and the fables of the future are entwined in a wall hanging whose design is reminiscent of a Bayeau Tapestry that might have been illustrated by Chagall, and whose details serve as the backdrop for some of the narrated tales.

Highly recommended.

(12-Mar-05)

Back to the chronological list of reviews