About Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Nausica of the Valley of the Wind plot:
The story isn't a bad one and it looks at humankind's relationship with nature and was presented by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is set thousands of years after a devastating event has destroyed civilisation and the survivors live in small groups trying to keep away from the "toxic" forests. As the film starts we're immediately introduced to Nausicaa who is going through the toxic forest - protected by her mask from the spores she finds the empty shell of a dead beast that has enough raw material to enable her people (she's a princess by the way) to make tools for years. All she manages to split from the shell is a protective shell from an eye socket before she is interrupted by gunfire from the forest. She races there on her glider to find it is Yupa (voiced by Patrick Stewart) under attack from a giant caterpillar like creature. Instead of killing the creature she demonstrates great compassion and comforts the attacking creature instead until eventually it turns away and heads back into the forest. Kindness and understanding is something Nausicaa shows a lot of during the film, with the exception of one scene (won't give away the details!) where she loses it and kills some of the attacking people. The rest of the story is about her escaping capture from the Tolmekians, a group of people who want to see the forest destroyed and see one of the ancient "giants" as a means to this end. The "giants" (very reminiscent of the "Iron Giant") we see in flash backs are what humankind used to set fire to everything at the end of civilisation, and it just so happens the airship that crashed in the Valley of the Wind was carrying the last of these.
In terms of the voice acting, Studio Ghibli / Buena Vista Home Entertainment managed to get some really good names to lend their talents to the 2005 dubbed version. The names include the likes of Patrick Stewart, Mark Hamill, Edward James Olmos, Shia LaBeouf, and Uma Thurman. There are very few films that get that many well known actors and actresses to help out, but as it's US release was handled by Buena Vista (owned by Walt Disney) it's understandable that they had the power to get these actors in to do the parts. With the exception of the unmistakable voice of Patrick Stewart, you don't really notice the other famous voices - you're just taken in by the story, and the voices are the voices of the characters and not the actors / actresses who voice the parts.
I did find some of it a little dull after she escapes and meets Asbel, a young Pejiten; but overall it wasn't a bad story and it does promote environmental awareness after all. Nausicaa's message to her people, the people of Tolmekia and of Pejite is that there is no need to destroy the toxic forest - it is taking in all the poison from the air which is making it possible for people to live which draws parallels with reality with plants taking in "toxic" carbon dioxide.
So a great story, a strong cast, and overall good animation.
Nausica of the Valley of the Wind is good for dvd wholesale
