Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a 1984 anime flim that was made by Hayao Miyazaki, who was responsible for other classic animes like Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle. This was also the very first flim that was made by Studio Ghibli. The anime tells the story of Nausicaa, who is the young princess of the valley she lives in called The Valley of the Wind. She encounters a cargo airship one night and tries to rescue a hand-cuffed girl, who appears to be Princess Lastelle, the princess of the kingdom Pejite. She also informed Nausicaa to destroy all the cargo that is on the ship. But Lastelle died and Nausicaa finds out that the airship is from Tolmekia and the cargo that the airship was carrying is actually a giant, lethal biological weapon called The Giant Warrior. The next days, the Tolmekians, who are under controlled by Princess Kushana, invade the Valley to kill Nausicaa's father, who is the king of the valley, and secure and revive the warrior. Kushana wants the warrior to destroy the Sea of Decay. The Sea of Decay is a toxic jungle that includes giant plants and fungi with giant insect creatures. The majority of the insects are these gigantic armoured caterpiller type creatures called the Ohmu.

Now the Ohmu are very special in the movie. Whenever you see their eyes turn blue, they are very calm creatures. But if you take any action or you steal something from them, they're eyes will turn red and will attack you. Nausicaa knows that its bad news because the Ohmu will attack anyone or anything, unless if there's a way to calm them down. so, Nausicaa is on a mission to stop the Tolmekians for starting a fight between them and the Ohmu. For a movie that was done by Hayao Miyazaki, this movie has a very well done story. It really explains itself very well and it never brings you any state of being confussed at all. The story is told pretty simple and it is pretty good.

The characters are all great in this movie. Nausicaa is very peace-loving, humane and she is a pretty skilled fighter. Lord Yupa is Nausicaa's mentor and a samurai type fighter. He's not like your typical-looking samurai. He's just a fighter that has the skills of an actual samurai. I think Kushana is pretty good. I like Kurotowa and the same goes for Mito and Asbel are pretty good characters. They are portrayed rather well, just like in many Hayao Miyazaki flims.

The artstyle looks pretty good in this movie and the animation is nicely well done in this movie. There are never times where the animation never gets messed up or anything. So, I think the animation is pretty good. This movie has been dubbed by Walt Disney Pictures in 2005 and the english voice acting is great. Nausicaa is voiced by Alison Lohman, who you might know her if you seen flims like Matchstick Men, Big Fish and Flicka. And she does a pretty good job at voicing her character. She is joined by a pretty amazing cast of actors. A lot of memorable names on here. There's Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Chris Sarandon (who was responsible for voicing Jack Skellington in Nightmare Before Christmas), Edward James Olmos and Shia Labeouf. You'll also encounter actors that aren't really big in the celebrity world, but are well known in certain cartoons. Those actors include James Arnold Taylor, Jodi Benson, Frank Welker, Mark Hamill, Jeff Bennett and Tress MacNeille, who is known as Babs Bunny from Tiny Toons, Dot from Animaniacs, Daisy Duck and Agnes Skinner, who is Principal Seymour Skinner's mother in The Simpsons. So, the english voice work is really well done.

The music consists of standard orchestral songs and some techno beats added in for good measure. It's weird hearing techno in a movie from Hayao Miyazaki because you don't normally hear music like that in his other flims after Nausicaa. But givin the fact that this movie was made in the mid 80's, that decade had a lot of techno beats in their pop music, their new wave music, hip-hop and others. So, it's kinda understandable to have something like that in this movie. So, the music is pretty good.

In the end, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is an awesome movie. It definitely captures the feel of what a movie from Miyazaki, just like all the other movies that was made after this one. With a great story, good characters, nice music and terrific english voice acting, Nausicaa is a very entertaining movie to watch. If you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's work or love movies from Studio Ghibli, then check out Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It's really a movie that you will never feel disappointed.

10 out of 10

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