“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” is another great animated film from Hayao Miyazaki (“Kiki’s Delivery Service”, “Howl’s Moving Castle”). “Nausicaä” is actually not a Studio Ghibli film but it was made by many of the same team and many fans consider it to be at the very least, spiritually part of the studio’s line-up of movies.

“Nausicaä” tells the story of young pacifist Princess Nausicaä, who embarks on a quest to stop warring nations from destroying themselves and what’s left of the planet. The movie is set after an apocalypse with a giant and growing poisonous jungle filled with massive bug creatures.

Princess Nausicaä is a great heroine as she desperately tries to find a peaceful solution to the conflicts that are going on and she wants to help save the planet. She flies around a big glider along with her pet, which is a cross between a fox and a squirrel… still not as inspired as the Catbus from “My Neighbour Totoro”. The giant bugs are fairly intriguing and their importance in the plot reminded me (among many aspects of the film) somewhat of “Dune” but “Nausicaä” makes far more sense than that film could’ve ever hoped to.

“Nausicaä” is a wonderful adventure film with some great battle sequences, some terrific animation and many other great aspects but I think most will agree that Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke”, which dealt with many of the same themes as this movie, is a little better. I think “Nausicaä” could’ve been improved by being a little longer so we could have immersed ourselves in its world a little more and we could’ve had a chance to hear some more about the interesting concepts in the movie. I think anime fans will no doubt adore “Nausicaä” and I think mainstream audiences will also enjoy it a lot.