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Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind

I wrote a paper in college that outlined a theme common to the works of Hayao Miyazaki:

(1) Miyazaki presents images of nature that are ambiguous on the surface but idealized overall (e.g. a forest that appears hostile but provides aesthetic and salutory value).
(2) Miyazaki directly links the natural to the supernatural (e.g. forests are gateways to actual supernatural realms).
(3) Miyazaki uses imagery to draw a stark contrast between idealized nature and the natural decay inherent to industrialization (e.g. using a tree as a positive symbol and a smokestack as a negative one; crafting battles between natural forces and industrial weaponry).
(4) Miyazaki recognizes the central role of industry in modern society (e.g. implying the degradation of natural worlds by virtue of imagined pre- or post-industrial society).
(5) Miyazaki establishes the natural, and by extension the supernatural, as a psychological escape from the degradation of industry.

While there are many other essential and near-essential elements to Miyazaki films (e.g. empowered young female protagonists, flying), this environmental reading is perhaps the most central to Miyazaki's films. Nausicaa fits this environmental theme in a manner that feels somehow distinct from Miyazaki's other films, which range in terms of the optimism of their tone and the specific instances of the thematic elements outlined above.

Nausicaa is princess of a small valley community on the outskirts of a toxic forest in a post-industrial earth. At the start of the film, neighboring communities are warring with one another (and soon afterward with Nausicaa's own community), fighting over an apocalyptic power that the communities will allegedly use to wipe out the toxic forest and save humanity. Nausicaa has studied the ecology of the toxic forest and determined that it is actually a filtering system for thousand-year-old human pollutants. Nausicaa and her opponents all recognize that the toxic forest is guarded by huge insects who, when provoked, fly into unstoppable rages. This story plays out as an ecological cautionary tale: humans try to destroy things that they think threaten their best interests, and in the process end up very nearly destroying themselves.

Andy notes that the characters explain everything in great detail, which is likely necessary not only because this is a movie with a target audience at least partly comprised of children, but also because Miyazaki's films often have didactic elements that Miyazaki is not shy of exposing. Andy also notes that "some of the images are haunting/thrilling, if not as technically impressive as the later stuff." I agree wholeheartedly--Miyazaki clearly had not come into his own as an animator yet, and although some of the images are quite stunning, Miyazaki's best art was (and hopefully still is) yet to come. Undoubtedly technology has helped with this aspect of Miyazaki's films, but so, I think, has experience. Finally, Andy notes that the Miyazaki seems to nod to Star Wars in the design of his spacecraft, which leads me to the entirely different yet related note that Nausicaa's recent English voiceover includes Mark Hamill in its cast (as well as Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Edward James Olmos, and Shia LaBeouf).