NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND
Release date: March 8, 2011
Blu-ray version (some materials may not appear on the DVD version)

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Tales From Earthsea

From 1984, “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” is one of the earliest films of the celebrated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.

“Nausicaa” tells the story of a future world on the verge of human extinction. A young girl named Nausicaa lives in the Valley of the Wind, following a great global war. Here, humans fight each other over the few remaining natural resources and to try power of Ohms, a giant insect-like creature. Oh, did I mention that if they upset Ohms, the world will be destroyed?

In this touching tale, it’s up to Nausicaa, through her courage and love, to save the world and restore the balance between nature and humanity.

While there is an excellent English soundtrack, for those of you like me who enjoy hearing the films as they were originally recorded, both the Japanese tracks and English subtitles are provided.

Interestingly, there are different BONUS FEATURES on the DVD than the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray includes:

It’s always fun for me to see some of the storyboard artwork from various films, but in the ORIGINAL JAPANESE STORYBOARDS bonus feature on this Blu-ray, you can view ALL the storyboards in their entirety, edited together and set to the film’s soundtrack.

BEHIND THE STUDIO: CREATING NAUSICAA (11:31) features insight by animation historian and critic Charles Solomon along with the master himself, Hayao Miyazaki.

ENTER THE LANDS gives you the chance to explore “Nausicaa” and Miyazaki’s other films with various clips, narrations and other multimedia. There’s also a Nausicaa Trivia Challenge, with questions about the story and the history of the film.

The DVD BONUS FEATURES include:

There’s a variety of ORIGINAL JAPANESE TRAILERS AND TV SPOTS

BEHIND THE MICROPHONE (7:46) focuses on the voice talent with behind-the-scenes footage of recording sessions for the English version of “Nausicaa.” Since this is a Japanese film that was dubbed in English, the recording style is different than typical animation voice sessions. The American actors must record their roles after the film has already been completed, trying to sync up their voices to existing footage.

THE BIRTH STORY OF STUDIO GHIBLI (27:45) is a wonderful documentary, tracing the history of the studio, through photos, film and video clips and accurate reenactments.