Youtube blocked my big top 10 Studio Ghibli review, so I tried reuploading on DailyMotion.
I've been rewatching some of my favorite animated movies of all time, and decided to make a tribute review for them.
I've been rewatching some of my favorite animated movies of all time, and decided to make a tribute review for them.
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello, Spongegex here. Before I get started on the review, I just want to say that I have
00:04been going through a lot of depressing stuff lately. I lost my job, I lost my apartment,
00:10and I had to move back in with my parents. I have been incredibly depressed and unmotivated
00:14to make art, play video games, and especially seek out another job. I have been feeling
00:19very worthless. However, there is one thing that was able to push me through these tough
00:23times, and that is the beautiful work of Studio Ghibli. I am honestly not a fan of
00:29anime, but Studio Ghibli, their movies are phenomenal. They have some of the most gorgeous
00:35hand-drawn visuals, some of the most emotional and powerful original scores I have ever heard,
00:41usually thanks to the wonderful Joe Hisayashi. I cry whenever I watch his movies. Hayao Miyazaki
00:47directed most of the studio's most successful films, and he still refuses to quit animating,
00:52despite retiring multiple times between 1997-2024. He claimed that last year's The Boy and the
01:00Heron would be his last film, but it was confirmed about a month ago that he is back at it again,
01:05working on a new action-adventure film that harkens back to his earliest works. I am kind
01:10of glad to hear that, because I honestly thought some of his earliest works were the best.
01:14I honestly wasn't a big fan of The Boy and the Heron. It pains me to say that, but I
01:19found it too confusing and boring. The only things about it that I really liked were,
01:24I thought the Heron, voiced by Robert Pattinson, was very goofy, and it was shocking to find
01:29out who voiced him, because it sounds nothing like Robert Pattinson, and I thought the threatening
01:35giant parrots were hilariously derpy. I had a lot of fun with those characters, but I
01:40watched a lot of reviews that went into great detail to break down the film's hidden meanings
01:44and all that, and it helped me understand the movie a little better, but it still doesn't
01:48change my opinion. I still think it's a very flawed story. It felt more like a film made
01:53specifically for Miyazaki himself, and not for his fans or filmgoers.
01:59So instead of talking about a Ghibli film I didn't like, I want to talk about the top
02:0310 Ghibli films I absolutely adore. These films got me through very tough times, and
02:09I feel like I owe this studio my feedback and my life on why I love these classics,
02:14and why others should seek these movies out if they haven't already. This review will
02:19be torture to make, though, because there's a lot of footage and music I wish I could
02:23show off in this review to show and explain people why these movies are so good, but you
02:29know, there's a thing called copyright, and so this review may contain spoilers, so there's
02:34your warning. Also, I'm only going to be reviewing the English dubs of these. I honestly tried
02:39watching the Japanese subversions, and I'm sorry, I couldn't get through them. I strongly
02:44prefer the English voices instead. I honestly think they give a more emotional performance.
02:50I don't know why, but usually when I try watching Japanese dubs, it just sounds like they're
02:54reading off the script. It doesn't sound like they're really putting emotion into it, and
02:58Disney, man, they really got some really good voice actors for these English localizations.
03:03So starting off with number 10, The Secret World of Arrietty, based on a book called
03:07Borrowers. The film centers on a tiny girl named Arrietty, along with her mom and dad
03:12who live under the floorboards of a great aunt's house. The great aunt is taking in
03:17her great grandson, Sean, who seems to be sick and needs to stay in bed. Arrietty's
03:21mom is voiced by Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live, who many Disney fans may recognize
03:26as Troy from Inside Out. Her husband in the film, oddly enough, is voiced by her real
03:31life ex-husband, Will Arnett, who many may recognize as Lego Batman or Bojack Horseman.
03:38One thing worth mentioning is that unlike most anime dubs, Disney did a real good job
03:42at getting well known and very talented voice actors to play these roles. I'll even dare
03:46say they outperformed the original Japanese voices. I definitely noticed a drop in voice
03:51quality ever since Disney foolishly dropped the distribution rights for Studio Ghibli.
03:56It really is a shame. Their new distributors are called GKids, and admittedly they do a
04:01better job at exposing these films compared to Disney. Not only did they do a better job
04:06at repinning Blu-ray and DVD copies for these films and putting them on store shelves, but
04:11they even got the rights to add these to streaming services like Macs and Netflix depending on
04:16what region you live in. So I remembered both Secret World of Arrietty and Ponyo being the
04:21only Studio Ghibli films that Disney bothered heavily promoting, even advertising them on
04:26Disney Channel, something they never bothered doing for Spirited Away, you know, the movie
04:31that actually won an Oscar. I did want to see this movie in theaters back when it first
04:36came out, but I still lived with my parents and I knew they wouldn't want to see a movie
04:41like this, so I was eventually able to see it when the Premium Channel Stars debuted
04:46the film. So Arrietty is finally old enough to join her dad in what's called a borrowing
04:50mission where they adventure across the house like it's a big dangerous adventure in order
04:55to bring back things they need to survive like sugar cubes. The scene does go on for
05:00quite a bit, but I really love the attention to detail and the way these tiny characters
05:04navigate through this huge world with the dad being the more experienced one while Arrietty
05:08is the inexperienced yet eager one. I've always had a soft spot for media revolving around
05:14tiny characters trying to survive a giant world, whether it's Honey I Shrunk the Kids,
05:19Ant-Man, or even the video games of the Pikmin series. The number one rule of being a borrower
05:24is to never get caught, never let their species be discovered, otherwise it endangers their
05:29entire lives, but Shaw discovers Arrietty and tries assuring her that there's nothing
05:34to be afraid of. Arrietty doesn't answer back to Shaw and goes back home with her dad, feeling
05:39like a failure for exposing her family's existence. Later in the movie, Arrietty's dad gets saved
05:44by another borrower named Spiller who informs the family of a safer place where other borrowers
05:50live. Arrietty is excited to learn that there's others like her out there and she can't wait
05:54to meet them. Shaw tries helping the borrowers by taking pieces of his great aunt's dollhouse
06:00to spruce up the borrower's kitchen. While the mom adores the new kitchen and wear, the
06:04father doesn't trust this and decides they need to move out along with Spiller. Arrietty
06:09tells Shaw that they're leaving in order to survive. Shaw tries talking to Arrietty about
06:14life and death. Arrietty gets offended, thinking he was telling her that she's going to die.
06:19Shaw apologizes for accidentally offending her, and in a shocking reveal he tells her
06:23that he's actually the one who's dying, for he has a heart condition and he doesn't have
06:27faith that he'll make it through the recovery, and Arrietty feels sad to hear that. Meanwhile,
06:32the great aunt's maid, Haru, finds Arrietty's mom and captures her in a jar. In the English
06:38dub, Carol Burnett voices Haru, which some may recognize as the kangaroo from Horton
06:42Hears a Who. The crazy thing about Haru is that in any other movie, if someone discovered
06:47a tiny person, they'd probably try exploiting their discovery for money, but Haru, she sees
06:53the little people as little vermin thieves, and she calls an exterminator to get rid
06:57of these little people. Shawn tries distracting Haru so Arrietty can free her mom in the background.
07:03Arrietty succeeds, as she and her family race off to Sailway on a tea kettle to their new
07:07home. Shawn races after Arrietty to say goodbye to her. We get a touching scene of Arrietty
07:12tearing up as she leans her head against his finger, and she feels sorry for not trusting
07:16him before. She also fears what will happen to him due to his heart condition, but Shaw
07:21says thanks to meeting her, he thinks he'll live, because meeting her gave him the strength
07:26and courage to keep on living. As Arrietty sails away, Spiller tries comforting Arrietty
07:30by offering her some food. Overall, it's a very bittersweet movie with very creative
07:35visuals. I wouldn't call it a standout movie, or I wouldn't call it the absolute greatest
07:40movie ever, but it's still worth checking out.
07:44Number 9, The Cat Returns. A lot of you are probably thinking, really? The Cat Returns?
07:50You consider this to be one of the top 10 greatest Studio Ghibli films? I mean, it's
07:56not the most exciting or mind-blowing Studio Ghibli film, but to me, it's the silliest
08:01and funniest out of the entire library. Its art style is pretty different too. It definitely
08:09resembles an anime art style, but not necessarily the one from Ghibli. It's the only Studio
08:14Ghibli film to be a spin-off of a previous Ghibli film, that being Whisper of the Heart.
08:19The film stars Anne Hathaway as Haru, a shy and awkward school girl. One day, she saves
08:24a cat from being run over by a truck. The cat surprisingly stands up on two legs and
08:29thanks her for the save. Haru comically keeps getting all these overwhelming loads of cat
08:34gifts from the cat she saved. The cat she saved turns out to be the prince of a cat
08:40kingdom, and he wants Haru to marry him. Haru doesn't know how to respond, and the prince
08:46takes her response as a yes. A large cat named Muta takes Haru to a well-suited cat named
08:52the Baron, voiced by Cary Elwes from Robin Hood Men in Tights. The Baron was a fictional
08:58character based on a cat statue from the movie Whisper of the Heart, which is why this movie
09:03counts as a spin-off. Weird to give a spin-off a name that implies that it's a sequel. Maybe
09:08the film's title was supposed to be a parody on the book title The Cat in the Hat Returns
09:12or something? I don't know. The Baron and Muta try protecting Haru from an army of cats
09:18who are after Haru, but Haru and Muta get captured by the cats, and Baron sets off to
09:23save them from the cat kingdom. Haru is turned into a cat-human hybrid. The Baron fights
09:29his way through many cat soldiers to free Haru and return her home and restore her back
09:33to her human form. The movie is overall just a real fun and hilarious time. The voice actors
09:39in this are all fantastic. I especially like Tim Curry as the villainous King Cat. There's
09:47not much more to say. It's very different from other Studio Ghibli films, but it's one
09:52I'd put on the most if I wanted a good laugh from the studio.
09:55Number 8, Kiki's Delivery Service. I honestly have this movie to thank for introducing me
10:01to Studio Ghibli in the first place. This was one of the first films that Disney acquired
10:05to make an English dub out of, and I remember the preview for this film being shown on the
10:09VHS for The Spirit of Mickey. I didn't know what to think of it as a kid, but I thought
10:14it looked interesting. It was very different from other movies I've seen. Too bad the preview
10:19pretty much spoiled a huge chunk of the film. Not only was this the first one I was introduced
10:23to, but it was also the first one I ever saw, since it was the only Studio Ghibli film to
10:28ever be shown on the Disney Channel. I remember tuning into it once, and I thought it was
10:32actually pretty good. Sad I never got to see it all the way through, but I saw most
10:37of it though.
10:39The movie has a very decent voice cast, including Kirsten Dunst from Spider-Man as Kiki herself,
10:44and the late Phil Hartman as her comical talking sidekick, Gigi the Cat. Interesting how Dunst
10:49and Hartman would go on to star in one last film together in the movie Small Soldiers,
10:54which was sadly the last movie that Phil Hartman was in before his tragic murder. Gigi was
10:59my favorite character of the movie. His voice lines and actions were hilarious. He also
11:03seems to be one of the most popular Studio Ghibli characters when it comes to Japan,
11:08because um, have you seen like the merchandise they sell there? Most of it contains Gigi,
11:13Totoro, and Calcifer.
11:15The movie stars a cute 13 year old witch named Kiki, who adventures off to live on her own.
11:20We see her say farewell to her parents as she flies off on her broom to find a new home,
11:23along with her best friend Gigi the Cat. She settles in a seemingly Italian town, and she
11:29gets into a bit of trouble with the law for recklessly flying around, and she manages
11:33to run away thanks to a boy named Tombo. Tombo is fascinated to see a real life witch, and
11:38he tries befriending her, but Kiki acts a little stuck up and avoids him. A bakery woman
11:43voiced by Tress McNeil is sad that a customer dropped their baby's binky, and Kiki offers
11:48to fly it over to the customer. The baker is amazed by Kiki, and offers to hire Kiki
11:52to be her delivery girl. So she not only offers her a job, but she even offers her a place
11:57to live in a room above the bakery. Kiki is thrilled and excited to move in with the
12:01baker and her husband. During Kiki's first day of delivery, she is tasked to take a stuffed
12:07cat that strongly resembles Gigi to a little boy for his birthday. So Kiki botches up the
12:12delivery when a gust of wind blows her into a tree, with very territorial crows that attack
12:17her and chase her away. Kiki realizes that she dropped the cat plush back in the forest,
12:22and has no choice but to have Gigi pose as the plush cat until she can find the plush
12:26and swap it out before anyone notices. There is some funny tension with Gigi having to
12:31pretend to be a toy, only for him to get terrified when a big dog approaches him. It is really
12:36cute how the dog is actually protective of Gigi, causing Gigi to warm up to the dog,
12:41and he even calls him a good dog later on. Kiki eventually finds that the plush cat was
12:45found by an artist named Ursula. Kiki explains the situation to Ursula, and gets upset to
12:51find out that the whole fiasco with the crows caused the plush to get torn up. Ursula offers
12:56to fix up the plush, and return it to Kiki if she cleans up her place. With the deal
13:00made, Kiki manages to swap the plush out with Gigi, leaving their first delivery to be barely
13:05accomplished. The next day, Tombow invites Kiki to go to
13:09an aviation club meeting. Kiki decides that she'll go, but she has to make a delivery
13:13first. She helps two friendly old ladies bake some goodies for one of the ladies' granddaughters.
13:18We see the three had a really good time making all this stuff, which only makes the following
13:23scene more heartbreaking. Kiki gets caught up in a rainstorm, but she manages to make
13:27it to the granddaughter's house, although she is a bit late. Only for the granddaughter
13:32to be very ungrateful. She doesn't even care about the baked goods that her grandma made,
13:37and she insults Kiki for her terrible service. The scene honestly breaks my heart, and brings
13:41haunting flashbacks to how terribly I've been treated with my past jobs, despite how I really
13:47tried hard. She ends up missing Tombow's club meeting, and gets sick from the rain. After
13:51she recovers, she meets up with Tombow to apologize. He shows her a modified bike he
13:56made that has a big plane propeller attached to the front. Kiki rides on the back with
14:00him to test it out, and they go for a wild ride and end up crashing. After surviving
14:05such a disastrous ride, Kiki just can't help but break into adorable laughter as Tombow
14:09joins in with her. Tombow's friends show up, and Kiki gets uncomfortable around them and
14:14abruptly leaves, leaving Tombow to feel upset. I gotta admit though, that as much as I like
14:19Kiki as a character, I do feel bad for Tombow in a lot of scenes. I felt like Kiki was a
14:24little too harsh on him over stuff he didn't even do. The harsh cruelties of life and work
14:28get to Kiki, making her feel depressed, and this depression somehow leads to Kiki losing
14:33her witch powers. She suddenly can't understand Gigi anymore, and she can't fly anymore. Kiki
14:39feels worthless without her powers, and sinks into a deeper depression. Ursula checks in
14:44on Kiki, and invites her over to her place. Ursula tries cheering Kiki up by telling her
14:49that she has a pretty face, and she wants to use her as a model for her next painting.
14:53Throughout the movie, we've seen Kiki thinking pretty poorly of herself, like she doesn't
14:58think she's that pretty, she thinks the only dress she owns is very ugly, and so it's flattering
15:03to see Kiki warm up to someone complimenting her appearance. Kiki tries explaining her
15:08self-doubts and lack of motivation, which Ursula compares her situation to artist block,
15:13and she inspires Kiki to look for a new purpose to break out of her funk. As one who suffers
15:18through depression and artist block, I really can relate with this scene.
15:22In the final act, a freak accident causes a big blimp to crash onto a building. Tombow
15:27tries helping the others in tying the aircraft to the ground, but the wind picks him up,
15:32and he's stuck hanging onto a rope as the blimp flies away. Kiki sees all of this happening
15:37on live TV, and she desperately tries regaining her passion and motivation so she can fly
15:42off and save him. Her flight is very rough and bumpy, but she finally manages to get
15:46off the ground, and as she desperately tries grabbing Tombow's hand, but she keeps missing.
15:52Tombow finally loses his grip as Kiki heroically dives down and saves him at the last minute,
16:01and the town cheers over Kiki's heroics.
16:04This is overall a very cute movie. It is a very simple slice of life story, basically
16:09summing up how life and work sucks, but it tries encouraging viewers to do their best.
16:14It delves into very relatable subjects like self-doubt, work fatigue, and dealing with
16:19rude and ungrateful people. It makes me wish that I could regain my confidence just like
16:23Kiki did, and find out where I belong in life. Despite its fantasy elements with Kiki and
16:29her powers, it's a very grounded and lifelike movie, showing people just living their everyday
16:34lives. Some people might find this movie boring, but I found it very charming overall.
16:407. The Wind Rises
16:42This was originally set to be Miyazaki's last film back in 2013 before he came out of retirement.
16:48This was one of the last films Disney distributed for Ghibli, though they released it under
16:51their Touchstone license due to being concerned about the movie's subject matter. It seems
16:56like this is the movie that broke up Disney's rocky partnership with Ghibli. Again, it's
17:01a shame because there were a lot of crew members on the Disney team who loved Studio Ghibli
17:05and were proud to bring this to English audiences, but the higher ups at Disney just never saw
17:10or understood the studio's potential or work. While most Studio Ghibli films are made for
17:14family audiences, this one is one of the few to be made for adults. It has a PG-13 rating.
17:20This film could easily have been made in live action, but they put the dedication in animating
17:25everything and you gotta respect that dedication. I honestly think this movie serves as a better
17:31farewell to Miyazaki's career compared to The Boy and the Heron, but Miyazaki considers
17:37The Boy and the Heron his most personal work. However, this film's setting may throw off
17:42some older viewers, especially if they're war veterans, because it does have some touchy
17:46subject matter. The movie takes place during the events of World War II. From Japan's side,
17:52with a plot like that it's safe to assume that USA war veterans would find a setting
17:56like that too taboo to watch. Despite its sensitive setting, it's a very good movie,
18:01but it's a very sad one. It opens up with a boy from Japan named Jiro, dreaming of one
18:06day being able to fly airplanes, but he knows he'll never be able to due to having poor
18:11eyesight. He has a dream where he meets his idol, an Italian aircraftsman named Caproni.
18:16Caproni inspires Jiro that if he can't fly planes, he can build them. Years later, Jiro
18:22is now all grown up and voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who many Disney fans will recognize as Treasure
18:27Planet's Jim Hawkins, and Jiminy Cricket from the awful Pinocchio reboot. Jiro is heading
18:33back home on a train after spending time studying to become a plane engineer. He meets a young
18:38girl named Nahoko, who knows a French poem he loves. The Great Kanto Earthquake occurs
18:43as everyone has to flee from the train. Jiro helps rescue Nahoko's maid as she is hurt
18:48from the aftermath, and Jiro returns Nahoko and her maid back to their family, as Jiro
18:53heads off before the family could even learn his name.
18:56Cut to 1925, where Jiro and his best friend Kuro are employed to build fighter planes
19:01for the Japanese army. Throughout the movie, we see how Jiro is kind of conflicted by this.
19:06He just wants to build beautiful airplanes that can fly through the air, yet they're
19:10being wasted on warfare for a war he has no faith in. He finds it a shame that all of
19:15his hard work is just going to end in destruction. There's an interesting part late in the movie
19:19where Jiro and Kuro feel no guilt on how the army will use their planes. They're not
19:24building planes for the sake of bombing other countries, they're just living their dream
19:27of building planes. Jiro has a hilarious short and grouchy boss
19:31named Kirikawa, played hilariously by Martin Short. He was honestly one of my favorite
19:36characters in the movie. He's one of those characters who starts off very harsh and kind
19:40of unlikable, but he softens up over the course of the film. I always love characters like
19:44that in films. After many failed flight designs, Jiro takes
19:48a vacation at a resort. There he meets a woman painting outside. On a windy day, her
19:52parasol flies away, and Jiro catches it and returns it to her. The girl feels sad for
19:57not getting a chance to thank him, but her dad who owns the hotel resort tells her not
20:01to worry for he's staying at their hotel and she can thank him there. Later on, Jiro meets
20:05the painter girl again, and it's revealed that the girl is Nahoko, the same little girl
20:09he helped during the earthquake years ago, voiced by Emily Blunt from Mary Poppins Returns.
20:14Admittedly, it's kind of jarring how these two end up falling in love with each other.
20:18I mean, it's never confirmed how old Nahoko is now, but it's still kind of jarring because
20:22you remember her being a little girl earlier in the movie, but admittedly, their romance
20:26is the heart and soul of this movie. She fell in love with him ever since he first saved
20:30her and her maid, and Jiro starts to fall for her as well.
20:33Jiro meets with a friendly German spy named Hans Castorp, who gives Jiro intel against
20:38Hitler and how Germany and the Japanese army will eventually fall. Hans is another great
20:43character in this movie. He's not in it for very long, but we see him smile upon seeing
20:48the romance between Jiro and Nahoko as they bond by throwing a paper airplane back and
20:52forth. It's one of the most entertaining scenes in the whole movie.
20:56Jiro then asks for permission to marry Nahoko. Nahoko accepts but warns him that she has
21:01tuberculosis and wants to recover before they get married. This reveal honestly hurts upon
21:07rewatching it because when I first saw this movie years ago, I never heard of that disease
21:12and so I didn't know what it really was. But about 2 years ago, I learned that my grandma
21:17got the exact same disease, and so upon rewatching this movie, I realized oh my god, this is
21:22what my grandma had. Sadly my grandma got the disease supposedly from years of working
21:28as a nurse in her past. Luckily my grandma is still alive and with us. It does make this
21:33movie a bit sadder knowing more about this disease.
21:36Hans had to make an abrupt exit for secret police are after him for his intel on Hitler
21:40supposedly and the police are also after Jiro, supposedly for being a witness of the
21:45intel. Kurokawa wants Jiro to stay with him at his and his wife's house to hide him. Later
21:51at work we get a shocking scene where Jiro gets a phone call at work from Kurokawa as
21:56he passes on a message about Nahoko and how she suffered from a lung hemorrhage. Jiro
22:09quickly rushes out of work bringing it with him and as he cries over it as he rides a
22:14train to her. He tries sending Nahoko to a sanitarium so she can get healed up but she
22:19can't bear to be without Jiro and she manages to follow him back to Kurokawa's house. Jiro
22:24begs Kurokawa to let Nahoko live with him and his wife. The wife thinks it sounds like
22:29a splendid idea but Kurokawa refuses to let an unwed couple live in his house. So Jiro
22:34begs his boss and wife to be witnesses for their own wedding and have it set immediately.
22:39The wife accepts as her husband begrudgingly accepts. We are led to a beautiful wedding
22:44scene that even Kurokawa breaks into tears over. Sometime later Jiro comes home forgetting
22:49that his sister Kayo was visiting and she is voiced by Mae Whitman who many may recognize
22:54as the voice of Katara from the original Avatar The Last Airbender. Kayo pursued a successful
22:59career as a nurse and she expresses her disappointment and concern over Jiro leaving Nahoko alone
23:04at home while he spends his time at work. She informs him that Nahoko's condition is
23:09worse than he realizes and she doesn't want to see Nahoko die because she grew to really
23:13like her. Despite this we see how Jiro is still a very dedicated husband. While he is
23:18working all the time he makes sure to spend time with his wife at the same time. He even
23:23holds her hand while he's working. It's a very touching scene.
23:27Now here's where the movie gets really sad. So one morning as Jiro heads off to work to
23:32test off his latest plane model. Nahoko happily waves him goodbye but slowly begins to frown
23:38and she leaves notes for Jiro, his sister, and her family. Kayo comes back in shock to
23:43see that Nahoko left and she reads the letter finding out that Nahoko is heading back to
23:48the sanitarium as she breaks into tears. This dang ending gets me every time. We cut to
23:54Jiro and his test flight is a success. The wind rises and distracts Jiro as he turns
24:00towards the wind ignoring his plane's successful flight and ignoring the cheering of his co-workers.
24:05That rise of wind felt like a call to Jiro that Nahoko died.
24:09In a bittersweet ending we cut to 1945. We see Jiro once again dreaming alongside Caproni.
24:15We see a graveyard full of destroyed Japanese aircraft signifying Japan's defeat in World
24:20War II. Jiro reflects on his regret of all of his planes being used for such destruction
24:26for a war they were never even going to win. His biggest regret is losing his wife as he
24:30sees her spirit telling him that he must live on. Jiro breaks into tears and keeps thanking
24:35her. My god this is such a sad but beautiful film.
24:39I don't think the film will be for everyone. Some may get lost or bored by the movie but
24:44it is an interesting insight on the making of airplanes. The movie may be a fictional
24:48story based on a real life plane engineer from a real life war setting, but Jiro really
24:53reflects the life of Miyazaki from his fascination with airplanes, his hatred of war, losing
24:59his mother to tuberculosis, and even his regret of choosing his work over spending more time
25:04with his wife and son. I personally found this to be a better swan song to his career
25:10and found the Boy and the Herring to be underwhelming in comparison, but hey the man never quits
25:16and I can only hope that his real last film will be his greatest.
25:196. Whisper of the Heart Funny thing is how the first thing I think
25:23of when I hear a western song like Country Road is a film from Japan. Yep I mentioned
25:30this one earlier with it's spinoff The Cat Returns. Well here is the movie that lead
25:34to that spinoff. While Whisper of the Heart isn't my all time favorite Studio Ghibli
25:39film, I do find it to be the most relatable. I believe this is one of my best friends favorite
25:44Studio Ghibli films as well. Similar to Kiki's Delivery Service this is a very laid back
25:49and very realistic movie for the most part. It's very relatable and has very likable
25:56characters and as a Kingdom Hearts fan I can't help but smile upon realizing that the two
26:00main characters are the voices of Naminé and Riku, with Pitch Perfect's Brittany Snow
26:05as Shizuku and David Gallagher as Seiji. Just close your eyes when you hear these two talk
26:11and it sounds like a weird Kingdom Hearts romance fan fiction. The story revolves around
26:21a middle schooler named Shizuku as she is about to graduate middle school and she doesn't
26:25know what she wants to do with her life. She is a huge bookworm and notices that a guy
26:28named Seiji has checked out every book she likes from the library before she did, and
26:33she begins wondering who Seiji is and if he would think a lot like her. We see her meet
26:37up with her friend at school named Mako, voiced by former Disney Channel actress Ashley Tisdale.
26:42Shizuku shows her the song she wrote for the graduation ceremony, being a personal rewriting
26:47of the song Country Roads. It's worth noting that in the original Japanese version it was
26:52more about Shizuku localizing the song to be more culturally appropriate and she named
26:57it Concrete Road. Shizuku realizes that she left her song behind and as she goes back
27:02to get it she finds a boy reading it, he hands it back to her and teases her that her version
27:06is just as corny as the original. Throughout the movie we see Shizuku's friends and teachers,
27:11complimenting her for being a great writer, but Shizuku has doubts in herself and she
27:16sees her writing as corny and flawed. Being bored of her life Shizuku finds a strange
27:20cat on a bus and follows it, very similar to Alice chasing the white rabbit from Alice
27:25in Wonderland. Nahoko chases the cat hoping for the chase to add some excitement to her
27:30life only for the cat to lead her to an old antique shop. I really do think the antique
27:35shop is the heart and soul behind this entire movie. At first Shizuku seems bummed out and
27:40bored that the cat led her to such a boring old antique shop, but then she takes a look
27:44inside and she is fascinated by the stuff in there. Especially a statue of a cat in
27:48a white suit. The old owner of the shop named Shiro comes in and welcomes her to look around.
27:54He introduces her to many of the antiques and shows how there are many wonderful stories
27:57behind them. There is an interesting scene where Shiro shows Shizuku this giant clock
28:03and tells how there is a fairy tale behind the artwork in it. It's a pretty interesting
28:07scene. So when Shiro shows her the cat statue, he tells her how there is a love story behind
28:12the cat, saying how his name is the Baron and he is waiting for the return of his lost
28:16love. Shizuku is fascinated about the idea of stories being told through just objects
28:20instead of storybooks, and we get a conflict where Mako is heartbroken because there is
28:24a classmate she has a crush on, but she is embarrassed and heartbroken when he asks if
28:29she will go out with his friend instead. Shizuku angrily confronts the boy for breaking her
28:34friend's heart, but is put in an awkward situation where the boy confesses that he loves her.
28:41Shizuku admits that she likes him as a friend, but she refuses to go out with him because
28:44Mako is her best friend and she doesn't want to ruin anything between them. So the boy
28:49understands and reluctantly promises to never bring it up.
28:53Now this scene could have easily been cut out of the movie and made the movie shorter
28:56without any context being changed, but I am kind of glad that this is in the film. I absolutely
29:02hate love triangle stories and I think they can teach kids terrible lessons about toxic
29:06relationships. So I do salute this movie for making Shizuku a loyal friend to both Mako
29:11and the boy. I would have rolled my eyes if she ended up kissing the boy only for an ugly
29:16fight to break out later between her and Mako. This movie spares the audience from having
29:20to suffer through such misery and it leaves us with a very tough yet mature way of handling
29:24such an uncomfortable conflict. Shizuku feels like a jerk for she is calling the boy a clueless
29:30jerk for not realizing Mako had feelings, but she realizes that she is the jerk for
29:33not realizing the boy liked her. She tries revisiting the antique shop, but is bummed
29:39to find out that it is closed. She notices the clock and the baron statue are missing.
29:43The boy who teased her song earlier shows up and it is revealed that he is the grandson
29:47of the shop owner. He offers to let her in to see the baron, revealing it was moved upstairs.
29:53He also reveals the big clock was sold because it was only there for repairs. He says his
29:57grandpa is out with his friends and they won't be back till later. As he takes her
30:01to see the baron, he shows her a cool trick with its eyes where when light shines on it,
30:06it creates a glowing effect. Shizuku notices a bunch of violins and she learns that the
30:11boy made one of them and he reveals that he wants to make violins for a living. In what
30:16is arguably the best part of the movie, Shizuku asks him to play the violin, but he only agrees
30:21to do it if she sings. She doesn't want to, she is very nervous, she doesn't think she
30:26will be any good, but he starts playing a song he knows she will understand. He starts
30:30playing Country Roads as Shizuku awkwardly starts singing her version of the song, only
30:34to fully get into it as she starts smiling and clapping along as she keeps singing. To
30:40add to the cuteness of the scene, Shirou and his friends come back and they hear the music
30:44coming from upstairs. Instead of awkwardly interrupting the performance, they grab their
30:49instruments and join along. It is a very heartwarming scene as Shizuku keeps on singing, feeling
30:54more confidence with her friends around her and supporting her. This scene always puts
30:59a big smile on my face, it is just a really wholesome scene.
31:02Right after the performance, Shizuku is shocked to find out that the boy's name is Seiji,
31:06the one who checked out all of the books that she loves, and she can't believe it, and she
31:10is in denial. Seiji walks her home as she apologizes for her reaction upon finding out
31:15his name, and she admits that she had a real good time, and she thinks that his grandpa
31:19and his friends are really nice guys. So Seiji apologizes for what he said about her Country
31:24Road song, and he confesses that he thinks that she is a very talented writer, and she
31:28should keep it up.
31:30Some time passes and Seiji asks to speak with Shizuku alone on the school roof, with all
31:34the other kids comically snooping in on their conversation. Seiji reveals he has a chance
31:39to study with a violin maker in Italy for two months, and he has to say goodbye to her
31:43for now. He confesses that he has been amazed by her for years, and checked out all those
31:47books before her in hopes that she would eventually notice him.
31:51Being inspired by Seiji's pursuit of knowing what he wants to do in life, she decides that
31:56she is going to become a writer, and she decides that she wants to write a story about the
31:59Baron Cat, and asks for Shirou's permission to use the Baron in her story. Shirou accepts,
32:04but only if he is the first one who gets to read it when finished. So she begins writing
32:09a love story of the Baron fighting an evil pilot cat to rescue his beloved one. We get
32:13some interesting fantasy sequences of the Baron guiding Shizuku through the world she
32:17has created in her story. Now Shizuku finds out that Seiji is back for a bit, so he can
32:22attend graduation, and she thinks that she needs to rush the story to completion before
32:27he leaves again. She spends many hours writing her story, neglecting her schoolwork, causing
32:32her grades to fall to her family's disappointment, and all of this causes a lot of pressure and
32:37anxiety on Shizuku. We cut to a kind of sad part where Shirou sees the lost love of his
32:43life coming through his door, and he is happy to see her, only to wake up and realize it
32:46was only a dream. It's interesting to realize at this moment that the love story he mentioned
32:52between the Baron and the Cat Lady is obviously one he made up and it was based on a lost
32:56love story he actually went through. So shortly after that upsetting realization, Shizuku
33:01walks through the door and begs him to immediately read the story before Seiji leaves. So Shizuku
33:07waits all night for Shirou to read the story. He comes back and says that he really enjoyed
33:11the story, but she breaks into tears not believing him, saying that she thinks it's awful, corny,
33:16and has too many mistakes. As a struggling artist who tried making their own animated
33:22series, I really relate with this. I've had people for years saying that my art is great,
33:27but I strongly don't agree. I think my line work is too wobbly and sloppy, I'm terrible
33:33with proportions and shapes, my stories feel too rushed and flawed, and I leave too many
33:37mistakes. I especially feel inferior when comparing my art to the likes of films like
33:43this, Studio Ghibli films. I'll never be as good as them. So yeah, this scene does break
33:48my heart every time because I truly understand what this girl is going through. Shizuku thinks
33:53she's not good enough to be of Seiji because she can't make progress in pursuing her career
33:57like he can. Shirou tries cheering up Shizuku by admitting that her story does have a few
34:02bumps but it can be overcome by time. He reveals more of the story about the Baron, revealing
34:08that he had a loved one in real life that he met in Germany, and her name was Louise,
34:13the same name as the cat from the love story. So both found the Baron statue and the Lady
34:18Cat companion statue at a cafe, but the Lady Cat statue was out for repairs, and the shopkeep
34:24would only sell the Baron statue to Shirou if Louise agreed to hold onto the Lady Cat
34:28statue so they could be reunited someday. Sadly, the two were separated from the events
34:33of World War 2 and he was never able to find Louise or the Cat Lady statue again. Shirou
34:39thanks Shizuku for her story, for it gave new life to his and the Baron's tragic story.
34:44He then pulls out a geode rock with emeralds in it, and he compares her to it, showing
34:49how the rock doesn't seem so special at first, but if you look between the gaps and see the
34:53pretty emeralds inside. He encourages her to search deeper within herself until she
34:58can find her emeralds within her. It's honestly a beautiful metaphor about finding worth within
35:03oneself. Shizuku decides that she's not quite ready yet to become a writer, but she's going
35:08to finish high school so she can pursue a career and get better at writing. Admittedly,
35:13I do think the ending is a little awkward and abrupt, but it does give me a laugh either
35:17way. So Seiji appears late at night and wants Shizuku to come with him as he rides his bike
35:22with her to the top of the town, showing Shizuku a gorgeous sunrise over the city. He confesses
35:29that this is where he goes to be inspired. He awkwardly asks her if they ever see themselves
35:33getting married someday, and she says yes, causing Seiji to awkwardly say he loves her
35:38in the credits roll. Again, it's a very rushed and abrupt ending, a common issue of many
35:46Studio Ghibli films, but it doesn't take away from how sweet and charming this film is throughout.
35:52It's very simple and grounded, with no fancy elements aside from the dream sequences. This
35:58easily could have been a live action film, but I respect that they put all the effort
36:02into animating this film. I love the visuals, especially in the antique shop and dream sequences.
36:08The main couple were great. The old man was such a charming and lovable mentor for both
36:12Seiji and Shizuku. It's a really good movie for those who love to make art or stories,
36:17but have doubts within their talents. It makes me wish I could have Shizuku and Seiji's determination
36:22to push on. Yet here I am in my 30s. No luck. I tried and didn't get anywhere. So either
36:28way, beautiful laid back film.
36:30Number 5, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Talk about a legendary movie, way ahead of
36:36its time. Can you believe this movie turned 40 years old? This is a tricky movie to describe
36:42because many will argue over what to call this movie. Some will say it's Miyazaki's
36:47and Studio Ghibli's first film, but technically it isn't. For Miyazaki's first movie was actually
36:52a film adaption of the popular anime series Lupin the Third, and this movie was made before
36:57the studio became Studio Ghibli officially. However, Studio Ghibli themselves do consider
37:02this an official Studio Ghibli film. And this truly is Miyazaki's first original work because
37:08Lupin the Third was not a franchise that Miyazaki made, but Nausicaa was his own creation based
37:13on an original manga series that he himself made.
37:16While I never saw it all the way through the first time, I have Cartoon Network's Toonami
37:21to thank for introducing me to this film. Does anyone remember back in 2006 when Toonami
37:27did the coolest thing ever yet didn't bother making it an annual thing when they really
37:31should have? Month of Miyazaki was a huge event where each Saturday night Cartoon Network
37:36would proudly present 4 of the greatest animated movies from Hayao Miyazaki, including Nausicaa,
37:41Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. I was very excited to see these,
37:47unfortunately I missed out on all of them and the only one I got a chance to see was
37:50Spirited Away. These promos did a great job at previewing and praising these films for
37:55how good they truly are. I didn't recognize any of these movies except for Spirited Away,
38:00but I'll discuss that one later. All I knew was I really wanted to see these movies because
38:04they looked fantastic.
38:06However although I didn't get to see it all the way through, I did get a glimpse of Nausicaa
38:10and I thought it looked like a very exciting film, but I was forced to leave with my family
38:13that night so I didn't get to see it all the way through. All I remember was seeing Nausicaa
38:17fleeing from a giant burning airship and boy was it exciting.
38:22Many years later I got more acquainted with Studio Ghibli and bought a few of the Blu-rays
38:26during the Disney re-release era, and the one I made sure to get was Nausicaa.
38:31Now that I've seen the film, what are my thoughts? Honestly when I first saw it I was very amazed
38:36by the visuals and music, but I was totally lost on what was going on, but I watched it
38:41a few more times and by now do I see it for the masterpiece it truly is.
38:46First of all the voice talent in this is fantastic, you got Patrick Stewart, Shia LaBeouf, Uma
38:51Thurman, Tris McNeil, Jeff Bennett, even Jack Skellington himself Chris Sarandon.
38:56Nausicaa herself is a very revolutionary and very underappreciated heroine. Many people
39:01seem to praise characters like Princess Jasmine, Pocahontas, Anastasia, or Mulan for being
39:06the first strong and independent female characters who can get stuff done. I'm sorry, but not
39:11only did Nausicaa beat all of them by nearly a decade, but she's better than them.
39:16I'm not kidding when I say Nausicaa is the greatest female hero of all time. Nowadays
39:21many people groan when they see a push for female heroes because it feels so force and
39:26manipulative. They have to dumb down or villainize the men to make the women look more overpowered
39:31in comparison. They try portraying them as flawless, preachy heroes all about like a
39:37woman empowerment. It gets kind of annoying. Nausicaa is a very smart and powerful character,
39:43but she's not preachy or braggy about it, nor is she perfect. Most movies with female
39:48protagonists have to have sexist men either sexually harassing the women or not having
39:53faith in the heroine because she's a woman. Despite being the first animated movie to
39:57star a female protagonist, no one looks down on Nausicaa for being a woman. We constantly
40:02see her people praising their princess, not because of her gender, but because of who
40:07she is and what she does. She does have a bit of a stereotypically girly side to her,
40:12like how she twirls and laughs when she's happy. However, despite being so skilled and
40:16competent at many things, she's not perfect. Her emotions do get the best of her at times.
40:22There are too many words to describe Nausicaa. She's beautiful, respects all life and sees
40:26value and beauty in things that others would find scary or deadly, like these giant insects
40:31called the Ohm. She's fascinated with nature despite how she's in a post-apocalyptic setting
40:35where so much plant life is either dead or toxic. She just wants to find a way to restore
40:40nature and she wants everyone to just live in peace. It's really a shame that Americans
40:45did not see the appeal of this movie back in the 1980s. They originally tried localizing
40:50this film as something called Warriors of the Wind. It's a dub so terrible that Miyazaki
40:55nearly lost faith in ever having any of his films be localized again. I tried watching
41:01it and oh it's bad. They cut out like 30 minutes of footage from the film. It's got terrible
41:05voice acting and they tried Americanizing a lot of the characters' names, like calling
41:09Nausicaa Zandra. Not to mention, they pushed Nausicaa far off in the background on the
41:15box art of her own film, trying to treat her like she's a minor character, despite how
41:20she's the central heart of the movie. We're not here to talk about that crappy first localization
41:25though. Let's talk about the good one from the early 2000s redubbed by Disney. The movie
41:30opens up with a prologue narrated by the late Tony Jay, who played Frollo from The Hunchback
41:34of Notre Dame, as he describes how a thousand years ago a tragedy called the Seven Days
41:39of Fire, led by these giant weaponized organisms, wiped out most of humanity and caused the
41:44world to turn into a toxic jungle infested with giant insects called the Ohm. My god,
41:50the music during this opening nearly tears me up every time. We cut to our heroine as
41:54she flies around on a glider and she lands in the toxic jungle wearing an oxygen mask.
41:59She gets excited when she finds a giant shell of these insect creatures called the Ohms.
42:04She carves off a lens shaped piece off of the shell to bring it back as a resource for
42:07her people. As she lays down and just watches the spores from the sky falling like snowflakes,
42:13she's amazed that something so pretty is so deadly. Suddenly she hears a disturbed Ohm
42:17rampaging towards her valley. Nausicaa finds her uncle Lord Yupa and she ends up saving
42:22him from the Ohm, but not by killing the Ohm, as she manages to calm the insect down and
42:27guide it back to its forest. Lord Yupa, voiced by Patrick Stewart, comes back from a trip
42:32and he's happy to see Nausicaa as he introduces her to a creature he found called a Fox Squirrel.
42:37He tries saving it from the Ohm thinking it was a human baby, only to find out it was
42:41a creature and that provoked the Ohm which was the reason why it was chasing him in the
42:45first place. We get a funny yet cute scene that really demonstrates how great of a character
42:50Nausicaa is. She sees that the Fox Squirrel is very scared and snarly and she tries showing
42:54Yupa that there's nothing to be afraid of with it and the creature bites into Nausicaa's
42:58finger. She grunts for a little bit, but she quickly calms herself down, and then she
43:02repeats, see nothing to fear, and the creature calms down and starts licking her wound. As
43:12Nausicaa giggles and laughs over the creature and decides to keep him, she names him Tato.
43:16We learn that Nausicaa's father is bedridden from breathing in the toxins from the jungle.
43:20An old lady named Obaba brings up a prophecy that only she still believes in about how
43:25a blue robed man will someday ride across a golden field and save everyone. Now she's
43:30basically Grandma Tala from Moana, except she sounds like Grandma Gertie from Hey Arnold
43:35and she doesn't die. A giant aircraft from another kingdom called the Tomikians fly dangerously
43:40close to the valley. Nausicaa flies up there to try saving them, but they crash. A captive
43:45princess named Lestelle of Pedjite falls out of the plane and Nausicaa tries saving her,
43:50but the princess begins dying as she pleads Nausicaa to burn whatever's on the aircraft
43:54for cargo. The cargo was the embryo of one of the giant weapons that destroyed the world
43:58a thousand years ago. In the tragic scene, the Tomikians invade and head for the king's
44:03room. As Nausicaa chases after them, she's horrified to find out they killed her bedridden
44:07father. She snaps and begins attacking the men, she even kills some of them. But Yuba
44:15steps in and takes a stab from her sword to intervene, in order to prevent more deaths
44:19from happening. Nausicaa is left horrified over what she just did. The Tomikian ruler
44:24Kushana, voiced by Uma Thurman, is going to mature the bioweapon embryo so she can use
44:29it to burn down the toxic jungle, but Obaba tries warning her that many have tried and
44:34all it does is anger the Ohm to stampede and destroy other towns. The Tomikians declare
44:38that they are going to return to their recently dethroned Pedjite with the bioweapon along
44:43with 5 hostages including Princess Nausicaa. In a rather interesting scene, Yuba looks
44:48for Nausicaa and finds her in a secret room full of toxic plants and water. We see a worn
44:53out Nausicaa resting in there without an oxygen mask. When I first saw this I thought oh my
44:58god is she trying to kill herself over what happened to her dad, but she reveals that
45:02the plants in the room aren't toxic. The plants were only toxic because the soil in
45:06the jungles were contaminated. She learned that the plants can be restored with water.
45:11She built this secret room in hopes that one of the plants could have a cure to save her
45:14father but she gives up on it now because it's too late. She hugs Yuba with tears in
45:19her eyes and confesses that she's scared of herself because she never knew she could have
45:23the urge to kill and she just wants the killing to stop.
45:27Now this is what I mean about her being such a great character. She's a character who's
45:31all about making peace, but after that one moment where she loses control of herself
45:35she realizes the horror of her ways and she doesn't want it to happen again. She's terrified
45:40of herself. I can really relate with this because I admittedly have a temper and I'm
45:46sometimes terrified of myself and yeah I love this scene. It's really good, really powerful.
45:52The next morning as Nausicaa and the 5 hostages are taken captive and sent off to Pedjite,
45:57their ship gets shot at by a Pedjite pilot. Now this was the part I originally saw back
46:02when it was on Toonami back in 2006. So yeah I'm glad I finally got to see the rest of
46:07this film nowadays. So Nausicaa escapes from the burning ship and begs the Pedjite pilot
46:12to stop. The pilot briefly sees the image of the dead Pedjite princess as Nausicaa begs
46:17him to stop. He gets distracted and ends up getting shot down by the Tomekians and he
46:22crashes in the jungle. The Tomekian ship crash lands in the jungle as Nausicaa, the captives,
46:27and Kushana survive. Nausicaa ends up adventuring off alone to see if the Pedjite pilot survived.
46:34Now while I do love this movie, there is one thing I don't really like about it and
46:39that is during the flashback to Nausicaa's youth. I mean they have a gorgeous background
46:43with these golden backgrounds and these really cool lighting effects. The scenes are almost
46:47interesting but what ruins these scenes for me is the tone deaf choice of music. While
46:53most of the music has beautiful orchestration or synth music that sounds like it's straight
46:57from a 16 bit JRPG, these flashback scenes have this cryptic flute music with a little
47:02girl loudly singing la la la la la la over and over and I think the voice gets very annoying
47:08and feels very out of place for the scenes. There is one scene where young Nausicaa is
47:13trying to hide and protect a baby Oum, but these other men confront her and force her
47:17to hand it over so they can kill it as she cries and begs them not to kill it. I feel
47:21like this scene would have been more effective if it had sad piano music or dramatic orchestric
47:26strings, but instead let's have a tone deaf little girl sing obnoxiously loud over and
47:32over. I'm guessing they were trying to convey childhood innocence during these flashbacks,
47:37but I'm sorry the music just kind of ruins these scenes. I wish they were better. I see
47:42what they were trying to do with it, just poor song choice. So Nausicaa discovers the
47:47pedjite pilot is still alive, being named Asbel, voiced by Shia LaBeouf, and it's revealed
47:52that he is the pedjite prince. As Nausicaa apologizes for his sister's death, she assures
47:57him that she tried to save her, and Asbel assures her that his sister's death was not
48:02her fault. We see the two bond a bit after they get sucked into quicksand, but they discover
48:06an underground cave filled with clean water and purified plants. Nausicaa and Asbel escape
48:12and return the pedjite, and Nausicaa is horrified to learn that the pedjites have captured a
48:16baby Oum, and they have it pierced and dangling with chains, and are using it to bait to lure
48:22the Oum to destroy the Tomekians, which will also destroy the Valley of the Wind as well,
48:28and it will lead to the Oum's getting wiped out in the process. Nausicaa breaks into tears
48:32over hearing such a horrible thing, and she realizes Asbel knew about this plan all along.
48:37As the pedjite try to take Nausicaa away to prevent her from interfering with their plans,
48:42Asbel realizes Nausicaa was right and he tries helping her escape, but he gets knocked out
48:50by his own men and Nausicaa is locked up. Nausicaa is freed by the pedjite queen, also
48:54Asbel's mom, and she is voiced by Jodie Benson, the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
49:00She has one of her assistants swap outfits with Nausicaa so Nausicaa can sneak out and
49:04try to stop the destruction.
49:05In a very heartbreaking scene we see Nausicaa get shot as she jumps down to protect the
49:14baby Oum. She breaks into tears and apologizes to the injured baby, begging for its forgiveness.
49:20The baby tries heading to the ocean, but Nausicaa begs it not to go in there for it is filled
49:24with acid. As she tries pushing the baby back, she gets pushed back and her feet get burned
49:29by the acid. She collapses on the ground in tears as the baby crawls next to her and tries
49:40comforting her by reaching out with its yellow tentacles as the baby's blood soaks over her
49:45pink dress making it blue.
49:53This part tears me up every time.
49:54Nausicaa eventually gets back up along with the baby as they stand in front of the stampede
49:58of the Oum. They try to stop it, but Nausicaa gets rammed by them and dies. The valley cries
50:04over the death of their princess, but the Oum gather around her and use their yellow
50:08tentacles to raise her high in the sky, emitting a power that restores her back to life as
50:13they stretch out their tentacles creating a pathway for her to float on.
50:16Obaba breaks into tears when she realizes the prophecy about the valley savior was true
50:21all along. A savior dressed in blue really did come along soaring across a golden field,
50:27but the savior wasn't a man like she thought. It turns out it was a woman, the princess.
50:33During the credits we see a bit of humanity being restored.
50:37But the first Studio Ghibli film and for a 40 year old film this holds up incredibly
50:42well. It's a very powerful and moving and very entertaining film. Its message still
50:47holds up true about the importance of preserving nature, and how problems are better solved
50:51with compassion and understanding rather than killing.
50:54It may not be my absolute favorite Ghibli film, but I'm not going to deny that Nausicaa
50:59is my favorite heroine out of all of these films. In a way she is Studio Ghibli's Snow
51:04White. She's the one that started it all. I think it's a crime that Totoro is Studio
51:09Ghibli's official mascot when that honor really deserves to go to Nausicaa. She should be
51:14the face of Studio Ghibli. I find it such a shame that so many boys and girls will grow
51:18up knowing characters like Mulan or Wonder Woman, yet barely any of them will probably
51:23know who Nausicaa is, and I think she deserves to be more well known. I think everyone could
51:29learn from this movie. We need less hateful people like Donald Trump and we need more
51:33loving people like Nausicaa in our lives.