Transcript of 70mm’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers just like you. Every Monday I chat about recently watched movies with my close friend and art is Danny Haas.
DANNY Please stop interrupting me.
SLIM And my close friend and movie insider, Protolexus.
PROTO I mean, 17 times going in and out of consciousness? Dirk, that isn’t falling asleep. That is a seizure.
SLIM Every single month we have a new theme that guides our featured discussion for that episode. And this month, it’s Leading L-eighties, my pick is Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Is Nausicaa my favorite animated character of all time? Is this movie simultaneously the original Dune and Avatar in one Miyazaki film? All this and more… right now.
[70mm theme ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM We need to get into the big news, maybe. Maybe the big Proto news. But first, I’ll say that Spotify added chapters. So now pretty much every podcast app that you’re listening on, you can skip ahead right to the the main course, the main dish, get your two liter bottle of squirt, sit down and listen to Nasik of the Valley of the Wind discussion later in the show.
PROTO Spotify, welcome to the 21st century. [Slim laughs]
SLIM The big news hit IG live the other night. I wasn’t there live but I was able to sit back and relax and watch Proto put on a live television program to make a huge announcement about our supporter only episodes in the future. Proto, you want to elaborate on the cage? What took place Friday night?
PROTO Yeah, our announcement — our new bonus material initiative going forward, to be determined when this will officially launch, you know, the day. But all the interns of our Patreon will be able to have the opportunity to pick a movie and then we’re going to do a lottery, live on IG. I will be picking the winner of our interns for a bonus episode. They get to pick a movie. So, very exciting. Very exciting times. Yeah, I put on my suit. I mean, I think I looked great.
DANNY You looked fantastic.
PROTO In the 70mm studio that is up and running in my basement.
SLIM It definitely looked like The Merv Griffin Seinfeld episode, the set was in Kramer’s house where you’re putting on a live television show. It was amazing to see. We have 60 plus interns on our Patreon right now. So if people had been waiting for an episode, now’s the time. Get your number in the cage, the bingo roller. What do they call those things? Does anyone know the official word of those bingo things?
DANNY Basket.
SLIM The bingo basket?
PROTO Cage, basket, wheel — pick your pick your poison.
SLIM I love cage personally. Sounds ominous. There was a question. Will we get Danny art for the the cage episodes? I don’t know what we’re gonna call this episodes.
DANNY The Cage Match.
SLIM This is going to be different than the previous council tier. So I think you know the ability to choose an episode. I mean, Danny will probably hopefully maybe produce some beautiful art for those episodes as we usually do for them as he usually does for the bonus episode.
DANNY No one can see right now but Slim has pointed gun right at me, so. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Listen, okay. So Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is leading ladies month. I just want to say right off the bat that I saw a review come in on Letterboxd that left me rattled to the core. Co-host of The Movie Mixtape podcast Dirk feelgood. Dr. Feelgood himself dick. He read this movie three stars Nausicaa the Valley of the Wind. Listen to this review broke my own personal best for a number of times. I fell asleep watching a movie, but tried to keep going, and that number was 17 times. 17. Danny, do you have thoughts on Dirk being nearly unable to finish this movie?
DANNY This is what happens when you’re on a hiatus from your own podcast. You don’t know how to regulate your sleep correctly, you can’t stay awake during movies. I’m feeling for him right now. This is a trying time for him.
PROTO I mean 17 times, 17 times going in and out of consciousness. Dirk, that isn’t falling asleep. That is a seizure. [Danny laughs] You need to go see a doctor. Stop self-diagnosing.
SLIM People go on these podcasts hiatus and all hell breaks loose. Remember the cinnamon knots podcast?
DANNY Who? Oh my.
SLIM The journey through the Criterion. Remember, we were supposed to get a 2001: A Space Odyssey episodes from the Cinenauts pod. And we haven’t heard anything from that podcast. They’re gone. They could be gone. It’s not a game. Okay? This is not a game. Proto, you watched Total Recall this week. I want to hear about this.
PROTO I did. I went and watched Total Recall. This is of course Paul Verhoeven from 1990. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The man. I hadn’t seen this in a long time. And I’ve been kind of itching to watch it. Because I didn’t really kind of really remember much of it. Yeah, you know, I didn’t want to I didn’t want to say too much because I feel like this is a movie we have to do on our show at some point.
SLIM I didn’t see a rating. You know I didn’t see a rating on that review.
PROTO I know you were looking. You looked long and hard and hard for a rating. [Slim & Danny laugh] Trying to read the tea leaves. No, but I didn’t give a rating. I think this movie is of the Verhoeven filmography. This is a fascinating one to me. Um, yeah, I have mixed feelings about it. I would love to talk about it at some day.
SLIM Kidding me?
DANNY Goodness.
PROTO I mean, Sharon Stone though, please. I love Sharon Stone. You know, I think that’s what drove me to finally watch this because I watched Basic Instinct. She’s amazing in that. And then I was like, well, Sharon Stone, Paul Verhoeven, Total Recall. I’m in.
SLIM It’s got a bunch of the Verhoeven faves — Ronnie Cox, Michael Ironside, the rest. Incredible film. Incredible film I think I’ve ever made it reviewed this several times. And I asked the question is, is Paul Verhoeven, the greatest science fiction director of all time? The question has to be asked, Danny.
DANNY That seems like a question you would ask.
SLIM Are you ready to say yes or no? Are you ready to say yes or no to that?
DANNY I’m ready, but I’d have to watch it first. I’ve never seen it.
PROTO Woooww. This is big news.
DANNY I’ve been saving myself for the podcast.
SLIM I’m planning our summer right now in my head, science fiction month. Science science fiction on Mars month. Mars-ly.
DANNY Specific.
SLIM We’ll figure something out. Listen, workshopping is hard. Okay? It’s not all winners right off the bat. What about Cobra? You watch Sly Stallone Cobra.
PROTO Oh I did, yes.
SLIM What is happening over there? Going through all the bangers.
PROTO Yeah, you know, I was looking for something to have on in the background.
DANNY I think he gave this one stars though.
PROTO Cobra seemed like a good fit. I did.
SLIM Proto had no intention of doing the show, doing the movie on the show.
PROTO Yeah, I mean, this movie is a mess. [Slim laughs] Honestly, it’s pretty bad. Just in terms of the writing. What happens? It’s so 80s in how like silly everything is, you know, Sylvester Stallone, he plays this cop. He’s on the zombie. I think it’s called the zombie squad. And the movie starts with this. This psychopath going into a grocery store and just like shooting up all the groceries. And then I don’t know creating like a hostage situation. And the cops are outside the SWAT team. So like, what are we going to do? Like, call in Cobra. And here comes Stallone in this like, this jalopy. This car he has is ridiculous in this movie. Just like rolls in like he’s going to save the day here. He told me like I mean they. They want you to think like he’s good at what he does, but he almost botches this job. So the whole movie is a disaster. But it is definitely one of those movies where it’s so bad that it kind of turns the corner to being good. So it’s fun. It’s fun for how bad it is.
SLIM Incredible film, look. I mean Paul dropped the poster look at that posters nuts right? Mash that blown up on your wall. Who that toothpick in his mouth yeesh the toothpick we should say hello to some new patrons Kelly and Dustin joined this week to get access to the VHS village discord patreon.com/seventy mm discounts on Danny’s prints are 40 Plus supporter only episodes as we mentioned the interns will be choosing our next batch of supporter only episodes. Which reminds me I wonder if we should put like a no trade list to the interns like these are movies you can’t choose? Are we just letting letting it all have locks? Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know how to interpret that lock statement. And meditate on that.
DANNY We’ll figure it out.
SLIM We we give out a free year of Letterboxd Pro also every week gets rid of ads and you get access to stats. This week’s winner pull up bear with me. I just had it. Sorry, Philip. On a letterbox less it left a review for nine to five. Do I need to watch ad for Brady right now? Five stars nine to five.
DANNY Oh my gosh, five stars. Yeah.
SLIM You have to say that that one was tagged 70mm space pod. But there’s been a lot of reviews coming in base seven. Like no character, like space character. But the I mean, the proper tag is 70 mm pod one word. And there’s been a lot coming in. Wow. coming in. A lot of people watching along with us love it. Danny, what movie do you want to talk about?
DANNY The Bond journey rolls on. I took a took a week break off from after Brosnan before I started Daniel Craig’s journey. Case and I watched Casino Royale one night because you can’t get enough Casino Royale it’s it’s it’s easily my favorite.
SLIM You guys just make it out the whole movie.
DANNY We are Yeah. Just every time Craig takes his shirt off, I take my shirt off. It’s a special time in the Haas house. But yeah, we watched Cassina rial and it’s fantastic. I’m working on my list on letterbox of my top it’s it’s up there number one right now. It’s a private list. You can’t say, Oh, that’s funny because I was moving things around on the list. And I wanted to see what else Martin Campbell did. He directed GoldenEye. So I’m just like my number one number two right now is Martin Campbell’s bonds.
SLIM I imagine he comes back for the next generate next iteration and does the first one again.
DANNY I mean, that’d be incredible. Yeah.
SLIM He did some other he did some other bangers?
DANNY He did The Green Lantern movie.
SLIM Okay. Let me look at Martin’s filmography. He did The Mask of Zorro banger like I said he did a bunch of others but it’s not worth getting into we don’t have the time it’s a jam packed
DANNY Thank you. There’s that’s it. And then I was just after go after casino I was on fire. I had to get to quantum because quantum always sat in my brain has not a great bond. And it’s not that great. But Craig is still so good in it. That’s the problem. He’s such a great bond. The writing kind of sucks. The best thing I think I mean not the best thing but it’s it’s good that it’s the shortest Bond movie. So you kind of get in get out it’s over but there’s still some great things to talk I mean, there’s some amazing set pieces there’s amazing action sequences Yeah, Daniel’s still amazing it’s just it’s it’s fine. There are definitely a lot worse bonds and Quantum of Solace but happy to have that behind me to move on to Skyfall next which I think you’re pretty mixed on
SLIM Skyfall I remember not liking Skyfall in theaters but on my on my rewatch I liked it a lot more. I came around that’s what I read. Yeah. So I’m excited retro actively apologize to Sam I mean, but it just goes when it goes down the toilet on the one after that. So how much can one thing
DANNY about please stop interrupting me one thing about quantum when I was looking at the cast list, a familiar name came up that is a dear friend of yours. Guillermo del Toro actually has a speaking point part in that family with with another director but you alluded that you couldn’t be around for protos Live This Week. Where where you talk to us about your weekend.
SLIM I was in Los Angeles, LA, for some Letterboxd stuff. We had a screening at DreamWorks that Friday night, that’s what I was doing. I was in the DreamWorks lot.
DANNY What does the Spielberg smell like?
SLIM I smelled the seat that I assume he sat in over the years and it smelled amazing.
DANNY You smelled Spielberg’s seat?
SLIM I put my face right in the seat cushion. So we did a Puss in Boots screening, Letterboxd members about local Letterboxd members. Like, here’s your chance to go see person booths at DreamWorks with a q&a afterward. It was amazing. DreamWorks had like food they had sliders out franchise cookies out. They had this like really cool reception area where they had like all their awards behind a glass structure and dry why phrase it that way, but it was very cool to chat with other movie people.
DANNY That’s awesome.
SLIM And then, so I was there for the Independent Spirit Awards. Because I was working the blue carpet with Mia doing interviews I was the kind of friend dear friend of the show me on our opening night episode. And we also the last day that I was there we got tickets to go to the Academy Museum. They have this like huge multi-floor museum didn’t even there, right.
DANNY I have just visited last October fairly recently.
SLIM Now what was just remind me I want to talk about the matte paintings that I saw. So we went we walked in we were they have like this step and repeat with like faux red carpet cameras. We’re all doing goofy photos. And then Brian Formo, editorial producer at Letterboxd looks at the gift shop and he’s like, I think that’s Del Toro in there. So I posted a photo on our Discord and everyone thought that like maybe that was it just was a person that look like Del Toro. But it was so Brian went up and introduced themselves because they had just recently done an interview with Del Toro about Pinocchio. And you know, that’s like a great little way to not be a crease or just say hello. Yeah. And he’s en del Toro is like, oh, yeah, here’s my friend Ted. And that who he was with walk around the store was Ted Saran dose, the head of Netflix. So they’re like hobnobbing around at the Academy gift shop. And but at the very end, Brian says Gary, I was like, yeah, let’s get coffee. I’ll be I’ll be done a little bit. So Brian comes over and tells us that like, Yeah, girl, Carolyn’s the Toronto populace. I’m like, lay Excuse me. So and then like, so we’re just chilling in the gift shop and like other people are starting to notice. Like, you know, people are like God like rubberneck. And they’re like, they’re doing the eyes like is that
PROTO Is that Slim?
SLIM So Guillermo comes out and he looks at me he’s like Slim, let’s go get some coffee in that Guillermo del Toro voice and I was like, okay. All you know, their stories about Guillermo del Toro being like, the nicest person very generous, very kind. Like, he didn’t have to give us the time of day. But he offered to have coffee with us. He sat with us for like 90 minutes, hour, 90 minutes, or whatever.
DANNY What’s his Apex character?
SLIM We were talking about movies. We talked about manga. talked about watches, you know, I looked at his watch as soon as we saw Yeah, and I may be for 20 minutes. I was in the back of my head, what’s my in on this watch? What kind of way can I weasel in a comment about this watch? Of course I did. You know me. He took it off. He, like let me goof around with the watch. I asked me if it was cool if I took a picture of it. But it’s a Mont Blanc watch. And he likes it was a Mont Blanc watch and it reminded me that I’m rereading Pluto, the manga, one of my favorite comic books ever. And there’s a robot in there. So I asked, I was like, Oh, you read Pluto, right? And he’s like, oh, yeah, I’ve been trying to get I’ve been trying to make Monster for years. His other work. And he’s asked me about 20 century boys. He’s asked me how far along in my monster read I was. We talked about Philadelphia. He had some funny things to say about Philadelphia. Amazing. Yeah, it was just incredible. Like it was completely surreal. And like, as we were in this coffee shop and the Academy Museum, like everyone in their, you know, that was walking around in an academy gift shop or like coffee shop. Like they all know who he is. And like as they’re walking by, they’re like, looking at him. Like walk away. People near us were like readjusting their chairs and like I saw them in a corner. They’re hot and throw by I like they were they wanted to like get in on this conversation. But at the end, he ended up having to go he said he was like free because it’s like, I guess it’s the Oscar week. So he didn’t have like a ton to do outside of the Oscars. Like he had some friends over for dinner. But it was amazing. Very nice, exquisitely generous. So hopefully more more people of his stature like that because it was a lifetime memory that I’ll have for sure. Beautiful. Incredible. Thank you.
DANNY Proud of you.
SLIM Thank you. But yeah, it was a great weekend. And then like we’ve by the time like so we went through the academy Museum and we’re gonna film like some stuff for our IG and Tik Tok and like, I couldn’t even concentrate for like 45 minutes. I’m supposed to be like filming stuff. And I’m just like all my phone like telling everyone I know that we had coffee with Guillermo. The museum is insane. Like the I, before I even realized that we went to that like room where they had the Oscars set up. And before I even knew it, I was taking a photo of one. I didn’t realize it, but it was the Oscar for The Yearling, one of my dad’s favorite movies. Oh, that was an insane moment that I realized that I took the photo. And they had the matte paintings from Batman Returns. Did you do you see those? Yeah,
DANNY Did you see Danny DeVito’s nose? In the prop section. I love that Oscar award area where they’re doing all the speeches scrolling across the wall, watching all everyone’s acceptance speech. Super Rad.
SLIM It’s it’s an amazing museum. I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s several floors and it’s all like one of the best it’s every exhibit that I that is there is one of the best exhibits I’ve ever seen. Even the costumes, I took a photo of the Labyrinth codpiece, Proto remarked that is there in all its glory. Yeah, it’s not anyone if anyone is in LA are going to travel there. Definitely go see that museum. It’s nuts.
DANNY Amazing.
SLIM Should we get in and Nausicaa the Valley of the Wind? My pick for leading ladies month? Ghibli. Ghibli party. What’s this? What’s this movie about?
PROTO Humanity has poisoned the earth and destroyed civilization. 1000 years later, humans survive in small settlements. isolated by the toxic jungle. A sprawling toxic forest of giant plants and insects. Princess Nausicaa leads her people in the Valley of the Wind. While most humans fear the insects and want to destroy the jungle Nausicaa understands the harmony of nature, and what role she plays in it. But when other settlements bring war to the valley Nausicaa will not only fight for her people and defend the valley, she will show that she is ready to sacrifice herself to save the insects, the jungle and the world.
SLIM I would sacrifice my life for you, Nausicaa. Say thetime, say the moment, and I’ll do it. The first time I saw this was 2020. So I think I’ve got a few likes on my review that I posted back then. And I think maybe I had watched it right after. I don’t know if this was like soon after, or right before we had covered that ad is dune because I had a comment in there about dune like this is my den. But Danny, when was the first time that you had seen this?
DANNY It was in my adult life for sure. I don’t it was a few years ago when I was getting my kids into Studio Ghibli. We were watching Totoro and Kiki’s and then I don’t know. I think it was that then it was my first time watching Nausicaa And I think I only knew of a couple images from it but it wasn’t as prevalent as like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke a or even house Moving Castle so I never really got around to it. So it was been more recent that I had watched Nausicaa for the first time in instantly it was instantly fell in love with it.
SLIM Proto, what about you?
PROTO This I watched this back in 2020. I was actually looking back because I felt like I was like I feel like me and slim. Watch this really close to one another. And I watched it July 12 2020. You watched it the next day.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO So that as close as you can be.
SLIM I wonder I didn’t think to go back. But I wonder what the story was about why we watched it we probably talked about in the show around that time. Um, I guess right,
DANNY Maybe we do we just do Totoro at the end.
SLIM Maybe, if only I had thought the forethought to check our archives.
PROTO Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did. We did Totoro probably a little bit before that. And I think that’s kind of what sparked me to go around and finish like watching all the Ghibli movies that I hadn’t seen before. And yeah, I remember watching this and thinking like, how does how have I not heard anyone ever talk about this movie? I remember being almost angry that a movie this good. I had never no one had like forced me to watch us be like, you have to watch this. Yeah,
DANNY Maybe that’s what I said do on the Twitter episode.
SLIM Any yelling at us? Probably. So for this segment, we’ll go roundtable around the hosts, we jot down three things in our notes that we want to bring up in our discussion. And then at the end, we’ll give our honorable mentions and letterbox raining. So it’s my pick. So I will go first. The voice acting in this is nuts. In my opinion, I think that was what I said in my first review, the English dubs the English dub. So yeah, full disclosure, I watched the English that’s the only version that I’ve seen. And I love it. I even was thinking, like Chris Sarandon is in this from fright night, who I love Shai LeBoeuf, who’s very long and this very much loved now but incredible voice actor. I feel like Patrick Stewart and Alison Lohman, I think is nasaka. Mark Hamill, who I mean before, before Star Wars was back, I mean, he was he was voice acting for years. That’s like what he was when we grew up. He was voice actor Mark Hamill. He wasn’t like loot Joker. Yeah, he’s Joker. But this was like 2005 I didn’t realize it was like fairly recently. That the that’s when the This version was made.
DANNY Yeah, there was a I mean, there’s a there’s a crazy history where So technically, this isn’t. This wasn’t a Ghibli film. To begin with. Studio Ghibli didn’t even exist when Miyazaki was making this he was he was a in between are already at an animation studio in Japan. And to get this movie off the ground, basically, the no one was really investing in any sort of anime story that wasn’t an established manga already. And so Toshio Suzuki was at a publication called Arm edge, or Animage. And they were just like an anime magazine, but Miyazaki started writing the manga for for NACA, for the for the monthly publication of that magazine, and it started selling like crazy. So that’s when it made a little bit notoriety. He was working with a sow Takahata as well at that publication. So those two started Ghibli together, they co founded and then Toshio Suzuki is a CEO of Ghibli, and he came from the, the magazine company when they started at so he, he had already, you know, established the naszego as a manga. And that’s when they got the rights to do the movie. He I think it was only like 16 chapters into to nasaka before that got picked up for a movie. So he had to kind of rush the not rush, but he had to kind of flesh out the rest of the story and stuff like that for the manga. And then once it got popular, they it was released in America under the title wind of the words of the wind, and they had to cut like Swanee. They cut like 20 minutes out of it. And the 20 minutes I cut out was to make it a PG rating to make it more kid friendly. And at the time, it got it got terrible reviews, and America didn’t do quite well and Miyazaki was pissed, and that’s kind of when he kind of put the foot down on people releasing the edited versions of any of his Ghibli films in America. At least until Disney started doing it for him when he became friends with John Lasseter. I think when is it maybe one of the what would maybe it would the Weinstein’s they had said something about cutting modern okay down a bit and he mailed them a Katana and said no cuts. So they got the they got the message. But anyway, even at the time, the Joe Hisashi was just an experimental musician at the time. So like when you think of me because Miyazaki, him and Joe kind of go together like Spielberg and Williams, it’s like, you can’t separate the two it feels like but he’s to think that he was just an experimental like Jack As a musician at the time, so work on the score for naszego is crazy and even even after naskah finished, he spent, I mean we’re talking 1984 85 He wrote the manga till 1990 for another 10 years kept going with us to finish the story, which is absolutely crazy. So all that to say it has it got rereleased by Disney as the full nasaka With the new cast and voice actors I think even the wind are worried is when did they do it in credit the voice actors I don’t know who did it then.
SLIM Yeah, right to me. We talked about Akira about the start production on that film before the manga was even finished to Yeah. And that also had a voice cast that has since been redone. That is more popular. But yeah, I Edward James Olmos uma Uma Thurman back again on the pod parolee thoughts in the voice acting in this movie.
PROTO Yeah, I think it’s fantastic too. And I think it they have they do such a good job of directing them as to how to speak or I don’t know what it is, but there’s there’s like a, a way that these characters or these voice actors perform that I think just works so well with these movies. I just rewatched the wind, the wind rises this week, which is my favorite Ghibli and I love the voice acting in that too. I think they just really they knocked it out of the park with all of the the voice acting in these these English dubs. The wind rises has Joseph Gordon Levitt and John Krasinski, who you want to think like I wouldn’t say like, oh, yeah, those are guys are great, but they they just like work so well in that. They just had like, amazing casting for all these cars. And I love uma in this. Like, she is just like the perfect voice. Like she’s slightly menacing. You know, it’s kind of reminded me of her as the bride. Like speaking in the helmet, you know, in that scene where the girls in the trunk like that, that like menacing. Kind of like very calm but precise. Voice so I love it.
SLIM Danny, what’s the first thing you want to talk about?
DANNY I mean, the first thing I want to talk about is the character of Nausicaa. And I find it oddly not oddly, I find it incredibly fascinating that I mean, we’re talking at the age. I mean, Miyazaki wrote this at the age of 40. Like he’s he’s my age now starting his career as not starting it as but he’s starting creating his own characters his own stories and when you watch Nausicaa You can you see such a crazy thread of I how he continues to tell stories in all of his movies, you have the strong female protagonist, you have the strong female antagonist, and he’s got some he’s he always focuses on the wonder of flight like it’s absolutely insane. And it’s crazy to me that how strong of a character he’s writing NAusicaa Right off the bat, someone who is in the middle between this in messenger between humanity and nature that he’s going so hard so fast, it’s just it’s absolutely incredible to me to think that he’s doing this right off the bat. It seems like something that would take time to kind of craft this incredible narrative and then you then just after that there’s bangers after bangers of these movies that he creates just telling these incredible stories.
SLIM Yeah, I wrote previously that like outside of Ahsoka, I think she is my fav animated character like a Ahsoka in Clone Wars. These so good, but there’s like something about her like their her leadership of her people. They all love her. They all do anything for her. There’s a line that I wrote down where some of the dudes are talking about they’re talking to uma and they’re like a gas that she’s also a princess. Like yeah, you’re nothing like our princess. Like disgusted by her. I mean, they’re talking about their hands let me see she she told me she loves these beat up hands of mine you’re not anything like Princess and there’s also a the they continue on. This is probably my one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Where they’re talking about how like giving into that anger is gonna get you nowhere and like that destructive nature.
[clip of Nausicaa plays]
SLIM We prefer the ways of the water in the wind. And it’s like all of her scenes are just insane. She would do anything for her people, she would do anything to prevent more violence. And I mean, one of the best scenes ever, is when she sees the baby tied up on like that balloon. And she takes her glider, and she just like the glider just like leaves and she’s just like, flying towards them. Like are you serious? That is like one of the best scenes in anything ever. It reminded me of the final season of Clone Wars. Like there’s some amazing Ahsoka stuff in there. But I saw parallels like a ton, but I mean, there’s just no beating her period, in my opinion. Yeah.
PROTO Yeah, I love the scene. And I didn’t really catch this the first time. But were there in the ship. They’re flying with the tail Meekins after like she’s a hostage. And then they get attacked. And then they’re, she’s trying to communicate with her crew and the other ship. So she like pulls closer, but they can’t hear her through the mask. So she takes off her mask, and like, is willing to breathe in maybe deadly spores that will kill her. But she’s doing it so that she can communicate with them and save their lives because she’s giving them instructions. And there’s so many moments in this movie where she does things that could totally kill her. But she does them because she’s like trying to save either her people or the insects, or just someone was just doing something that needs to be done. And it’s so incredibly, like virtuous, like she is like such like a pure hero, like such a good hero. And it’s funny to watch this and to think I feel like there’s such an obsession in movies or just maybe like our culture now with like, the anti the anti hero more of like the criminal who maybe isn’t even good, but just like stories about this, and maybe it’s just like, how cynical our world is right now. But I just think of like, you know, movies that come out of like, you know, like black Adam, you know, like this antihero or even like Lydia Tarr who is like, this, like not a good person but movies about these characters or like Joker or like Suicide Squad. Like all these things are it’s like they’re not good people. But it’s have a movie and like have this character who’s like this good. And like this willing to do the good thing and to like sacrifice themselves. It’s really an amazing example. It’s, it’s very, like you want to like compare it to like, oh, it’s Christ, like, oh, it’s like Jesus, but it’s even like, it’s like more than Jesus or something like Jesus is going to war because I better
SLIM put that on the poster. You’re right, you’re right. I think people are used to that anti heroes stuff. Which actually reminds me about tar. I think I’d read that Todd field wrote that for a dude. Can you imagine that movie with a with instead of Cate Blanchett like some guy? What it just came off, like so differently? Shalem I feel like I feel like nobody would love tar like they love it. Now. It’s very interesting. But also like thinking about this movie coming out in the 80s if this had come out from like any other studio, not saying any other studio could do it, but like, we would have like two or three more movies of nasaga This would be like a franchise. But at least for for most people this exists in a silo it’s its own thing. You’re never gonna get a second season. You know, this is all you get really in film of this character in this world. And that’s I don’t know it’s also very rare that that’s that’s a foreign concept. Now.
DANNY You know, it’s crazy as when I I did a little bit of research on just reading about the rerelease of in 2005 and I came across high docky on No, I’m saying it wrong, but he’s the guy that created Neon Genesis even Galleon which I think is a big thing for proto No, he, they were they were they needed some more animators for nasaka and the, the God Warrior at the end, the monster coming back to life. He animated that segment for he I think he spent like eight months for 90 seconds of animation. He has come back and said that he wants to direct a live action of nasaka like they they like cheese like like a prequel or a sequel of it, but then he had said that he wants a live action. I think Miyazaki keep saying no, but it’d be incredible. I mean, I’d love to let someone who’s already touched, you know, has been a part of the animation of this film to do a live action of this, but as your incredible
SLIM Wow, gosh, who who would play Nausicaa? In dream casting, can you imagine? Let me pause it this. Because at this, everyone’s sitting down. Florence Pugh. Oh, my God, up and coming actor? What if she gets that big break in Nausicaa and the warriors of the wind? Boy, part of what’s the first thing you want to talk about?
DANNY We’re still on number ones.
SLIM We’re still on number one, we haven’t heard from Proto yet.
PROTO I love the whole story of the jungle in this. And what they uncover about when they fall through the pit, when she goes through there with asbel this whole idea of this jungle, first of all it being it’s being formed from the corpses of the dead olm and creating this toxic environment that will kill humans, but then it’s like a process of purification as well. Like this is even though, you know, this is a result of what humanity has done to the world of poisoning the world. And then the response to that, and then the, you know, setting the world of flame and destroying civilization and kind of like sending into an apocalypse. But then the world even with all of that, having like this long term plan of healing disguised in like this toxic environment, well, that’s really only toxic to human because there’s all these insects that are like flourishing and doing fine. And just like that, that whole sequence of them under there with the crystallization of like, these giant, these huge trees, that that whole thing is just like, it’s like an imagination explosion of just like creativity and ideas and just wanting like, I just want to like live in that world more and be there and I every time you know watching this, it’s just it just fills me with all like all over again.
SLIM The backgrounds of that area are nuts when they fell through the quicksand and we’re like underground and that lush area with the fossilized trees also the idea of a fossilized tree like those those words are never uttered anywhere else. It’s like not it’s like nonsense, but it’s amazing nonsense. Because you want to be there you want to be there just like proto said but I was getting avid this isn’t a troll I was getting avatar vibes on this movie. You know, that’s not a troll. It’s a true statement. And it’s a great feeling that I had, but it’s just like speaks to like, like you said pro it’s just like so far ahead of anything else at this level of talent in animation, or even just like live action storytelling. Like you’re not getting this in the 80s That’s for obvious reasons. But you’re only really getting it from someone like Cameron at a live action area. Because it’s so expensive to do that and there’s only like one dude, that can even like attempt it at that scale. And I guess really the only other thing you could look to is maybe like super low budget like Lo Fi sci fi but it’s just so hard to do there’s only like one dude that can do it it’s him
DANNY I think one of my favorite bits of the story of you know the the forest and how it the spores haven’t taken over the valley is you know the wind coming off of the ocean pushing back the forest keeping it from an eye how they’ve harnessed that and how they’ve realized that you can’t kill everything with a ton of fire you have to use small bits of fire in the purification of the water from under the earth well it was just I loved I loved that bit of storytelling when you see nauseous because little underground laboratory where she’s really growing plants and it’s just it’s incredible and that she’s she’s even keeping it a secret which I find incredible as well. I’d like when she reveals that to
SLIM Our boy. The other thing I was going to mention about Nausicaa when we’re talking about the anti hero stuff really the only like struggle that she hasn’t instead of on top of like trying to save everyone is like when she realized that she got angry, and she almost killed like all those guards when they killed her dad. She does amazing All right scene where she called him. He kills. That’s right, the blood comes down off the sword. But then like her realizing like how far things go when you like given to that anger and she was like shocked by it. I thought that was awesome.
DANNY When the animation of her doing that, like slow-mo backflip in that scene sends me every time.
PROTO I love her progression to with this this movie because she starts with, she has a gun. And then she has the sword as well. But then she loses the sword and then she’s like fighting them with a cane. Like it’s like, are you you’re not going to surrender. You’re fighting them with the cane. But then as this movie progresses, it progresses to the point where she was rescuing the baby home. And she’s just like, she’s just like sacrificing herself up on the glider. Like she has no weapons. Yeah, but she like resorts to that of just like you’re going to have to kill me. Just shoot me dead. I’m not going to hurt you. But I have nothing else to do. I’m just going to use my body. I just love that progression of the character
SLIM better than Jesus cool. 70 millimeter miasma number two is will be a quick one, we’ve covered like almost everything so far. But I love the backstory of those giant monsters that have destroyed the planet. Like you only see them in action for like two seconds. And this isn’t a bit but the beginning of Avatar, the way of water remember when the ships land on the planet. And it’s like the godless thing you’ve ever seen. But there’s only 30 seconds of that stuff. And then it’s like gone forever. But like I was thinking about that, like, I want more of those monsters like show me everything. And even when it starts to be born towards the end, you’re like, Oh, hell yeah, like, yes, it’s total destruction. And it does have total structure for like, one second. It does that like beam and wipes out 1000s. And it looks like the most hardcore thing you’ve ever seen in your life. And it crooks I wanted, like they give me just enough, that’s like enough to satiate my curiosity and want more. And it’s like perfect, the way they show those characters. So they turn into rock or they turn to stone when they die. Or you see like their bodies in the field and stuff. So cool.
DANNY I love that it’s Miyazaki his way of talking about weapons of mass destruction that we create, because he’s, I mean, when you live in Japan, it’s it’s kind of in your history. And I was reading about. I was reading about his family and his father owned Miyazaki airplane, which at the time in World War Two, they were supplying parts and ammunition for the Japanese army. And it was just to watch them create these monsters who are devastating the earth. And to know how anti war Miyazaki is, in all this, it feels like such a, almost like an apology letter or some sort of like, and this is like what his family and how the wealth that they created for themselves was based off of war and how his story is now feels so anti war. It’s, it’s fascinating. Now,
SLIM Danny, your number two.
DANNY Number two, one of my favorite bits in this film and it’s in a lot of his films is his designs of the Flying aircrafts, all the aircrafts the the Tomiki and ships the little jet fighter that they escaped with that with the wings fold up her glider is an incredible design to there’s there’s so many just smart, fun, creative designs that don’t feel rehashed. I mean, they have like their chips or their wings are flapping or the moment when they they’re returning and they have to stay out of the storm clouds the shots of like the ships kind of Yeah, like barely touching the clouds. But the the the way it’s animate it looks like they’re like touching waves like almost surfing on the water. It’s just it’s incredible stuff. It’s beautiful. And it’s it’s it’s metal. It’s just a lot of fun to watch.
SLIM And the airship design is nuts. Those old ass airships they look rusty as hell I mean, I don’t know what that type of animation is but it’s still looks like you know like the there’s certain like the backgrounds are usually a little bit darker, a little bit more warm because they’re not moving so you don’t have to do too much but it felt like the airships were animated in that style. Like they’re almost animated like backgrounds that aren’t meant to be moving on your screen. They still maintain that that visual style, which is nuts.
PROTO Yeah, I love the shot like when they first appear and it’s dark and you just see all the red lights. Yeah, coming in. If all those sequences with those, and I love that I love the design of the gunship, too it literally looks like a gun like a two barreled gun right in the front. It’s so cool.
SLIM Proto, number two.
PROTO We mentioned a little bit of the other Princess, the Tomiki. And Princess cruise Shoshana.
SLIM I think, yeah.
PROTO Um, yeah, I love her as a as a foil to Nausicaa how she’s like, really the opposite in so many ways, how she, how she lives in fear. And she thinks like, war is the answer, even like her coming to the Valley of the Wind. And she’s like, I’m here to unite, you know, all the people under a banner for peace. So now I’m occupying you, and if you resist, I’ll kill you. But it’s all good, because you won’t like, and we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna be friends. But I’m taking these five hostages and your princess. Just the complete opposite in every way. And that just really shines and even like, brighter light on all the the actions that nasaka takes. I love the scene where they, where they they get attacked, and then they have to land the ship. And the princess is with her. And she pulls out the gun and she’s threatening them. And Nasik has like she says, she says don’t be afraid there is nothing to fear. I just wants you to go back to your own country. Your shyness, like watch out. But like Nausicaa just like keeps her cool. Even in that moment. And then she the whole like communication with the own. Is is incredible that she has I was watching this with my son Theo. And he had a funny term for it when the tendrils come out. What did he call it?
SLIM Spaghetti speaker.
PROTO Yeah, it’s something like that. It was like wiggly worms, a rat wrapping noodles. Wrapping noodles coming out over her. But yeah, I think that that is like just so brilliant of having these two princesses and just seeing how, how nasaka handles everything and having this other example of just like such a typical answer of someone who lives in fear, and the preemptive strike, even like the whole fight with the Pedja it’s like what are we doing? You’re surrounded by a toxic jungle and you’re gonna try to light it on fire. And then you even get like this amazing weapon. And they like they they bring it out too early. Like they’ve ruined what their only one chance that they thought they might have had. It’s great storytelling.
SLIM It reminded me of the relationship in Princess Mononoke CQI with two leads, you know, they were kind of at odds from different sides of things and it worked out
DANNY you know, Sonam bushy Yeah, one thing I like about his protagonist or antagonist is at least in this there’s so the he allows so much more depth to kind of slowly come out on her character when she’s tied up and she reveals that she has a mechanical arm I really liked that just as even towards the end of the film it’s like this one extra bit of storytelling for her character that gives you a little bit more empathy for her and you realize that they almost all have the same goal that they’re just all going about it in such a different way and Nasik has great you know mediator in between everything
SLIM Yeah, the the scene where she’s trying to stop the baby home from going into the acid like the voice acting on scene is insane What a moment oh my god you can’t go in this lake with this water is sad. It’s filled with acid My God My third point is just something that I caught this time around on this feeling that I really loved. And it’s like the the idea of asking for forgiveness, because there’s many scenes where one of the characters is like begging and apologizing. And you see that scene where they kidnap her and they have her in the ship and they like they come up with a scheme to free her. And then you get like this whole group of people that find out that like their scheme of drawing the insects through the Valley of the Wind would have eradicated like everyone in there and they’re they’re almost like beset by this the grief of what that meant. Like in that moment or like they didn’t realize it or They didn’t think about the pain that that would cause. And it’s like right when she’s leaving there, there’s a several of them that were like begging Nasik gotta forgive them. Like they felt so badly in that moment. I love those scenes. And I think even Shai is character also does the same, right? When he realizes that naskah actually tried to save his sister. I love that stuff. People don’t ask for forgiveness enough and they’re in their life, feel comfortable asking someone that and this is from the 80s. So we saw obviously lots of work to do, but I just it really resonated with me in this viewing. So hopefully more people watch this movie and take something different from it on each feeling. Danny, third point?
DANNY Third point, briefly mentioned him but Joe’s score for this is almost as feels like it’s ingrained into my brain. It’s it’s some incredible work. His piano score that’s kind of like the theme across everything. But the moments when like the action kicks in, and it gets very loud, upbeat. It’s almost like a cuts to like some sort of video game esque Final Fantasy moment, which I really love. It’s so good. It’s so incredible. And for this to be just his first kind of go about with working with me as Aki it feels like an instant mesh of the TOS style that is just we’ve come to love
PROTO Yeah, I love that first scene at the beginning where the olm breaks out of the forest and chasing Lord eupa and the music kicks in right there. So good.
DANNY The animation of the trees being shattered and thrown across the ground. I almost want to like pause it and rewatch it as it like slowly brittles up and like breaks across the sand. It’s incredible animation. I just it just something that always sticks out to me.
SLIM The animation and the sound effects would remind I was getting pulled back to my first viewing of GI Joe the movie. Like how that felt and how the anime see animation. When I think GI Joe the movie was the first time I saw like, good animation. At the time. This was like the best animation I’ve ever seen as a kid. Like I have vivid memories of watching that movie. And the sound effects reminded me of that movie. I have no idea. I haven’t seen the movie in decades. It’s just the eighth it felt like 80s I guess maybe is another way to put it like early 80s animation sound effect. That’s all I have to say about the music. It was great, obviously, but GI Joe. Maybe it’s time to go GI Joe Sorry, I just realized like, yeah, nasaka and the nuclear war reminded me of my favorite GI Joe with the American soldiers trying to destroy the forces of evil. Proto, number three?
PROTO We covered so much.
SLIM Honorable mentions, we can go honorable mentions and rating if you want.
PROTO Okay, yeah, I can hit on a few. Yeah, I kind of have just I mean, there’s just things that we didn’t really mention Lord eupa Such a cool character his mustache. Yeah, his hair and mustache. I’ve been thinking about his his mustache for three years. It’s always with me.
SLIM I mean, everyone covered their entire mouth. Like it just felt so hard to manage.
PROTO Maybe you just you just stopped worrying about it. You know? It’s easier you turn a corner it gets easier. What the Tomiki and armor in this is so cool. I love the design. I love just like the sense of like this world of it feels out of time in a lot of ways because it has like these almost like feudal elements. You know, they look like almost like the people in the Valley of the Wind look like serfs in the clothes that they wearing. But then they have I mean they have airships. They have gliders that have some kind of like levitating mechanics with it, but then they still use swords and they’re in like metal armor. It’s just like such a cool mixture of like this post apocalyptic fighting to survive World and then you even get a taste of that with the old and I didn’t notice this before but Nasca at the beginning, she finds that the corpse of the Omen it’s like, it’s like, it’s just like this, the the exoskeleton and she’s able to cut out one of its arms. Ace, which is like a, like a bubble. And then I noticed that like, on all of the airships, they have those bubbles, they’re like, covered in those same bubbles. And just, it’s interesting like to think that like, that’s maybe that’s probably what they used. But then also just like this comparison of that, like, the, um, like, fight back. But then like humans fight back using like the skeletons of these creatures. So there’s just like these really cool like melded elements between the humans and the insects. I love the I don’t know what to call it like the the serpent, I call it like the scorpion fly that’s attacking them. Her and asbel in the jungle thing looks amazing. The shot of them landing on the Crystal Clear Lake and like the wake behind the planes as they land like that shot from overhead, just like incredible animation, just there’s so many beautiful moments. And then the end credits, and the end credits reminded me so much of Avatar, because it’s like, he, you know, Nasik is just standing here as like, the Americans are like packing up and going home. And I love that as like an epilogue to this movie. You know, it does leave you wanting so much more because you can’t help but just love this world. And I just, you know, it’s like I can’t get enough of it. But then to end it with like an epilogue like that, where you kind of the story just just ends in in a really satisfying way of that like, alright, this world is gonna go on and nostalgia is gonna lead our people and there was like this almost everyone was almost wiped out. And who knows if this would have been like the end of humanity if she didn’t if she didn’t stop the film at that at that point. But then also just like with the way that she thought of just sending them home it was it was amazing. So I’m I’m five stars. Oh, oh. Easily five stars. Oh.
SLIM Our sorrows chuckling at art doing another meme drop. Very good meme art. Two weeks in a row. The you know what else? You could say? Gliders. The glider in Nausicaa versus the Banshees in Avatar. I see some more parallels there.
DANNY After the after Thank you Cameron had an original thought
SLIM I mean, it’s worked out well for me so far by not having one let’s see honorable mentions for me I have a bunch Chris Sarandon is so good as the sidekick of uma there’s he has so many his delivery my God he is made to be a voice actor. There’s one where he’s like, Oh, yes, I see your point. The longer I gaze at you the more attracted I get is his delivery is just top notch. The dead bodies in the grass so cool. Let’s see him find something we haven’t talked about yet. Her hair wild now. When she gets pissed when the roses dudes Holy moly. I can’t bear to see anyone else die when she’s when she’s freaking out. See when she gives the thumbs up. As she takes her mask off perfect shot while asking for forgiveness go are my people will never forgive themselves. holding the baby ohm. Yeah. The Giant Warrior and it’s missing jaw habit. Its teeth just like dangling out of its skin on out five stars. It’s an incredible movie. This is it mean, I wrote my review dune but good. The original informant. SS in their pants. I thought the new one was good. But I mean, just just watch Nausicaa instead. You know? One and done. Miyazaki. Thank you. Danny?
DANNY Five stars. It’s my favorite Miyazaki. But yeah, I love this film dearly. I love Nausicaa as a character. I love the village — I want to live in the Valley of the Wind. I want to know what the windmills are doing besides just catching the wind. Is it making bread? Is it pumping water from under the earth? It’s like, give me all the story of this of this valley. This is Yeah, five stars. I love this film so much. Love it a lot.
SLIM The art can we talk about the art for a second again? Oh yeah, finding another gear is gorgeous. I don’t have blown up on a wall kidding me. Are you kidding me? It’s there. Real with the the month goes on leading ladies month l Aedes for those curious how it’s being spelled home leading ladies month it’s Danny’s pay again. I have already done three weeks of leading ladies month. I got a look at the calendar. Do we have an extra week? Looking at about the end of the month? We’re gonna talk about that. We’re gonna talk about are talking about that. We’re gonna talk about it. What’s your pick? What was it gonna bait walk us through this?
DANNY Walk us through. When we talk 80s, it’s my decade. Proto knows. He DM’d me today. He didn’t ask what my leading lady pick was, he asked what my John Hughes pick was for this month. Because he knows me too well. It’s John Hughes adjacent. Okay? I think leading ladies in the 80s I think Molly Ringwald and I’m going with one that I haven’t seen was ever going to do one written by John we’re going to do pretty in pink.
PROTO Why? I love it. This I’ve never seen this.
SLIM Oh my god.
DANNY Pretty in Pink Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton. Jon Cryer, James Spader.
SLIM So James James speeders lips, Andrew McCarthy, Blaine’s a pretty cool guy and he’s pretty in pink and duckies pretty crazy. I wonder which one it is. Maybe it’s the is Jon Cryer in that air? That’s fair. 1986 is streaming Oh my god. Andrew Dice Clay is also in this streaming on HBO Max. This is HBO Max month my god. Synopsis reads Andy is an outcast hanging out either with her older boss who owns the record store where she works. Or her quirky high school classmate, ducky, who has a crush on her. When one of the rich and popular kids at school blame s Andy out it seems too good to be true. As Andy starts falling for blame she begins to realize that dating someone from a different social sphere is not easy. This poster rocks I’m excited. Yeah 3.4 average on Letterboxd.
DANNY and I was trying to figure out how to weasel Breakfast Club because of how much I love it but it doesn’t work for leading ladies.
SLIM Here we go. I got a review on a read here. Ducky acts exactly like I imagined someone who wears two washers at the same time would act and I’m here for it. And they covered this on a cinnamon arcade. This is trainer trainer lift that review who has a pocket oh my god no star rating no heart on Pretty in Pink. So I handed up two watches but we’ll see.
DANNY We’ll see, we’ll talk about the watches.
SLIM Proto, do you think about wearing two watches at the same time? Where do you stand on that?
PROTO What’s the go to with that? Is it on on separate restaurant? Do you wear two on the same risk? wrist? Yeah, is it for separate time zones? Maybe like you have friends who live in like different time zone you want to know what time it is there it’s up to you. Maybe
SLIM as the watch were really Mm Hmm
PROTO I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t put much thought into it.
SLIM You don’t even wear a watch now one is probably going to buy a watch
DANNY what’s going to be the first watch I’ve been meaning to tell you
PROTO I got three out of four ads on Instagram now or for ver like after me hard
SLIM I get ver ads I follow them and I own like two ver watches and I still get those ads.
PROTO I’m getting back to back ads from them.
SLIM How far have you gone have you gone to the point where it’s there’s something in your car yet? Has that happened yet?
PROTO No, no, no, no, no, not yet. I still have to I have to zero in on what I need. Okay, I keep thinking like what I love the idea of an all white watch you know just like everything I love white you know I love it as a clothing cover I love it as an accessory so I’m keeping my eyes out for like a real nice all white watch
SLIM If anyone wants to contact bear let them know that this was a we’re open to collab opportunities you know we can work something out.
PROTO Yes
SLIM Pretty in Pink next week for Leading Ladies month we had a big episode we announced that the cage will come up with a better name for the cage system but interns will be choosing the next supporter episodes. Proto any closing thoughts this week?
PROTO One other thing from the movie that I wrote down that I wanted to mention, and this is kind of like I think part part of the theme of this month of when nasaka is she’s captured by the pageants and she’s on the plane. And then as Belle’s mother and sister come into the room, and they she says, like, you know, we’re here to help you escape you know, from our own people. You know, these are our husbands who have like captured you, but we know what is right. And I wrote down like, Is this the end of men think this is the question of the month really, like, do we just need to put a stop to it? There’s just so many good examples so many reasons for why. So it’s just I’m meditating on this and I think we all should continue to meditate on it.
SLIM Is this the end? This month could be the end of men. We’ll see everybody next week for Pretty in Pink.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
