The film also features animation work from a young Hideaki Anno, who went on to create the iconic Neon Genesis Evangelion anime – and is worth watching for his incredible molten warrior set piece alone. While American dubs can often feel disconnected from the emotions of the characters onscreen, you’ll find that there’s an incredible voiceover cast here, with Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Patrick Stewart ( Star Trek: Picard) and even a young Shia LeBeouf (Lawless). Princess Nausicaä is a dedicated explorer and scientist, who takes to the skies in a glider and attempts to discern how to restore nature to its former glory – with thrilling villains, gorgeously rendered wildlife, and a thoughtfully environmental message at its core. It takes place in a world devastated by war, now turned largely to desert, with only a few patches of forest and greenland left. Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind is the first Ghibli movie, and also one of the studio’s best. It’s just 90 minutes long, too, making for a breezy and uplifting watch. It’s a heartfelt film, and one that beautifully counterpoints the pain of separation within a family – the girls’ mother being ill in the hospital, and the youngest sibling getting lost in the surrounding fields trying to find her way there – with the joy of loved ones finding each other in miraculous ways. When a family moves into an old, seemingly haunted house in rural Japan, two sisters quickly stumble across this Totoro and the magical forces enlivening the landscape around them. The Totoro of the title is the ‘king of the forest’, a woodland spirit with a massive smile, adorable whiskers, and cuddly body that seemed made for tie-in plushies (which at least one TechRadar writer admitted to owning). In usual Ghibli fashion, it centers on a young girl – two, in fact – encountering the supernatural world. Next up in our list is that family classic, My Neighbor Totoro.
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