It was Summer’s friend, Olivia’s birthday today… And she invited US out to see a movie! We headed over to Marcus theaters in Bloomington and met up with Brodahls as well. This theater is now my fave since Aiden showed me the light and introduced me to the easy chairs, we have now grown accustomed to.
Tonight’s birthday movie was a special one! “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”. A Stahl family fave and one of Summer’s favorites for sure.
Studio Ghibli is a movie studio in Japan that specializes in highly stylistic animated movies. Some are truly beautiful to watch for for the visuals alone. Summer and Aiden watched all the Ghibli movies as kids and we always tried to take them as they made it to theaters locally. Once, even taking the kids to Chicago for a showing of “The Wind Rises” since downstate Illinois always gets screwed on this kind of stuff!
These may look like kid’s movies, but they have heavy moral weight to them. On the surface, the kids might see bad guys versus good… Adults are watching a drama about decisions that will decide the fates of generations of humanity!
That’s the case with Nausica Valley of the Wind. It’s as heavy as you want it to be.
Nausicaa is a princess… But, she is tough, daring, and compassionate to a fault to help others. (yes, she would lay down her life for a bug!) She’s also a botanist on the side and might have figured out how to save humanity as it fights to survive a dying planet. Does this all sound like a classic storyline to create a tough young lady? I see the threads of Summer’s creating in everything if I look really hard. Maybe it’s my mind playing tricks. Maybe it really was part of the process.
I think these movies are great for kids of all ages. Slow down. Watch a beautiful story. This one is from 1984 and the soundtrack reminds me of Stranger Things. If this one is to sci-fi, there are some others that lean toward fantasy. As a matter of fact, if you are looking for Summer’s favorite Ghibli movie… Check out “Howl’s Moving Castle” or “Spirited Away”. Both stories are of young ladies who overcome obstacles and personal fears while growing into a leader that changes the fates of those around them. (Yeah, I sense the trend as well)
One surprise tonight… Instead of Patrick Stewart, Shia LaBeouf, and Mark Hamill voicing the characters as we were used to… This movie was in Japanese with subtitles!!! Angela and I had a short laugh at the beginning of the movie because we were not ready for it. Whoops. It was fun, but I always feel like subtitles have me looking at the bottom of the screen and I might be missing something.
I recently listened to a podcast about Ghibli Park. I love the movies and it was an interesting comparison to the way we do theme parks here. I may have to make my way to Japan.
Happy Birthday, Olivia! Such a thoughtful friend!
It seems like I have heard of this as well. Need to research it… then save up 10K for all the souvenirs we would want.