Hayao Miyazaki’s purest adventure movie since his pre-Ghibli feature The Castle Of Cagliostro, Castle In The Sky contains just about everything you could want in, say, an Indiana Jones flick: a lost kingdom, ancient technology, and an evil villain on the trail of a powerful artefact. A rare example of a Miyazaki flying sequence taking place at night, the fortress is a real thing of weight and menace – illuminated by the glow of dozens of tiny portholes, it has an almost animal presence, and the quality of the design and animation makes us forget that such a behemoth would almost certainly never fly. While she and her people live in peace, a neighbouring kingdom and its army plan to use an ancient Giant Warrior to rule what’s left of the planet, and Nausicaa must find a way to prevent him from triggering a new environmental catastrophe.Ī film full of terrific, quite savage action moments, the flying sequences are the most memorable – the best, perhaps, being the one where Nausicaa takes off on her glider to intercept a gigantic flying fortress. Nausicaa is a brave young princess who flies across a devastated, post-industrial landscape on a custom-built glider. To date, it’s the animator’s only foray into post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and its world is so thoughtfully depicted, we’re still hoping he’ll one day return to it for a belated follow-up. Technically speaking, Nausicaa isn’t a Studio Ghibli film, since it was made before it was founded, but it is an early work of brilliance from Hayao Miyazaki. Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (1984) In fact, 1997’s Princess Mononoke is one of the few Miyazaki films to not contain any flying scenes at all. The young Hayao Miyazaki’s love of aeroplanes never left him, and along with his other childhood interests and experiences, would go on to inform the films he’d make as an adult.Īlthough wide ranging in settings and genres, Studio Ghibli’s films – whether directed by Miyazaki himself, or other talented filmmakers like studio co-founder Isao Takahata or his son Goro – often contain flying sequences.

Flying is another staple of the studio’s animation – and Miyazaki’s interest in aviation is unsurprising when you consider his family history.īoth Miyazaki’s father and uncle were involved in the aviation industry, and made parts for the Mitsubishi Zero fighter – one of the most capable flying machines in the Second World War.

A fascination with animals, countryside and nature. There are certain themes that are so prevalent in the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, they’ve almost become trademarks: the tenacious heroine on the cusp of adulthood.

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