How Much: $8 students, $10 general admissions, $7.50 Michigan Theater Members
The third film in Michigan Theater’s ‘The Studio Ghibli Collection: A 30-Year-Retrospective,’ ‘Castle in the Sky’ is a masterpiece of creative genius.
Released in 1986, ‘Castle in the Sky,’ written and directed by Hayao Myiazaki, was the first film produced by Studio Ghibli.
The story takes place in a steam-punk world, where flying ships are common. Sheeta and Pazu, a young boy and girl, race to discover the fabled floating city of Laputa before a foreign army and pirates discover it and harness it’s great and terrible power as a war machine.
This wonderful film is one of my favorites of Myiazaki’s creations.
‘Nausicaä of Valley of the Wind’ begins after the apocalyptic Seven Days of Fire war, in which human’s have basically destroyed the world. All that remains are a few small kingdoms and the ‘Toxic Jungle’ inhabited by gigantic mutant insects, where everything is deadly to humans.
Princess Nausicaä has managed to enter the toxic jungle and relate to it in a familiar and friendly way, learning from it and searching for a cure for the humans and the plight of the world.
The Tolmekian Kingdom seeks to destroy the toxic jungle with the weapon that began the Seven Days of Fire in the first place. Nausicaä works to prevent the use of this destructive weapon and discovers the symbiotic relationship between the toxic jungle and human civilization, as it exists. The plants of the jungle serve to purify the toxic water, tainted by centuries of human contamination and the war.
Nausicaä saves the jungle and her kingdom in the valley of the wind and befriends the monstrous insects from the toxic jungle.
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‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ was never one of my favorite Hayao Miyazaki films. However, his focus on a young female character as the savior of the planet is in keeping with many themes reverberating through Miyazaki’s films.
Released in 1984, ‘Nausicaä’ has themes of environmental preservation, the negative effects of human civilization on the planet and the dangers of nuclear warfare.
The box office success of this film lead to the establishment of Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, the latter two were producer of many Miyazaki films.
Hayao Miyazaki is someone that never ceases to amaze me. This maverick in the anime film industry has one of the largest filmographies out there, and all of his movies are worthy of praise. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no exception.
Even Nausicaa agrees. Source: nausicaa.net
I walked into the State Theater with a sense of expectation. My first experiences with Studio Ghibli movies were when I was about nine years old. Toonami, a special weekend block on the old Cartoon Network, showed preview segments for what they called a “Month of Miyazaki.” If I remember well, the movies they showed over the course of that month were Princess Mononoke, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Princess Mononoke, arguably Miyazaki’s best film, is very much about the interaction between humans and nature. Laputa: Castle in the Sky, on the other hand, is about the human fascination with technology. It’s interesting to note that the same underlying themes exist in nearly all Miyazaki films. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind thus felt like a portmanteau of Princess Mononoke and Laputa, as it combined Miyazaki’s fascination with technology (mainly aviation) and his feelings on the role of humans within nature. It’s curious too, that Nausicaä was one of his first films.
Nausicaä starts out in distress as a large insect called an Ohm is chasing after a local swordsman, Lord Yupa. Our title heroine comes to the rescue and stuns the Ohm, thus saving Lord Yupa’s life. We soon find out that the reason the Ohm was unhappy was that there were gunshots fired in its habitat. The rest of the movie focuses on this theme of humans within nature, with the trigger-happy Tolmekian army attempting to control the Earth’s natural resources for iron ore. This enrages the Ohms, who can be thought as a metaphor for mother Earth. Mother Earth comes out on top, as she does in all Miyazaki films, and peace is restored to the land. The cathartic ending resounded favorably amongst the audience, who were expecting nothing less from Studio Ghibli.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was released in Japan in 1984 and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and based on Miyazaki’s Manga of the same name. It has received much critical acclaim and is regarded as the kickoff film for Studio Ghibli.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is the second film in Michigan Theater’s ‘The Studio Ghibli Collection: A 30-Year-Retrospective,’ which began with Howl’s Moving Castle this past Saturday’s midnight movie and extends into December.
Princess Nausicaä fights to save the damaged planet and surviving people from destroying themselves and each other. Hayao Miyazaki’s post-apocalyptic animated film was released in 1984.
I know this review comes weeks after the initial preview, and that you may have already seen or at least read about the movie. However, let me remind you that you most certainly did not see it this past Saturday night like I did.
Anyway, The Maze Runner lives up to its expectations as one of the many young adult dystopian movies that manages to sprint ahead of the pack. When you get down to it, the entire setting of the dilapidated, mysterious future under investigation is so formulaic its laughable. No matter what happens, you know the protagonist will gradually unearth more clues until the final confrontation that reveals all.
Luckily for the human race, we are easily entertained. Even better, the Maze Runner’s twists and turns (literally) provide no shortage of excitement. Set in a futuristic world, a group of young boys make a living for themselves trapped in the middle of a monolithic stone maze. Each night the maze closes to keep out the deadly mechanical “grievers” that patrol the walls outside. One day, a boy named Thomas arrives via a elevator shaft, and his entrance changes everything.
While I never understand why the human test subjects/tributes/athletes in these movies have to be young people, they add a certain youth to the film that simply doesn’t exist in similar action films such as Guardians of the Galaxy or X-Men. Many of the stunts these actors pull off are actually believable because they are young and limber. And trust me, there is much jumping and ducking and rolling in the maze.
It felt as though the filmmakers tried to make up for the (almost) all-male cast by making it more diverse. Although the main character is still white, there is a delightful melting pot of races to be had. My only caveat was that I did not see any hispanics in the film. Come on Hollywood! I don’t mention this out of simply being progressive, but it is distracting to see so many dystopian movies containing swathes of white faces.
One of the best parts about the film is the set design. Since the entirety of the film occurs in the maze, you can tell that the filmmakers went to great lengths to give character to the environment. As the film progresses we come to know the inner sanctum as the young boys do; we call it a home and share their view of the maze as the hostile outside. The maze itself, changing each night with ponderous groans, was a character itself. It stood in for the mysterious group controlling it, and sent forth the frightening “Grievers” from within. This is not a horror movie, but I was startling at several points.
Overall, The Maze Runner, is not a shining example of a dystopian movie, nor a coming of age film, but it’s a worthy view all the same. At the very least, you’ll have to catch it if you want to see the sequels.
Before the film started one of the ushers at The State Theater told the audience “We had to convince our booker to show this film, he didn’t think anyone would come. We’ve had to turn 50 people away tonight!” The audience of late-night moviegoers cheered in various states of sobriety.
State Theater Saturday midnights are really quite an experience, especially with a film as iconic and ridiculous as Space Jam. There was no moment without the sound of laughter, callbacks to the screen with many “That’s what she said” moments. People quoted lines, heckled actors and athletes, and most importantly sang along with the timeless sound track of 1996 popular culture.
Space Jam is a hilarious, ridiculous and somewhat scandalous film about Michael Jordan, cartoon aliens and the Looney Tunes! (Oh and of course Bill Murray)
The audience cheered, booed and laughed together for 88 minutes. Some of us relived our first time seeing Space Jam in the theaters in ’96, others harkened back to the first time their lives were altered by this film.
If you have never witnessed the phenomenon that is Space Jam, get a bunch of friends together, gather some popcorn, Furbies, Pogs and push pops, maybe some treasure trolls, pigtails with butterfly hairclips, and press play.
