Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984)

This is going to be a short review, but I guess you can already see that... Another Hayao Miyazaki film, I'm getting really tired of his entire body of work cycling onto the IMDB Top 250. This one, currently not on the top 250 was #248 on Jan. 1st when I create a static list. I'm sure now that I've seen it, it will never return, and Kiki's Delivery Service will be on there next. Since it is the only feature film of his I have not seen and has not been on the 250.

I'm sure this sounds a little harsh, but this film does not really deserve any acclaim. It just a kids movie. Weak plot, average animation quality, and quite dull. The film takes place well into the future when the forests are poisoned from all the pollution and wars. They live in the valley of the wind, when Nausicaa is a princess of a small community just trying to survive. Warring clans invade and their valley and Nausicaa has to save her people.

Too violent for small children, just about all anime of this type gets a 4/5 on the KSF. Plus, the plot is complicated enough that little ones wouldn't get it.

Vote: 6/10, KSF 4/5

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087544/

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How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

It will be explained later in the week with the one year anniversary special post, but this is the first film to feature the "KSF" Rating. A rating for how scary kids will find the movie. I'll start by saying that with lots of dragons and fighting this one is not for the preschoolers. 4/5 is just short of Bambi's mom dying, and on the scale that you cannot simply avoid a scene or two for the little ones.

Last year saw a record number of animated feature films, expanding the Oscar field to 5 films. This year has been much slower and will only warrant 3 nominations. To me this is the front runner right now. It would be a snub not the nominated, and it is too early to say if this will win, with Toy Story 3 and Tangled left to watch.

The film is about a viking community that is at constant war with dragons. The lead character is the son of the community leader and a runt. He desperately wants to prove he is big enough to go to dragon school, after an encounter with a dragon he accidentally trapped he starts to have second thoughts about if and why dragons are the enemies.

A great story for kids, exciting, and not pandering to the 3D feature it was enabled with for the theaters. Definitely worth checking out.

Vote: 9/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/

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