An interesting thing that I noticed about both movies is the size of the animals that inhabit the forests. In both Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa, the forest animals are HUGE. Insects in reality seem like specks to humans, but in Nausicaa they are 1000 times bigger than the people. I think the exaggerated size of the creatures is intended to be symbolic of their significance, because they are more important in the cycle of nature than humans are. Like we discussed in class, the earth doesn't need humans. So perhaps Miyazaki was making this point clear by having the animals in the films be so much larger/ greater than humans.
Anyway, i'm a tad confused by the overarching messages in each of the movies. I'd say that there is a constant struggle for humans to adapt to nature and, well, tame it. Because there's definitely a human need for nature, it's just so confusing as to how we're really supposed to treat it. I'd like to compare two scenes: the first, from Princess Mononoke where Eboshi gives Akitasha a tour of Iron Town, and second, the scene in Nausicaa where Lord Yupa discovers Nausicaa's lab of non-toxic plants. Each system (Iron Town and Nausicaa's lab, I mean) has a purpose for benefitting humans, and in both scenes someone is being enlightened on how another human or system of humans is utilizing nature for the benefit of mankind. Nausicaa searches for a pant to cure her father, and Eboshi uses the forest to build weapons and run her city. I don't really know what I'm getting at here. I guess I'm saying that these scenes are representative of the different ways that humans use nature, and that humans will never stop having the need to use it, even if that means destroying it. But then again, is the relationship between nature and humans cyclical? Even though natural disasters happen, and we're polluting the air all the time and all that jazz, everything seems to resolve itself enough for us to get by. And as he world goes on, technology advances, and maybe humans won't need nature anymore. Maybe that's why everything happens, because as we established before, nature doesn't need humans, and maybe we just need to leave the earth eventually.
I've confused everyone, haven't I? I don't know what I'm talking about
The first time i read this i thought it was pretty interesting about what you said when you talked about the size of the insects in both films haha. I completely agree with that you said. I think that they are made that size to remind us how powerful nature is. Having insects and animals the same size, or bigger than humans makes them more significant. It also makes it easier to get not only the human characters in the film, but the watchers of the film to relate easier with nature. Maybe this is because it makes them seem as powerful as humans are, almost like we're equal or something? I have no idea..When i noticed it the first time i wondered if it was significant at all or if the creators of the film just wanted to make everything annoyingly large, or maybe i'm just over thinking it and rambling..haha. Who knows!
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