Considering how acclaimed Studio Ghibli films are, it’s still amazing to think that Americans didn’t get the vast majority of them until 1999 (well over a decade after most of them had been made). What was the hold-up? Were there no production companies that wanted to dub them? Were his movies so unknown outside of Japan that no studio realized they existed? Well, the truth of the matter is that the films of Hayao Miyazaki were VERY well known outside of Japan! The studio’s films were considered of such high quality that yearly offers were made to bring the films to America.
With rare exceptions like My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies though, most of the movies simply never came over until Disney stepped in and bought the rights to the entire catalog. While producer Toshio Suzuki insisted that the reason for the delay was because most studios' offers weren’t satisfactory, what normally gets glossed over is why the offers weren’t satisfactory! That reason being because Miyazaki had a strict “no-edits” policy that most studios didn’t want to adhere to. The reason for this was that he didn’t have this policy when the rights to Naussica: Valley of the Wind was first acquired in America, and the results of that adaptation were so disastrous that it single-handedly delayed virtually the entire Studio Ghibli catalog for years afterward.
Nausicaa Comes to America As...Something Else
The rights Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind were first acquired all the way back in 1985, during a time period where anime distribution on VHS was just starting to take off in America. Small production companies were lured to Japanese anime because of the unique art style as well as the fact that there was little money that needed to be spent on titles outside of acquiring the licenses and dubbing the material. Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind had already made a name for itself in Japan as an instant classic, so studios were interested in bringing it over.
Though details of the deal have been lost to time, the end result was that a company named New World Pictures did manage to acquire the rights to the film. Rather than faithfully adapt the movie for American audiences, they decided they would “adapt” it in the loosest of terms, and the end result was a new American movie called Warriors of the Wind. The movie was put out in a limited theatrical release before heading straight to VHS, and the results were not good.
How Different WAS Warriors of the Wind Compared to Nausicaa?!
The funny thing is compared to the disastrous dubs of One Piece or early Dragon Ball Z, Warriors of the Wind didn’t suffer that much in comparison! That being said, the changes were still less-than-ideal. Roughly twenty-six minutes of the movie was cut to reduce the running time to a more lean ninety-five minutes. Character names were changed, so Nausicaa – the protagonist of the film itself - became Princess Zandra. Finally, the actors hired for the dubbing weren’t told what the movie was about before being given their lines, which resulted in acting that was of questionable quality.
While all this was done so the movie could be marketed as a children’s film, it still received a PG rating (the same one Disney’s version got years later) during a time when PG-rated animation was box office AND home video poison! What’s even more bizarre is the VHS box art, which seemed more interested in selling the movie as some animated crossover between Star Wars and Masters of the Universe. While the cover has a semblance of the original film, you’d have to squint your eyes and look REAL hard to see how it relates to the actual movie itself!
What Was the End Result?
When Hayao Miyazaki saw the end results of Warriors of the Wind he was furious by what he saw. Maddened by how disrespectfully his film was treated, he vowed never to license any more of his movies unless the companies producing them promised not to cut the films or change anything other than dubbing the dialog into English. As a result, it took years for Studio Ghibli to find a proper release in America, as most studios simply didn’t want to agree to a “no-edits” policy. Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind would eventually be re-released on DVD in America in 2005 by Disney, this time with no cuts, a more faithful dub, and a faithfully translated subtitle track.
While it was frustrating for Studio Ghibli fans to not be able to legally buy the movies on VHS in America, in some ways Warriors of the Wind did all of us a huge favor, as it prevented studios who didn't respect the art of Studio Ghibli's films a chance to get their hands on them. Considering many people consider his films to be perfect, it’s our blessing that the movies have been faithfully preserved for many years. Warriors of the Wind is nowhere near the worst dub you’ll see, but the product is of poor enough quality that it’s likely for the best we got the worst out of the way early to pave way for Studio Ghibli films being treated with the respect most people feel they deserve.