Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

With her tomboyish bob cut, jet powered glider and (naturally) cute fury sidekick, Nausicaä is the feisty, morally righteous and ineffably endearing heroine of Miyazaki’s operatic second feature, doing everything in her power to protect her tiny village situated in the eponymous Valley of the Wind, even if it means channelling giant blue sea worms to stave off the callous advances of warmongering neighbours. Essentially an thinly-veiled parable about the humanity’s uneasy relationship with weaponry, Miyazaki’s exhilarating action movie (whose epic scale is on a par with something like 'Akira') also offers a two-fisted attack against corporate power and delivers a subtle plea for the preservation of artisan craftsmanship. Stellar stuff.