The closest thing you'll find to a cinematic visualization of Doris Piserchia's "jungle worlds" (in Earthchild, but especially Earth in Twilight) is Hayao Miyazaki's animation epic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In the film's post-apocalyptic world, the Earth is gradually being overtaken by a toxic jungle called the Sea of Corruption, which is filled with towering flora and myriad exotic insect species. The beautifully-drawn scenes inside the jungle have the same chaotic density and sense of lurking danger as Piserchia's tales: swarms of hunter-killer dragonflies, tree-climbing pillbugs, and giant multi-eyed mites called Ohmu are among the many denizens of Miyazaki's ecosystem. According to this exhaustive article, Miyazaki had read Dune and Brian Aldiss's Hothouse before working on Nausicaä, but his emphasis on insects--as opposed to plant species--as the dominant lifeform in the jungle places his vision of a twilight Earth closer to Piserchia's than Aldiss's. Like Reee in Earthchild, Princess Nausicaä is surprisingly at home in her deadly environment, and communicates sympathetically with some of its most frightening creatures. Good luck finding a copy of the film, however. It was released in the U.S. in 1984 by New World Video, in a heavily-edited cut titled Warriors of the Wind. Disney has since acquired the rights (along with Princess Mononoke and other Miyazaki films), but who knows when they'll release it. I found Warriors at my local video store, and enjoyed it thoroughly despite its mangling of the story line. I actually prefer the New World translation of the jungle as "Toxic Jungle" rather than "Sea of Corruption," although there's really no reason for changing Nausicaä to Zandra, and "Ohmu" is probably better than "Gorgons" for the giant bugs. One impediment to a Disney rerelease may be the sexuality of Nausicaä. Anime expert Susan Napier calls her "androgynous," but in the first half of the movie she's wearing a microminiskirt and apparently no underwe4r. I kept telling myself that Miyazaki was more "classy" than the typical p4nty-peeking anime director (surely the Princess is wearing flesh-colored tights!), but still found the flapping skirt distracting. I can imagine the corporate types at Disney discussing whether to digitally "dress" the Princess.
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"...Before Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, Japanese animator Hayao Miyazake produced a four-volume graphic novel called Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (there's also a much different film version). Set in the distant future, the story takes place after we Earthings have screwed the planet beyond recognition. Much of the globe is covered by a toxic, insect-ridden ecosystem called the Sea of Corruption. Bits of old machinery and bi..." |