Miyazaki's later films (all of which are great)certainly look better than Nausicaa (such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away) and there's no debating that, but considering this was only his second job as director for a theatrical film and it was made in something like 3 months (his later films have taken more than a year) it still holds up pretty well. It is starting to show its age of course, 20 years after it was originally released, but Miyazaki's story telling still stands tall.

I have mixed feelings about the new dub, which to my ears is the worst sounding of the Disney releases of Miyazaki's films. It is an improvement over the Warriors of the Wind dub where Nausicaa sounded like Rocky the Squirrel (and it is an urban myth that it was the same voice actor as Rocky), but it does suffer from a lot of Explaino™ (a comic book method of explaining the plot details to viewers things that would be immediately obvious to the characters themselves). However, a lot of that is present in the Japanese script, so it can't be solely blamed on Disney. Most of the actors are fine in their roles (where else can you get the Captain of the Enterprise and the (new) Cmdr. Adama together in one sci-fi related film?). However, Alison Lohman has a tough job in trying to convey the intricacies to Nausicaa'a character and while it's not bad, just doesn't convey it as well as her Japanese counterpart.

Commenting on some of the other reviews I have read for this film, there seems to be a lot misinformation out there. The music in Nausicaa is unchanged - it's exactly the same as the original Japanese release (the CD is available on Tokuma 35ATC-3 and is great as well). The script is faithful to the original and for the most part is the same as most fan translations I've seen and my limited Japanese language ability can tell. The complaints about the slow pacing in parts are valid, but this type of introspection is common in most Japanese cinema, from the classics of Kurosawa and Ozu, to even other weel known animations such as Ghost in the Shell. It's a cultural quirk that makes Japanese movies unique from their US counterparts and I for one don't have a problem with it. A lot of these scenes were cut in Warriors in the Wind, and while it made for a tighter, action packed film, it removed a lot of details in what motivates Nausicaa to do what she does. Without character, there's no heart.

Also, there are a lot of people who compare the film to the manga (comic) version by Miyazaki. The film was created about 10 years before the serialization of the manga was completed, so obviously there are going to be huge differences between the two. Only about 2 volumes of the 7-volume work were completed at that time. Comparing the two is like apples and oranges. The scope of the film is by necessity limited, but that doesn't make the end result better (or worse) than its source material. The manga is a sprawling epic and is much darker and mature than the film would lead one to believe however. It's well worth checking out as well. It's highly unlikely that the entire story will ever be animated and with Princess Mononoke more or less a sequel in spirit (since it touches on the same themes as Nausicaa -- the film and manga) I think Miyazaki may have said all that he wants about the subject.