I wish people would give reasons why, when they pick an answer...

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Honestly, I read this afterward and this guy just seems to know it much better than I do. From a general stance, the film seems to involve a lot of "man vs nature" themes, and the battles that go on are often a result of human attitudes towards the forest.

Yeah, he did explain it particularly well and into a (heck) load of detail. It was a great movie and I enjoy all of Miyazaki's masterpieces, however, I didn't just enjoy this film for the epicness of his old-school animation, or the enjoyable characters illuminated throughout it. It's the fact that I honestly believed the idea of his theme, where he was essentially summing how disrespectful humans can be towards the environment.
You could especially see it with Eboshi and Iron Town, because she wasn't interested in the fact that she was the one actively causing damage to the forest, or its inhabitants. Plus, she lacked the foresight to understand that San was attacking her village for a reason... Instead, all she saw was a wild girl, who wanted to cause pain to her and the townspeople, which evidently Eboshi originally drove San to become like that in the first place... Also, the fact that San had been brought up in the forest and cherished that as much as Eboshi cherished Iron Town and her townspeople.

Well said, and yes, I enjoyed it for that reason as well.

Thanks. And, yeah, besides being fun it does have a good message behind it. By the way, have you watched any of the other movies he's made?

Miyazaki? Of course! The Castle of Cagliostro, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle (probably my all-time favorite movie, besides perhaps Summer Wars)... And I really want to see Kaze Tachinu, looks and sounds amazing.

^ Yeah, that's his latest one, I believe. I've watched all of them, excluding Porco Rosso, Ponyo, Arriety and Cagliostro. I have to say that Howl's Moving Castle was fantastic, but Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbour Totoro and the Cat Returns I liked even more so.

I'll have to check out Nausicaa and Cat Returns for sure.

^ They're both really good. Also, Whisper of the Heart, Kiki's Delivery Service and Laputa: Castle in the Sky are excellent. I hear that there are about five or six short movies, too, the trouble is, I can't find anywhere to download them, which might be a bit of a pain.

Whoa, talking about Miyazaki-sama? He's one of the people I have to give absolute credit for when it comes to my obsession with the Japanese culture. I was just a toonami fan at the time when Spirited Away came out on television. The movie was strangely captivating and I've watched EVERY one of his movies since. It's been a while, though, so I may need to have a screening of all of them soon...

^ I would suggest that you do exactly that, Exorcist. Every one of his movies that I've seen, bearing in mind that I've seen all but four of his movies, has been absolutely brilliant. All I need now is a way to watch the short movies that he made. But, yeah, a re-watch of those kind of movies are always in order, considering. I'm glad so many people like them. XD

Yup it definitely did and is my favorite movie now XD