Castle in the Sky

I know this movie is almost 30 years old, but I recently re-watched it and I cried reminiscing about my childhood and thought I should write my first review on it. Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa aka Castle in the Sky is tied as my favorite Miyazaki movie alongside Princess Mononoke; my 2 favorite movies as a child. The story of Castle in the Sky is about, you guessed it; a castle in the sky. There's a legend about a floating island castle, called "Laputa" that contains all the riches a person can ever dream of having. The main male character, Panzo believes that the castle exists,and dreams of one day following his deceased father's footsteps, and finding the castle for himself. The only problem is, he doesn't know where the castle is. Then there's the main female character, Sheeta whom Panzo finds falling/floating down from the sky with a shining sky blue necklace that has some sort of relationship to Laputa's location. Panzo and Sheeta begin a friendship, perhaps love relationship and they decide to go on a journey to find Laputa together. But they run into trouble with, and clowny pirates, the greedy army along with some mysterious men led by an even more mysterious man named, Muska. Really the art and music is stunning. The theme song of Castle in the Sky: Laputa may actually be my favorite piece of music ever! Seriously, please listen to that song! It makes me tear up every time I hear it! Furthermore the voicing of each character was perfectly matched, nothing unusual that pops out. The portrayal of Laputa, the castle in the sky, was absolutely beautiful! I actually teared up thinking about how I'd never be able to see the castle in real life. The connection and peace between the the robotic beings, and nature (trees, wild animals, plants) on the Island was absolutely beautifully portrayed. None of the characters were drawn like weirdly; every character's looks were unique and memorable. And normally I hate robots, but I felt this weird connection and pity for the dying breed of robots on Laputa. I loved all the characters, except Muska (who is the villain, so my hatred for him is a good thing). The stupid army was really funny, as were the pirates. Panzo and Sheeta are your average Miyazaki main characters, absolutely tragic and lovable! I think this is the best animated story in the world.. Honestly there's nothing to dislike about this anime and so much to love. It's truly a heart-pounding adventure story about friendship, loyalty, greed, and people's connection to nature. The anime starts off innocently and happily, but it quickly becomes darker as the evil ambitions of the antagonists make themselves known. The characters, good and evil, are all fully developed and interesting to watch. I remember watching this over and over as a little baby, and I still have a vcr tape of Castle in the Sky ^o^. If you haven't seen this movie yet, then I think no matter what age you are, you should watch it at least a couple times in your life. Thanks for reading my first review!

Castle in the sky is the third film made by Hayao Miyazaki, who I've come to believe is one of the most masterful storytellers. The story is based on the Laputa of Gulliver's Travels, a floating city of scientists and ideologist, which is a legend, a dream of explorers. The young miner Pazu in the story has a goal, which is to find Laputa just as his father did before. And one day, a girl Sheeta who is wearing a magical necklace drifting down from the sky into Pazu's arms, their adventure begins. The movie has a touch of magic and science fiction. Muchof the film takes place in the air. Miyazaki does have a brilliant means to deal with the scenes in the sky. The huge military dirigible floating in the sky, air pirates fly in unwieldy flying machine, Pazu and Sheeta travels in tractive kite filling the scenes with action, adventure, battles and wonder. Some political statement is implied in Miyazaki's animation with a fantasy, giving deeper meaning to his story. In Castle in the sky, environmentalism has been the central to the film. The landscape is overexploited. The towns and valleys look dirty and in great need of heal while the floating island Laputa is so beautiful and peaceful. There is an underlining message about the environment as well as the need for balance with the earth. But that seldom appears in the ordinary old stories that make it a delight to watch. The music of the film is fascinating.Composer Hisaishi made the music contain a little sense of melancholy in a nursery rhyme flavor. The melody is clean and pure just like the laputa in the magical story, so mysterious and untouchable. Hisaishi and Miyazaki reached the best connection in the music creation. The commemoration of the past and the call for the love is perfectly delivered by the simple notes. The opening theme music and its chorus version The Girl Who Fell from the Sky will surprise you with its great penetration. The amazing charm, which Hisaishi’s music bring even overflow the Miyazaki’s animation and create a unprecedented imaginary world for the audience. The symphony version of the theme music, comparatively speaking, is more like a great piece of fantasy anthology. The violin entered with a slow and melancholy tone then turned sweet and joyful. Followed by the piano, the music immediately sublimates a surge of power, which simply shakes the soul. The rhythm repeats and becomes more and more powerful. It is so well-timed that the music could easily enhance the atmosphere of the whole movie and arouse the resonance between the audience and the story. Anyway it's worthy to spend 2 hours to watch this film. It will be a fantastic experience and hope you really enjoy it. ^^

Studio Ghibli is the most illustrious Anime film studio ever conceived, and might as well be one of the best movie studios of all time, even outside the realm of Anime. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have both produced some of the most imaginative works ever put to the animation medium, and their genius efforts show in most of their creations. Add in to the fact that Joe Hisaishi is one of the best soundtrack composers in all of Anime, and you’ve got yourself a trio that has produced works that were nearly perfect in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, a group of professionalsand talents can’t always emulate perfection in every work they create, as consistent quality is something that is impossible to achieve, especially with the quantity of movies that Ghibli has put out throughout the years, and every person or studio will have their ups and downs every now and then. In Ghibli’s case, it's futile failure had to be a movie known as Castle in the Sky. Considering that this movie has one of the highest review mean scores ever, it seems hard for someone to dislike it. Unfortunately, this movie never managed to be appealing nor striking nor cathartic in any way, shape or form, as this one is the most laborious and unimaginative movie Ghibli have ever produced, even with the fantasy elements sprinkled all over it. Saying that this movie should not be given such harsh criticism considering the old age of it is fair, but people tend to forget that Ghibli had made a movie two years prior to Laputa, which has aged extremely well, and that movie is called “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. It’s really not about the age of the work at the end of the day, since a really old work can stand firmly against the test of time when given well executed directing and a well thought out script and characters. This wasn’t the case with Laputa though, as it’s plot feels trite now after it’s release, and so do it’s characters, due to several factors that is. Perhaps not having a manga to adapt to movie form, and it being the studio’s first film with no source material to work with, turned it into such a nauseating catastrophe. The plot tries to implement a sense of mystery with a missing father that the two main characters have to find, but unlike My Neighbor Totoro, the mystery is not intriguing nor does it work in any way. Isao Takahata was needed in order for the mystery to work, but he wasn’t there to save this film, and an amateur Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t enough to save it on his own as well. The plot is also unoriginal, compared to some of the better Ghibli movies out there, which have the same exact premise but are filled to the brim with better execution and directing. The characters are all one dimensional archetypes, be it the cartoony villains who switch from being evil to the side of good very easily, or the main heroine who resembles every other Ghibli heroine, only much less developed this time around. All of this wouldn’t be so bad if the movie was made by a third rate studio, but unfortunately, Studio Ghibli made this movie. Studio Ghibli, one of the best studios when it comes to creating memorable, well written characters in the short span of one to two hours only, made such vacuous and poorly thought through, simplistic characters with this movie. Perhaps it was trying to be simplistic, but with that, it deemed itself unwatchable for an older audience, and mostly became a movie for kids. It doesn’t tackle the same mature themes that others within the same studio tackle, and it lacks the directing genius that Miyazaki would later go on to showcase in his later works. As far as themes go, there is no theme exploration here, especially the environmentalism theme which Miyazaki likes to preach about in most of his other works. If there was theme exploration, then it was handled and conveyed in a much better fashion in most of his other works. The comedy displayed here is lackluster as well, and the emotional catharsis is nowhere to be found. Nothing, I felt nothing while watching this movie. It lacks the depth of Princess Mononoke, it lacks the imagination of Spirited Away, it lacks the emotional catharsis of Kiki’s Delivery Service, and it falls short in most regards, especially when it comes to creating emotion and resonating with people. The animation has not aged well at all, and it shows throughout most of the movie. At least Nausicaa had some memorable art and colossal amounts of imagination poured into it, something that made it age all the more better, even when it’s animation was flappy at times. What also made Nausicaa age very well, is how extravagantly Joe Hisaishi’s tracks flowed with the movie’s memorable moments and gave them a certain feel that is hard to find anywhere else. Laputa felt much worse than Nausicaa when it came to the animation aspect, add in to the fact that the atmosphere was not intriguing, and the artwork was not memorable, and you’ve got yourself a work that is inferior to it’s predecessor in almost every aspect. Laputa fails in the animation and visuals department, and even when it comes to the directing and memorable scenes, it fails as well. Moving on to the final aspect of the film, which is the soundtrack - it was neither striking nor memorable, nor could one say it was good, even as a standalone soundtrack and without having to compare it to Hisaishi's other works. This is rather surprising considering that this is a movie which composer Joe Hisaishi worked on. No track stood out, unlike some of the top Ghibli movies out there, and neither were the tracks immersive or good. Other contentions a viewer would have with this film is that it is excruciatingly slow, as scenes take forever to translate. This movie is also too long for it's own good, spanning a length of two hefty hours. Any movie which fails in the audiovisuals department, in the script department, and in the characters department, must at least redeem itself by not having the viewer tortured for hours on end. A perfect length for a movie is to span between an hour and an hour and thirty minutes, which are more than enough to tell an entire narrative. Two hours is very long for a movie, even the Studio Ghibli ones, especially when the movie has nothing of value or substance to convey. Aside from all of this, what is truly astounding about Laputa, is the fact that this movie might as well have one of the highest review mean scores an Anime could have, as there has yet to be a negative review for it. It being higher than movies such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and Only Yesterday in general mean scores adds more insult to injury, especially due to the fact that those movies surpass this one in almost everything - from sheer imagination, to directing, to the raw emotion poured into them, etc. All in all, there really isn’t much else to say about this movie. It is not memorable in the slightest, bordering on nauseating boredom. The animation has not aged well at all, and the soundtrack is neither striking nor helps in making the scenes better. It’s technicalities would have been forgiven if it had a good story or characters, but alas, it is boring and trite, especially for those who have seen many other Ghibli movies, which have taken the same exact premise and executed it in a much better fashion. Laputa is Ghibli’s first feature film, and the studio would go on to write and produce some of the best and most memorable Anime movies ever made, leaving this one in the dust, right where it belongs.

Studio Ghibli is arguably one of the greatest anime film studios of all time, setting the standard for Japanese animation many times over since its inception. They are responsible for producing some of the best animated films ever seen; blessing anime fans with several classic films over the decades and creating countless spectacles along with them, many of which were made under the guidance of legendary director and Studio Ghibli founder, Hayao Miyazaki. Together, their library includes the likes of Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and of course the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away. But before all that, the studio giant had to begin somewhere. Andwhile both Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli were involved in the making of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984, their first official film was released in 1986: that film being Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa, more commonly known as Castle in the Sky. The tale of Ghibli’s first feature film is set in a world parallel to ours, except here there is a much greater focus on, you guessed it, the skies. Floating castles, gigantic airships and pirates in the sky are all featured prominently over the film’s 2-hour runtime and in the sky is where we find our heroine of the story, Sheeta. She is held against her will in an airship when suddenly, pirates attack in an attempt to kidnap the girl. However, through all the commotion, Sheeta slips and falls to what appears to be her death, only for her strange-looking necklace to glow and cause her to slowly descend towards the ground, where a young boy sees her and catches her. This all takes place before the 10-minute mark and already we are given so many questions to be answered throughout the film. But thankfully the film never tries to get complicated with the narrative. From the beginning we are thrown into this new, fantastical world that is begging to be explored and from there it takes us on an adventure where two children go out to find Laputa, the Castle in the Sky. Some may find the overall narrative of Castle in the Sky simplistic, and I would agree with them, but simplistic does not equate to ‘not good’. For 2 hours, this film is full of action and adventure that will have you entertained from the start. This film is one of the few anime that I believe can be enjoyed by all ages and this is mostly because of its simplicity. Compared to other Ghibli films, Castle in the Sky is not trying to be an allegory of any kind, instead looking at the story’s sense of scale and adventure through the eyes of a child. While I would never consider it to be Miyazaki’s magnum opus in terms of his most developed, breath-taking or meaningful work, it is near-perfect for what it tries to be: an authentic vision of a childhood fantasy, that has the charm to bring out the child in anyone watching. Studio Ghibli is responsible for creating some of the most enjoyable cinematic universes in animated form, as they seem to always be able to bring forth these rich, vivid settings that despite feeling similar, are each unique in their own way. Castle in the Sky is the first of a dozen examples of this. There are so many different working parts of this world of imaginative architecture, advanced technology and charismatic personalities. For this film specifically, Castle in the Sky manages to make a distorted version of the industrial revolution, featuring the likes advanced elaborate aircraft to giant robot guardians, seem like something made out of pure imagination as well as something we could very well see made in the not-so-distant future. It also features some environmental commentary towards the end if you are interested at all. But considering that this film was directed by Miyazaki, all of his familiar yet welcome quirks – strong, independent female characters, ecology, aviation and young children – are present in this film. Speaking of the characters, the lead duo, whilst basic, fit this kind of story exceptionally well, fitting the orphaned child archetype whilst coming off as sympathetic protagonist that you want to see succeed in their dangerous quest. The boy who found Sheet in the beginning is Pazu, who is trying to find the castle in the sky as his father years before had seen, but was disregarded as a liar by those around him. Pazu has a clear goal in the film, and Sheeta is like Pazu’s angel, literally falling into his life in the beginning and supporting him, while also looking out for his safety. Sheeta also changes overtime in the film, slowly but surely becoming more independent and confident, common characteristics of Miyazaki’s heroines. The rest of the characters however are rather one-note and interchangeable. They still play their part well for a film like this, but I am disappointed that they were not as memorable as anything else in the movie. Regarding the production side of Caste in the Sky, it is everything that you would expect from Studio Ghibli. The animation is beautiful, even for today’s standards which, for a 1986 movie is a pretty amazing feat. Throughout the entire film there is no lack in artistry; the backgrounds, characters and sequences all look great. Laputa also happens to be blessed with wonderful cinematography, capturing the overall look of the fantasy epic in every action scene this movie has to offer. As for the music; it sounds stunning! The entire soundtrack fits the tone and style that this movie has, and it is not surprising given that Joe Hisaishi was behind the music. Hisaishi did a great job with the entire soundtrack. If there were any issue on the soundtrack however, it would be that there is no standout themes there, at least in my opinion. Some people really love the main theme for Castle in the Sky, but to me, it cannot compare to some of his other tracks like Legend of Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. The English dub for this is also solid, but given that Disney was behind the dub, it should come as no surprise it would be anything but. The dub can make the two leads sounds more mature than their character implies, but in no way does it detract from the overall enjoyment you will have when watching this Ghibli classic. If I haven’t made it obvious enough, Castle in the Sky is a film that despite the score, means a lot to me as a fan of anime. It is a very well-executed adventure story that is not hindered by age, and as long as you watch it for what it is: an adventure, you will enjoy it. There is more that I could talk about regarding this film, but that would be at the cost of spoilers and I want everyone who reads this that has not seen Castle in the Sky to go into it as blind as possible. It is essentially the film that put Ghibli on the map, and set the standard for what you should expect from one of the greatest anime studios of all time.