Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Opportunities don't often just fall from the sky, but sometimes inexplicable events do happen. For Pazu, resident of an elaborately constructed mining town, Sheeta is that event – a young girl with a destiny that he helps to uncover, while trying to keep her safe from a gang of pursuing sky pirates.

Outwardly, Pazu is a typical plucky anime kid, the kind we've seen dozens of times before. Beneath that, however, giving him depth, is a deep-rooted issue relating to a remarkable discovery that his father once made.

Sheeta is quieter, mysterious and harder to read; i.e. a more interesting character. I'd like to have seen more of her past revealed, but in truth the film was lengthy enough as it is.

It's a slow-moving story for a long time, and may even test the patience of some viewers, but the last thirty minutes have a pace that makes everything prior fall nicely into perspective.

Like in Nausicaä (1984), Dir. Hayao Miyazaki creates real empathy for something that isn't human, lingering even when it's forced by human ambition to resort to violence. A number of different manifestations of greed (monetary riches, militaristic power, ego, etc) are subtly graded in their wickedness, although for the most part each one is still presented as destructive.

The original UK DVD has both Japanese and English audio options, which in turn gives you access to both of Joe Hisaishi's musical scores: the Japanese original on the subbed version, and the longer but less interesting US rescore on the dubbed version. The Region 2 subbed version also retains the references to famous literary works that Disney's chattering dub omits.