Watching Miyazaki: A Short "Film-Review" Series

Castle in the Sky

(1986)

"A girl just fell from the sky, Boss."

--Pazu

And that is how the story begins.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (which is the full title of this next film), is the second Miyazaki directed Studio Ghibli film about... well, a castle in the sky.

It is about a young girl named Sheeta, who falls from a blimp in an attempt to escape some mysterious, government agent type men during a raid conducted by the Pirate Queen Dola. All these people are after one thing: a mysterious glowing neckless owned by our mysterious girl falling from the sky.

Now, she didn't splat all over the grasslands, no. If she did, we wouldn't have a story, we'd just have a headline for a news article. No, this magical necklace saves a fainted Sheeta in free-fall as she gracefully descends into a small mining town and is discovered by Pazu (pronounced Pat-su). They learn that this necklace is the key to finding the lost floating city of Laputa.

This is a very adventurous film, our two main characters are constantly on the run from agents and pirates and eventually develop a blossoming romance. Dola is an amazing character, she is a fierce old lady who knows what she wants and helps provide some awesome comic relief along with her sons; and Mark Hammil voices the main villain in this role, Colonel Muska. It also presents the idea of technology being a double-edged sword. Laputa definitely has taken some inspirations from the mythic stories of Atlantis and how it was technologically advanced than other nations before its downfall; it shows the beauty of what technology can accomplish and also the dangers when put into the wrong hands.

Personally, I found the story a little, not exactly forgettable, but unexciting. It didn't impact me the way I'd hoped; and I also believe that this is one of Miyazaki's rare weak titles. I wasn't exactly a big fan of the pacing-- it felt inconsistent sometimes to me and the romantic relationship felt a little forced between Sheeta and Pazu. I mean, they just met each other. I think those two need to take some words of advice from Queen Elsa.

Well, they didn't exactly want to marry each other, but it felt like that. It dragged despite being an adventure film. I enjoyed the visuals though, specifically the train sequence. I like the train sequence; I kinda wished Miyazaki made a film about trains.

Sidenote: Miyazaki loves castles.

Despite that, I still do think it's a pretty good film to watch if you are up for a fun adventure film.

Castle in the Sky (1986) Trailer