Castle in the Sky (also known with Laputa at the start of the title) is the first Studio Ghibli film. A lot was riding on this film, maybe even slightly more than Nausicaa. Castle in the Sky would prove that the time and investment to create Studio Ghibli could produce great, original works and be commercially viable. Fortunately, for the most part, Castle in the Sky succeeds.
Miyazaki once again drew upon several sources in creating the foundation of Castle in the Sky. The mysterious castle features in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Several writers have drawn parallels with both depictions of the castle, in that its technological superiority is manipulated and used for political ends. This is something that Swift and Miyazaki have in common - using fantasy settings to quietly weave in political and social commentary. Miyazaki also drew upon Biblical sources to create a sense of weight and danger to Laputa.
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| Castle in the Sky, while suffering slightly from some narrative issues and odd gender politics, is a thrilling fantasy film that has plenty of great set-pieces, wonderful art design and touching moments to completely recommend |
Castle in the Sky is an exciting action-adventure story, which follows two children named Pazu and Sheeta. Pazu works in a slightly tired mining town in a steampunk influenced take on Europe but one day wants to escape and find the mysterious flying castle, Laputa (reportedly seen by his now deceased father). Everything changes when Sheeta literally floats down from the sky into Pazu's arms. She was being held hostage by a government agent but managed to escape after a raid by a group of pirates Around her neck is a mysterious crystal with strange magical properties, that is now sought by the pirates (led by the fierce Dola), the army and a shady government agent named Muska. Pazu soon learns that Sheeta is in fact a descendant of a long line of royalty to the throne of Laputa. With confirmation of its existence, Pazu and Sheeta set out on a quest to find Laputa and unlock its secrets.
I think it's important to understand that a lot was riding on Laputa, which explains a certain precedent for the film. With Castle in the Sky, Miyazaki went a bit broader in terms of appealing to a mass audience - thus, you have an exciting action adventure film which subdues a lot of Miyazaki’s more existential and ecological themes in favour of riveting action scenes and sheer fantasy spectacle. This isn't to say Laputa is a bad film, FAR from it, it's really great on its own merits, but it's not one that sticks with me narratively as well as some of the others. That said, it contains several truly excellent, some wonderful characters and an intricate mythology that is left as somewhat of a mystery. The opening of the film sets the tone perfectly. From the opening action scene onboard the aircraft to Sheeta escaping and falling into the sky to the wonderful opening credits that set the back story of Laputa through images and music, the film pulls no punches in pulling you into this world.
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| Pazu and Sheeta make a good counter-balance to each other, even if they fall into traditional gender roles |
Once again, the art design of the world is absolutely phenomenal. It's almost like an alternative history of Europe via the lens of steampunk art design While the best is saved for last, which I’ll get into later, the film once again draws upon that concept discussed in the last article - Paris of Our Dreams, i.e. a fictionalised look at Europe by an outsider to its culture. In particular, there is close reference to Wales and its mining towns in the 1980s. Miyazaki is said to have visited these towns as they were swept up in the closure of mines (i.e. their main livelihood) during Thatcher's reign of terror. The whole of Pazu's hometown, from the single street containing long rows of terraced housing to the imposing railway line to the huge valley where the miners have clearly been working down for decades, is a phenomenal piece of art design - fantastical and exaggerated yet oddly functional. I love the scene where Pazu wakes up early and plays the trumpet on the roof of his little home as dawn breaks across the valley - it's a beautiful moment and the discourse between the quiet moments and the action scenes continues through the whole film. For Pazu's hometown is also the setting for the first action scene of the film, wherein Dola and her pirates attempt to steal the crystal, as Pazu and Sheeta desperately try to run away on the railway tracks. It's inventive, exciting and showcases the detail of Ghibli's animation.
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| One of many of Laputa's iconic scenes |
Castle in the Sky's only main weakness is that the plotting is a little bit shaky. Pazu and Sheeta are very likeable main characters. That said, I feel that more time is dedicated to characterising Pazu. The character animation on him is wonderful, picking on all his little ticks and mannerisms. Sheeta is a little more stoic and more of the traditional 'female' character in a fantasy story (more on that later). To the film's benefit, it does spend time creating a bond between them that is believable. However, from when they escape Pazu's town to landing on Laputa for the final act, I feel it's a little directionless, outside of the broad "we need to get to Laputa". The individual scenes are excellent, don't get me wrong. When the robot, that is said to have fallen from Laputa, awakens in Muska's castle and its subsequent rampage is thrilling, while Pazu and Dola racing across the countryside to rescue Sheeta highlights the incredible skill of Ghibli's animators to bring real movement to passing over scenery (it doesn't sound thrilling but usually in animation background stills are physically moved to create a sense of momentum but Ghibli fully animate this, which is an incredibly difficult thing to do especially when you consider it was all hand drawn). For me, it's more that the narrative glue doesn't quite hold it all together. I think it's because literally when they set out on their quest, Sheeta is captured straight away which I think stops the momentum.
During the aforementioned section of the film, it contains the scenes I take most issue with. I do think it’s a bit of a shame that Sheeta is pretty wet, especially considering Miyazaki’s track record of creating varied and interesting female characters. She does end up growing as a character in the final moments of the film (and the first instance where one of Miyazaki's tropes comes into play - character having their long hair cut to signify completion of an arc) but it feels a little too late. I mostly take issue with the roles they are assigned when they make a peace pact with Dola. I understand that the kids need a job to do on the ship but did it really need to be a “Pazu does the engineering work, Sheeta does the cooking”? My girlfriend actually suggested a fun role reversal idea (maybe suggested by Dola) where Pazu and Sheeta end up doing jobs they’re not experienced in but end up learning new things about themselves. In general, I find the gender politics of Castle in the Sky a little odd and feel like they are from another age. I understand that Miyazaki wanted to tell a classic-style adventure story but there had to be smarter ways of doing it. Anyway, I don't want to come down on the film too hard because I don't think there's any malice to it. I bring this up only because we know Miyazaki is capable of better.
Fortunately, while Sheeta is one of the lesser characters in the Miyazaki female canon Dola more than makes up for it. An incredibly fun character with an excellent design, Dora is a fierce and fairly cut-throat pirate captain who has a dominating control over her crew (calling her Mama and treating her the expected kind of reverence and fear). I was actually always reminded of Mom from Futurama (though maybe not as ruthless), especially with her relationship with her “boys”. She's the star of the film, it is genuinely refreshing to have an older, bigger woman in a position of power, especially in the realm of fantasy story-telling.
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| Sky pirate captain and 100% badass, Dola is the true star of the film |
Despite my issues with the slightly shaky middle section of the film, the final third is nothing short of a masterpiece. When Pazu and Sheeta go through the storm clouds, in some of the most abstract animation of Miyazaki’s career, to reveal the stunning location of the titular castle, it’s nothing short of hair-raising. Laputa itself is a masterpiece of art design. A wonderful fusion of classic European (with particular reference to Anicent Greek) architecture and science-fiction, Laputa feels like a functional place and long abandoned. You could imagine that life once existed there. As the duo slowly explore the castle grounds, they meet more of the robots from earlier in the film. There's a wonderful melancholy to the robots of Laputa; I don't know what it is, there's just this inherent sadness to them. This is particularly revealed when the robot is tending a grave to long-deceased Laputians before the camera pans to reveal some of the robot’s fallen comrades, who clearly haven't functioned in decades as they succumb to rust and spreading rust. Things intensify when Muska and the army manage to break through and start ransacking Laputa. Muska, however, has other plans and seeks the heart of Laputa, revealing that he has long been researching into its secrets and that he, in fact, is spoilers a descendant from royal family. He reveals that, as well as being an incredibly advanced civilisation, Laputa also functions as a giant weapon. The final third is confident, thrilling and is essentially the reason to watch the film.
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| The reveal of Laputa is simply breath-taking |
The film reaches quite possibly one of Miyazaki’s best final set piece, as Pazu and Sheeta announce the forbidden magic words “balse”, which begins the process of destroying Laputa’s weapon core. The animation here is stunning, as brick by brick, the castle beings to disintegrate as the characters desperately try to dodge the falling debris. This is where Joe Hisaishi's powerful score really kicks in. Hearing him let loose with a full orchestra shows how powerful his compositions are. The theme for Laputa (in particular when it is sung by a choir) just gives me chills every time.
One thing I didn't mention in the Nausicaa article was the English dub (mostly because I don't have a lot to say - it's fine and it has Patrick Stewart) but I want to start discussing them a little bit in each article. Castle in the Sky has a very mixed bag when it comes to the dubbing. On the one hand you have Mark Hamill and Cloris Leachman as Muska and Dola, respectively. Both are great in the roles, with Hamill in particular bringing out the insanity that Muska eventually succumbs to (he was The Joker, after all). I might even prefer Hamill to the Japanese voice actor. Our two leads however are not so great and since we spend most of the film with them, it really hurts the dub. James Van Der Beek makes Pazu sound like there's a 20 year old man trapped inside the body of a little boy. Anna Paquin tries to give Sheeta this Europeany (?) accent at the start of the film but ultimately gives up half way through. They're just not suited for the roles or the tone of the film. The Japanese voice actors are much better at communicating the childlike wonder of going on an adventure. As part of an earlier American release of the film, in order to give it broader appeal, the local distributor asked Ghibli and Hisaishi to record more music for the film. The very early Ghibli films contain a lack of music in scenes where you’d normally expect to hear it. I think his lends a greater atmosphere and allows you to concentrate on the minute of the scenes. Like that classic adage, it's where Hisaishi decides not to score that interesting. However, to keep the dub in line with more traditional Disney fare, Hisaishi added new music and re-recorded large chunks of the score. Honestly, the music itself is excellent but I think it robs the film of a certain atmosphere. Fortunately, this was repeated only on the dub of Kiki’s Delivery Service.
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| I really hope I've not come down too hard on the film because I still really like it |
Overall, Castle in the Sky holds up as a fine Miyazaki film, that shows off the director's incredible attention to detail, art design and world building. Even if I do personally find the gender politics of this one a little suspect and the plotting a little bit shaky, it's still a classic film. When Castle in the Sky gets things right, it simply knocks it out of the park. It's clearly the work of a young director trying to find his feet and feeling around what works and what doesn't. Miyazaki would never again return to this style of broad fantasy-action-adventure film but, as it stands, Castle in the Sky is still very watchable with plenty of thrilling moments to warrant repeat viewings. It's not a personal favourite but there's still plenty to recommend.
Following Castle in the Sky's success, Ghibli began to ponder its next move and decided to make one of the most ambitious and odd moves of its career. In one of the strangest double-bill imaginable, Ghibli would form two very different takes on childhood. The first one I will discuss has been described as the "the greatest film you'll never want to watch again"....you know what's coming...
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