Following the success of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were determined to produce more animated feature films. To do this, they enlisted the backing of their financial distributor, Tokuma Shoten, to establish their own animation company, which we know today as Studio Ghibli.

The facility's first production was Castle in the Sky, a rollickingly entertaining action-adventure packed with endearing characters, a wondrous musical score, imaginative artistry, and a solid story. While the film was not as financially successful as Nausicaa, it has nonetheless obtained a loyal following over the years.

Inspired by a passage from the third section of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", the film begins with a bang--literally--as we see a troop of bungling yet lovable sky pirates commanded by the elderly yet energetic Dola attack a passing airship. Their target is Sheeta, a mysterious girl from a far off valley wearing a crystal necklace. Just before they can snatch her, Sheeta goes overboard, plummeting through the dense cloud cover. But instead of falling to her death, she floats gently downward (thanks to her crystal's magic powers) to a small mining community. (All this happens before the opening credits, too!)

Upon regaining consciousness, she meets Pazu, a young miner who caught her the night before. His father, we learn, once saw a floating island known as Laputa in the clouds (there's a picture that he took of it hanging on the wall at Pazu's house), but no one believed him. Pazu is determined to prove his father's theory, as he plans to build his own aircraft to find Laputa himself.

(Incidentally, the movie was originally titled "Laputa: The Castle in the Sky", but because laputa is an offensive term in Spanish, the film is known here as just "Castle in the Sky.")

Before long, the pair find themselves on the run from the Dola Pirate Gang as well as shadowy government agents. Apparently, the crystal around Sheeta's neck is somehow related to the island of Laputa, which is rumored to have lost treasures. It turns out that Dola and her all-male crew are not after Sheeta, but rather the riches lurking in Laputa. In fact, they prove to be true allies to Pazu and Sheeta.

The real antagonist is Muska, a scheming top-secret agent who also wants to use Sheeta's crystal to unlock Laputa (he had kidnapped her to begin with), only he wants to use its dangerous powers for world conquest. Charming on the surface yet treacherously manipulative at heart, Muska happens to be one of the few truly "evil" characters Miyazaki has ever created for a film. Indeed, the most frightening moments involving him isn't just when he showcases his true colors before Sheeta, but rather when he talks her into cooperating by playing on her fear for Pazu's safety. Under his influence, Sheeta sadly tells Pazu to return home and forget about her. And when Sheeta turns to leave, Muska cruelly restrains Pazu, handing him only three coins--"a little something to show our appreciation for your efforts [in protecting Sheeta]." The impact of this scene is in its horrible outcome, as Sheeta is completely distraught, and likewise, Pazu feels (albeit temporarily) betrayed (it takes a little bit of tough talk from Dola to goad him into saving her). And all that Muska's mind is on during this is his own agenda. Not only is Muska a ruthless character, he is a splendid villain as well.

There are so many things that makes Castle in the Sky such a fun film to watch. The characters that Miyazaki has created, while perhaps not as multi-faceted as in other productions (although the cantankerous yet softhearted Dola happens to be an exception here), are endearing and all play their roles well for a two-hour epic adventure... almost in a way that one becomes attached to them. Equally noteworthy is the spectacular serving of action-packed sequences. In addition to the aforementioned opening attack on the airship, equally entertaining set pieces can be found in a dizzying chase on a set of crumbling railroad tracks; a dramatically intense situation when a supposedly dormant robot comes alive, attacking everything in its path; and eventually the climactic showdown between Muska and the government. Such moments are so visceral in their experience its almost easy to forget you're watching a cartoon. (Even if there are some exaggeratedly comic scenes such as a fist match turning into a street brawl.)

The artwork, although not as authentic or lavish as in some of the later Miyazaki productions, is lovingly drawn with detail and imagination, from the impressive aircrafts to the castle itself. But some of my favorites are the flight sequences above the clouds, which not only showcase breathtaking artwork but almost make one feel giddy.

Equally praiseworthy is the music score by Joe Hisaishi, which is not only beautiful (especially the choral part during the finale), but seamlessly matches the visuals. Hisaishi has contributed other scores for Miyazaki, each of which are all five-star quality, but his work for Castle in the Sky is arguably one of his best. Interestingly, for the Disney-produced English version (which I'll come to in a moment) Hisaishi was commissioned to revamp and extend his score (overfilling some of the scenes where Miyazaki used natural silence) for performance by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. This caused controversy with fans, many of whom argued that the new score somehow taints the film, but Miyazaki is said to have praised Hisaishi's efforts; it's not hard to see why. As much as I admired the use of quiet moments in the original Japanese version, hearing these previously music-less scenes with enchanting new melodies is a visceral experience in its own right. It only just showcases how more advanced Hisaishi become since the time he first wrote the score. (The original version can be heard on the Japanese language track, presented in Dolby Stereo 2.0; the English dub is in 5.1 Surround Sound.)

Critics and hardcore fans seem to be split about the Disney English track (originally planned for release in 1999, but mysteriously delayed until 2003). Although there are fans of the dub, others have attacked it on all sides, comparing unfavorably to both its original language track and an earlier English dub released by Streamline several years ago (more on that later). Despite this love-hate atmosphere, I am going to take a different stand and say that--stripped of unfavorable comparisons to the original Japanese and issues that have been continually brought up--Disney's dub is an excellent English track in its own right.

For one, it's got a great vocal cast, notably Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill, who are outstanding as both Dola and Muska. Indeed, if there is any reason to see this dub, it's for their deliciously hammy, showstealing performances as the crotchety air pirate and devious government agent, respectably. Leachman owns many of the best lines, and delivers them for all she is worth. Hamill, meanwhile, disguises his voice as Muska so ingeniously it's almost easy to forget he was Luke Skywalker. He puts a lot of energy into the role and intones his lines with chillingly meancing glee, making his performance (along with Leachman's) an absolute delight. Equally excellent are Mandy Patinkin, Michael McShane, and Andy Dick as Dola's trio of comic sons; Richard Dysart as the gentle underground miner Uncle Pom; and Jim Cummings as the brutish yet brainless military general. Pazu and Sheeta, meanwhile, are played by James Van Der Beek (whose more mature sounding voice is a bit distracting at times, although he is competent overall) and Anna Paquin (she speaks with a somewhat inconsistant accent that falters from British to Austrailian; this actually works in her character's favor). Both are adequate, but not as good as the aforementioned performers. However, the chemistry between them is better than what critics give credit for.

John Semper's script adaptation is a bit loose at times, throwing in some extra lines (some of which actually do a good job in fleshing out the characters and plot, although others do come off as superfluous) and changing a few things. Aside from that (and at least two debatable alterations--both of which I won't get into because I don't want to dwell on them), most of his lines convey the same meaning (read, I said, MOST) and does not diminish the spirit of the movie by any means. I'm sure that Miyazaki and his staff think so too, otherwise they wouldn't have given Disney the nod for their scripting and music treatments (everything is done under the supervision of the folks at Ghibli). So on the whole, there is little point comparing the Disney version to the original language track; each puts their own stamp on this legendary masterpiece, and I like them both.

There are a group of naysayers who have been overly critical of Disney's dub, saying that it pales in comparison to an older dub released in 1989 by Streamline (produced by an independent dubbing studio hired on the cheap by Tokuma). Sadly, the opposite is true.  Despite not having the new score and the sometimes extraneous additional dialogue, the older dub doesn't live up to the reputation that its defenders say.  For one, the voices are nowhere nearly as lively or natural.  Pazu's VA, Barbara Goodson, comes across as a woman pretending to be a boy, which I normally wouldn't have a problem with except in this case it's so obvious that it doesn't come across as anywhere nearly as convincing.  Sheeta, voiced by Lara Cody, fares even worse; she raises her voice as high as possible to sound like a little girl, but that only works against the character instead of in her favor.  While Disney's leads weren't my favorite voices in the new dub, they were nowhere nearly as lifeless or artificial sounding as these two.  On that note, Rachel Vanowen's Dola sounds plain wrong too; not only does she come across as sounding like June Foray as a scratchy-sounding Granny (from Looney Tunes) she simply screams her lines without any of the charm or warmth that Leachman provides.  The pirate brothers are not much better; compared to Mike, Mandy, and Andy, these older guys are just all "goofy" voices with zero comic timing.  Jeff Winkless's Muska is what really brings the older dub down; unlike Hamill,  this guy is boring (and I mean boring with a capital B), sounding like an emotionless newscaster instead of someone genuinely evil.  (It gets even worse at the finale when he reveals his true nature, particularly when he spouts corny lines such as "now you die" or "now say bye bye".)  The rest of the cast in this older dub are just as emotionless, with the possible exception of the General, but even then, Cummings trumps him.  Voices aside, the major problem with this older dub is the flow of the dialogue; sure, it doesn't have the sometimes gratuitous additional chatter or change the last part of Sheeta's speech, but the overall ADR script comes across as very robotic, with lots of lines turning out other flatly delivered, lacking in emotional depth, and even inappropriate for the images.  Even the attempts at humor ("I'm built like a brick moppet!") come across as very bizarre.  While I understand that some people have issues with Disney's dub, hearing this older version only convinced me that the current one is the superior dub--undistorted though it may not be, it is miles above Streamline/Tokuma's trainwreck of an air-flight hack job by far.

Disney's DVD release is pretty good for the most part. The video quality is colorful and vibrant, although it does show its age at times. The audio on all three language tracks is brilliantly mixed, but the extras are a bit sparse -- all we have is an unnecessary but passable intro by John Lasseter, another behind-the-microphone featurette (where we get to see the voice actors for the English version at work), and Japanese trailers and storyboards (on the second disc, synched to the English and Japanese language tracks with no alternate angle feature). Not bad, but something a little more meaty (a making-of documentary) would make this even better. Also, while there are subtitles for the literal translation of the Japanese script, some of them tend to come off as a tad mistimed. It's not distracting enough to take away from the experience, but it is a bit of a nuisance. The menus are kinda iffy as well, in that you have to do a lot of configuring to play the Japanese credits.

Oh well, the real appeal is the movie, which earns my highest recommendation and more than makes up for an adequate, if not perfect, presentation on DVD.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12