SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
A true steampunk epic, Castle in the Sky’s charming characters, extraordinary visuals and energetic action sequences make it one of animation’s greatest adventures.
Studio Ghibli is well known around the world for its many films, but to my mind, none of them capture the studio’s ethos and imaginative power like their very first film Castle in the Sky. Since its release in 1986, its influence can be seen in film culture both in Japan and beyond, with no shortage of animators, writers and artists of all stripes lining up to take little bits from a film that essentially serves as a Scrooge McDuck style vault for the imagination. After all, much like its eponymous city in the sky, it has plenty of spectacular stuff for the taking. For all its charm and wonder, and the extraordinary scope of its adventure, it appeals most to kids and the kids inside all of us adults. To watch Castle in the Sky is to have a rich childhood fantasy and longing for adventure fulfilled vicariously, in a way that goes beyond simple appeals to nostalgia.
Set in a late-19th Century steampunk universe of rustic mining towns and airships, we follow along with the young boy Pazu, whose life is changed forever when he rescues Sheeta, a mysterious girl who literally drops from the sky one evening. Sheeta, who possesses a magical crystal, is being pursued by sky pirates, the army and government secret agents, all of whom believe the crystal is capable of pointing the way to Laputa, a mythical floating city once home to a lost civilisation. The pirates, led by the wickedly funny Dola, are in pursuit of the fabled city’s bounty of treasure and riches while the army, led by the menacing government agent Muska, have sinister designs for its wealth of lost technologies. Sheeta and Pazu find themselves caught in between, hoping to solve the mystery that links Sheeta to Laputa.
The cinematography is extraordinary, whether you consider it from the perspective of animation or for film in general. In the director’s chair, Miyazaki has an impeccable sense of dramatic timing which he uses to maximise the excitement and exhilaration in all of the film’s action sequences. The film has a chaotic energy to it, channelling the light-hearted visual comedy of the Indiana Jones films, or perhaps going even further back and taking inspiration from the likes of Looney Toons and classic Tom and Jerry. It coexists wonderfully with the rich world that the film creates: a world of rustic mining towns apparently inspired by Miyazaki’s visits to Wales, coal-fired trains and dozens of flying machines that neatly straddle the realistic and the fantastical. Though it has moments of seriousness, those are never undercut by the film’s sense of infectious optimism and positivity. During one of the film’s best sequences, we see Sheeta protected by a wordless Laputan robot atop a slowly crumbling tower as it buckles under the fire of a military airship, only to see her rescued by Pazu, who zips in aboard a tiny one-man flying machine to snatch her upside down from the flames just in the nick of time. I wanted to cheer. It’s just one of the many moments where the film perfectly captures sorrow, anger, joy and triumph all within mere minutes of one another.
The quality of the worldbuilding and design is evident in every shot and sequence. A street punch-up between the miners and the pirates keys you into their strong sense of community pride and camaraderie while in its many aerial sequences, the film soars. The sky becomes a gloomy ocean into which airships sink into like submarines plumbing the depths while steampunk flying machines dart through wisps of water vapour as the wind howls beside them. Meanwhile Joe Hasashi’s orchestral score rolls on, capturing the ecstatic beauty of this world, drumming up excitement for new sequences and accentuating the striking loneliness of a moss-covered robot handing a freshly picked flower to a little girl. The difference with films like Nausicaä is evident; while Castle of the Sky makes no obvious allegory, it hardly suffers for it. This is adventure for adventure’s sake and there’s something undeniably wonderful about it. Its villains are gloriously uncomplicated, its kid heroes fantastically brave and its side characters wickedly hilarious.
The way it taps into such a rich vein of imagination and creates sheer childhood joy makes this film a rarity. Though, what else would you expect from Studio Ghibli? This is precisely what they specialise in, delivered in its purest, most unadulterated form.
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