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Castle in the Sky Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Animated, Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 125 minutes Studio: Walt Disney Home Video Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "Another Great Miyazaki Masterpiece"Castle is actually not my favorite Miyazaki movie. I prefer Kiki's, Totoro and Spirited Away over Castle. Castle has a bit too much chasing around and explosions for my taste. Aside from that small caveat, this is a wonderful movie. The animation is gorgeously detailed & the story is sweet and interesting. A smart, gentle, nuanced story about friendship and discovery. I love the way Miyazaki and his people refuse to treat children as dumb and easily amused. Every Miyazaki movie is worth watching and some are almost magic. "Another Miyazaki masterpiece"Castle in the sky is a heartwarming, adventure filled story with two kids who journey to a floating castle that holds enough power to rule the Earth. In the story, a young girl named Sheeta, who is the heir to the throne of Laputa, the floating castle, befriends a young adventurer and pilot's son named Pazu. The two go to the floating castle which is both ancient in it's architecture and advanced in it's weapons. Together the two escape and befriend pirates and discover the hidden secrets of the floating island. This is a classic if you like the work of Miyazaki or if you liked spirirted away. Again Miyazaki uses his creative touch to send us to a world of floatin castles and ships, and even some robots. This is a good film to watch for all ages! "Fantastic high-flying adventure from Hayao Miyazaki."CASTLE IN THE SKY is Hayao Miyazaki's third film, and it's one of his most beloved of all time. This is not to say, however, that it was one of his greatest hits. It was actually a box-office disappointment in its initial 1986 release, but has since been embraced by critics and audiences around the world. Inspired by the works of Jules Verne and "Gulliver's Travels", the story centers on two young orphans -- young miner Pazu, and mysterious girl Sheeta (who wears a magic crystal around her neck) -- who team up to find the long-lost island of Laputa, which is rumored to have great riches and gems. They are aided by a band of bumbling yet sympathetic air pirates led by the feisty Dola (who at first chase them, yet turn out to be true allies) and pursued by the government headed by its villainous topmost-secret agent, Muska, who wants the power of Laputa for his own benefit. Miyazaki didn't know it, but "Laputa" is an offensive term in Spanish, which is why the film was retitled (for its US release anyway) from LAPUTA: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY to just CASTLE IN THE SKY. This does nothing to detract from the overall film itself, which is a marvelous animated achievement. The artwork, although not as spectacular as in some of Miyazaki's later movies, is fantastic and gorgeous enough to watch with imaginative characters and locations, incredibly exciting action scenes, and breathtaking flight sequences that will make one feel giddy. The characters may not be as interesting or well-polished as in Miyazaki's later movies, either, but all in all, this cast more than gets the job done for an action-adventure that, even running at two hours, never once gets dull. On a side note, a 1989 Anime series called NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER bears many similarities to CASTLE IN THE SKY . Both films share similar ideas and, even more interestingly, were conceived by Miyazaki himself! NADIA originally started out as an idea for a TV series involving two orphans who meet Captain Nemo and the Nautilus while being chased by bad guys, but angst-ridden Hideaki Anno later tackled Miyazaki's idea. However, some elements of Miyazaki's original idea found its way into some of his later projects. CASTLE IN THE SKY was one of them. It is easy to compare this film to the popular TV show. Unlike NADIA, however, CASTLE IN THE SKY is shorter, its heroine (thankfully) is more sweet-tempered, and there are none of the stupid, extraneous sequences that almost sank the otherwise entertaining 39-part TV series. Critics and Anime purists seem to be split about the Disney dub (originally planned for release in 1999, with a star-powered cast and rerecorded score by Joe Hisaishi performed by the SEATTLEMUSIC Orchestra, 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 (which is now obscure). 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. Yes, James Van Der Beek's Pazu sounds significantly more mature than his Japanese counterpart, and Anna Paquin as Sheeta speaks with a somewhat inconsistent Aussie/New Zealand accent (this "problem" actually works in favor of her character), but both do competent jobs overall in terms of chemistry and believability. Cloris Leachman sounds like she is having a great time as Dola and her three boys, played by burly Michael McShane, as well as Mandy Patinkin and Andy Dick, offer some of the best lines, even if they were ad-libbed ala Phil Hartman's Jiji. Tying with Leachman for the best performance in the dub is Mark Hamill as Muska; his performance gives the original Japanese actor a run for his money. I didn't recognize him one bit. He is superbly cultured, sounding suitably cold and manipulative when he is talking normally to either the General or Sheeta, and hysterically insane by the climactic scenes. And what a chilling laugh he has! In addition, the rescored music is both gorgeous and breathtaking (even the scenes which were silent before sound more enhanced by the more fuller-sounding score), and the script, although loose at times--loaded with extra lines and/or commentary (used mainly to flesh out the characters and the story)--remains faithful in spirit to the original. Say what you will about "Disneyfied" this English version is, but the following facts remain: 1) this is a high-quality dub on its own terms, 2) nothing was done without Miyazaki's permission, and 3) not even one second from this film is cut. (It should also be known that the original Japanese track is on the DVD, complete with its original, unaltered score, so relax, purists.) 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. The 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, a behind-the-microphone featurette, and Japanese trailers and storyboards. Not bad, but something a little more meaty (a making-of documentary) would make this even better. 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. "Technology and Nature merge in Laputa"Monday, June 13, 2005 / 5 of 5 / Technology and Nature merge in Laputa Following Nausicaa I hit Castle in the Sky. Miyazaki's ability to craft sweeping new-world epics amazes me. Each film meticulously creates an entire mythos around it. Here a young girl [another in a long line of heroines] struggles with her heritage as the descendent of an incredible war machine from an earlier time, the flying castle of Laputa. Along the way in an attempt to escape from her various pursuers she connects with a young boy and they join up with a good hearted collection of pirates. The chase scenes and flying effects are again top notch. Sheeta is a bit more passive than Nausicaa, but one can see the progression between movies of the heroine archetype as it heads towards Mononoke. I loved the interaction of nature and technology once they reached Laputa and the robots who could be so destructive tended the gardens with loving care. The battle with the Goliath airship was stunning in its speed and ferocity. Yet another home run. Highly recommended.  "Disney has utterly destroyed a wonderful film."I first saw Castle in the Sky in the original Japanese while living in Japan in the early 90s. I was instantly captivated. The characters were engaging and immediately likeable, the cliffhanging action was fantastic, the plot was original and rather gripping, and the music was just absolutely gorgeous. If I were rating the original film (titled "Tenku no Shiro: Laputa"), I would readily give it five stars. Miyazaki is easily one of the most original and watchable animators in the business. That said, this is an atrocious rendition for American audiences. Overall, the voicecasting isn't too shabby. However, the actor playing the main character - the adventurous boy Pazu - is just plain awful. Not only does he sound more like a 28 year old than a 13 year old, but he has two voice settings: loud and soft, and absolutely no nuance in between. Listening to him is a rather teeth-grinding experience. The translation of the dialogue from the original Japanese is pretty wretched. A lot of the original meaning was simply discarded and replaced by Disney. The lines of the air-pirate sidekicks were completely altered and not for the better. By the end of the movie, their constant stream of inane babble will have you wishing someone would just jettison the entire airship crew at high altitude. Overall, the dialogue of most of the supporting characters shows extremely poor scriptwriting. For some odd reason, Disney decided to mute most of the sound effects in this movie. The ominous whirr of massive propellers, the sudden crash of explosive shells, the crisp sound of gun shots. All of it was toned down and muted-out by Disney. This detracts significantly from the excitement of the chases, the thrill of flying, and the incredible cliffhanging moments that made the original movie so much fun. Imagine the most recent summer action movie with the sound effects turned off and you'll get a pretty accurate picture of what Disney has done to Castle in the Sky. This is truly unfortunate since the original movie had some great sound-effects work. The worst crime of all however, is what Disney has done to the soundtrack. The original Japanese film had one of the most spectacular, haunting and beautiful soundtracks I've heard in any movie. Disney completely removed this soundtrack and replaced it with their own rendition. Hints of the old score come through at times, but it is heavily watered-down and sounds almost elevator-musicish. I almost cried when I heard it. The end result is a movie that little resembles the original film. Dramatic moments of silence are filled in with pointless dialogue, the savage howl of the wind replaced with bland instrumentals, piercing gunshots are replaced with something sounding suspiciously like a child's cap-gun, wonderful dialogue is completely butchered. It leaves one with a sneaky suspicion that Disney deliberately vandalized the film to protect its monopoly on the American animation market by making Japanese films look as bad as possible. It is quite possible I'll never forgive Disney for this disgrace of an adaptation. On the other hand, the Japanese language option (with subtitles) retains the original film in all its glory. For that reason alone, this DVD is definitely worth buying. But please, PLEASE, watch the Japanese version before subjecting yourself to the horrible English-language version. Even if you hate subtitles, this film is worth watching in Japanese. Everyone I've shown it to, both young and old, has been instantly captivated. Like I said, if I were rating only the Japanese-language version, this review would have been five stars. But the English-language monstrosity thoroughly deserves a one-star rating. On balance, I can't give this DVD more than 3 stars for an American audience. This is probably the biggest disappointment I've had with films since George Lucas inflicted Jar Jar Binks on millions of unsuspecting Star Wars fans. Consider yourself warned. |
