I will be the first to admit that I'm not an anime superfan. Although I rank Studio Ghibli films Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Totoro as some of my favorite films of all time, I found the studio's Princess Monoke to be a dreadful bore. I rank Castle in the Sky somewhere in between.

I have found that I mostly like the way relationships and realistic situations are portrayed in Studio Ghibli films. Fireflies and Kiki's were incredible films for their realistically complex depiction of children. Castle certainly delivers in this regard as its depiction of the two main children heroes of the film are very nicely nuanced and emotionally complex.

The film follows the path of two children who meet my chance but are both bound to the same fate – finding the legendary floating city of Laputa. They are forced to head on their quest because both pirates and the government are trying to kidnap the girl and her crystal necklace that seems to have magic powers.

The world in which the action takes place is a wonderfully realized fantasy world where flight is possible, but only on rickety steam powered aircraft and souped up zeppelins. I love alternate realities like this and would classify the world setting of the film to be one of the greatest elements of the film.

In addition to the fully realized world and the excellent child characters, the pirates are a fun bunch of characters who delighted me with their behavior on screen. The head of the pirates is a haggard old woman who ends up having some really nice quiet scenes with the children.

Unfortunately, the story itself paled considerably to the other Studio Ghibli films I have grown to love. This story felt like a long drawn out Saturday morning TV show. It was basically a long series of chases featuring loud explosions, weapons and comic sidekicks slipping and falling. I find this type of animated action to be quite tiresome and by the end of the film I was definitely ready for the action to be over and done with.

Whereas other films by this studio seem to have really treasured the power of quiet understated moments, this film seemed to revel in taking every situation to an extreme level. When there is a car chase that goes over a railway bridge, for example, the comically animated pirate car jiggles around in an exaggerated manner destroying the tracks as it passes over them. It was unrealistic, loud and for me served as a distraction more than anything else.

I know it is somewhat ludicrous to complain about lack of realism in a cartoon, but I guess what I liked so much about this director's other efforts was that he seemed to maintain a strong sense of realism in the face of fantasy. This film just went too far in the direction of fantasy for my taste.

As for the English language dub of the film, I turned it off after about 10 minutes and watched the film in its original Japanese with English subtitles. This is a vastly superior way to experience the film. English language voice actors, for some reason, try to fill every moment of silence with some sort of wisecrack or stupid explanatory bit of dialog. Upon listening to the Japanese track, you will notice that there are many quiet moments in the film where the visuals alone are left to tell the story. Unfortunately for this film, the subtitles seem to be based on what the English dub is saying. So the film is filled with moments when the Japanese language track is saying nothing, but the subtitles are appearing with some totally pointless dialog. Although slightly distracting, I have to take off points from the DVD for not having created a better, more direct translation of the Japanese language track.

Overall, a nice film, but nowhere near as good a film as this studio and Director's other films. While I still recommend the film, I can't say that this film featured the same magic of the studio's other releases.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older