In case you are unaware, the story of Nadia and its titular heroine goes like this: a girl wearing a mysterious pendant is being pursued by people, including a secret organization, because of the pendant's power. Somehow, it is connected the mythical lost land of Atlantis. Nadia spends most of her time running with a boy, whom happens to be an inventor, in an attempt to evade her pursuers.
And in case you are curious why this is at all relevant: if you were to replace the above with Laputa, you would have close to the same basic plot blurb. I actually prefer Nadia because of the additional Anno (director/creator of psychological trauma series Evangelion) characterisation and far more relatable characters. Miyazaki's characters mostly tend to feel very... hollow to me. The magic of adventure typically mask the failings of his characters. I honestly can not even recall the names of Laputa's lead duo!
Laputa's first half was far from amazing. A girl falls from the sky, gets found by a boy, they bond WAAAAY too quickly and end up running away together. The girl then gets captured and the boy saves her... that pretty much sums it up. It was predictable and I was left unable able to connect with either of them because of the lack of development; the focus being almost entirely on running away from people in impressively animated sequences. This is where being a movie instead of a TV series really hurt the narrative.
The second half was much improved, thankfully. The duo join a pirate ship and, for a short period, the focus switches to the smaller picture for some downtime. Then, the story finally reaches the titular castle in the sky. This reminded me the themes of adventure and exploration seen during my younger days in PS1 JRPG Grandia, where a young adventurer sets off on a journey in order to reach Alent--a place of legend no-one knows if is real. It was not quite as exciting reaching the castle in the sky in Laputa because it had not taken much time or effort for the to reach it (at least not when compared to longer works), but it did make me feel kind of nostalgic and immersed me in the world more.
With the castle in the sky's reveal, the story became much more interesting and difficult to predict. There was still the same running away and chasing loop that had gone before, but the new and unknown setting made it come across in a different light. Where as I had been able to take breaks earlier because of a lack of interest, my eyes were now glued to the screen. And, while some of what occurred at the end was a tad too convenient (the placement of a ship, for example), it did leave me satisfied overall. It would have been nice if an epilogue had been added in after the credits, mind you.
In summary: Laputa is definitely a classic worthy of its praise, complete with Ghibli's trademark art-style and enough visual splendor to compensate for many of its failings. I would not go so far as to call it perfect due to me being unable to connect with the lead duo due to a serious lack of time spent on development, and the first half was rather boring side at times. However, it is hard to deny that Laputa is a charming film that has aged well, both in terms of the visuals and story.
If you are a fan of adventure stories, you should definitely watch it at least once.
