Much like Nausicaa, our story takes place centuries after some undefined apocalypse has swept the world clean of technology and mostly restored humanity to its roots with nature, although in this case it’s much more of a background detail. The world has recovered nicely since then, the memories of giant, flying civilizations that once filled the skies a long-forgotten legend by now. But then, a girl named Sheeta falls from the skies, carrying a mystical pendant that stops her fall. She quickly befriends a boy named Pazo, who has been dreaming of building an airship to find the mystical flying castle of Laputa ever since his father first glimpsed it in a storm cloud decades ago. As it turns out, Sheeta is the heir to Laputa’s throne many generations down, and her pendant holds the secret to finding the castle. Now, Pazu and Sheeta must escape from a band of rolicking sky pirates and a sinister military operation, both of whom desire Laputa for their own selfish purposes, to find the city for themselves and unravel the mystery of how it became lost in the first place.
It’s a very simple story, all things considered. You have the heroes, two sets of villains, a Maguffin everyone’s fighting over, and a place they’re all trying to get to. But unlike the highly textured, intricate complexity of Nausicaa, that simplicity is what makes Castle in the Sky such a rousing success. This is a kid’s adventure story through and through, lighthearted and goofy and full of millions of fun little details that make the world and characters come alive. The expressions are broad and silly, the action is fast-paced and often fairly loose with physics, the plot chugs along as comfortably as a well-lit steam train, and as a result, everything is about as instantly approachable and lovable as it could possibly be. The friendship/romance between the leads is the perfect sweet, puppy-love dynamic that reminds you of how easy it could be to connect with people at such a simple age. The villains are respectively the bumbling gang of eccentric, lovable idiots and the sinister, sneering jerkfaces who really deserve a couple punches to the face. The magic of Laputa that comes crashing into our heroes’ lives is the fantastical, kind of scary mystical power that makes their ordinary world suddenly feel so goddamn extraordinary. Castle in the Sky plays broad with its storytelling because it allows every single element to immediately tunnel its way into your psyche, aided by Miyazaki’s unsurprisingly fantastic sense of space and stunningly fluid character animation. It’s honestly kind of a masterwork of efficient storytelling in action; if you’re not completely on board by the time Sheeta accidentally body-slams Pazu into a heap of trash at the ten-minute mark, sending them both into fits of hysterics, then you must be one hell of a heartless bastard.
And the result of all this purposeful simplicity is, no joke, possibly the single most fun experience I’ve ever had watching anime. Seriously, I kind of struggle to put into words just how completely this movie worms its way into your heart with every exciting chase scene, every fantastic tableau, every time that wonderful score picks up in earnest. From the raucousness of watching two kids goof around while escaping from pirates to the quiet awe of listening to the stones speak underground, there is wonder and joy packed into every single frame. I marvel at the depictions of Laputa’s advanced technology that somehow feels closer to the earth than the actual groundbound civilization ever does. I gush at the beauty of the high-flying sequences that make you feel the wind racing through your own hair. And I ADORE the family of bumbling pirates; their camaraderie and constant background one-liners never ceased to leave me cackling in my seat. Special props must be given to the dub performers there, because they have the collective chemistry of an entire vaudeville sideshow every time they’re on screen. I don’t think there was a single moment where I wasn’t at least smiling watching it all unfold; it’s just so frigging magical! Everything just feels so perfectly calculated to break down your defenses and let the Miyazaki magic wash over you, and it left me spellbound from start to finish.
If I do have a criticism to make, it’s that the movie’s final act, once we finally get to Laputa and it’s time for the climax to occur, doesn’t feel quite as magical as the film that leads up to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the movie suddenly gets bad or anything, because it definitely doesn’t. And the very first scene once our heroes finally arrive at the castle, an explosion of childish glee followed by a haunting, contemplative exploration of the abandoned grounds, might genuinely be the best scene in the entire movie. But once the bad guys show up and try to enact their devious plan, I feel we get a little too bogged down in the drama of what is still, in the end, an uplifting fantasy adventure. It becomes more like something out of Nausicaa, in that way, dealing with weighty ideas touching upon WMDs, mass catastrophe, the persistence of technology, and the necessity of living with nature in a way that, up until that point, was doing just fine serving as subtext to the flight-of-fancy journey we were embarking upon. And it’s not even done poorly at all; it’s just a bit heavier than I think was necessary, considering how much goddamn fun I was having earlier. To put it another way, when Laputa is being Laputa, it’s nothing short of perfection. When Laputa is trying to be Nausicaa, I just wish I were watching Nausicaa.
Still, that’s a really minor nitpick, and it does nothing to erase the utterly blissful two hours I spent with this movie. Castle in the Sky excites and delights from start to finish, crafting an endlessly endearing tale of adventure, family, recovery, and tradition. It’s possibly the perfect kid’s adventure flick, and if you have any childish bones left in your body (and let’s face it, you’re anime fans, you have plenty), you owe it to yourself to give it a watch. Miyazaki’s magic really is something to behold.
