Review of Castle in the Sky

Laputa is notable among long-time anime fans as being the first official Studio Ghibli film made in 1986. This steampunk fantasy-adventure film focuses on our main pairing of Pazu and Sheeta seeking out the whereabouts of the mysterious land in the sky, Laputa, while evading both a gang of sky pirates and members of the military seeking Sheeta to guide them to Laputa for their own varying ends. With this plot, Laputa builds up its plot development around Sheeta's connection to the titular floating island and those concerned for her well-being getting dragged into the conflict. The movie's two hour length provides enough time to exploreits world, flesh out Sheeta's origins, and explore the motives of the sky pirates and military for desiring Sheeta. Pazu and Sheeta get fleshed out that explore their back story and get some development with both their relationship and growth throughout the span of the movie with their adventure. The sky pirates are also shown to have their redeemable traits when our pairing ally with them later in the film against Muska and the military. The movie is unique in that it is a rare Ghibli film to have a clear villain in the form of Muska, who is sadly not too intriguing as a character due to his typical manipulative and power-hungry character type. The ending is also somewhat of a letdown with its rather convenient resolution to the film's conflict.

Presentation-wise, Laputa sports great quality animation that still holds up remarkably well today in spite of being over 30 years old. The film sports gorgeous scenic shots and the typical character designs employed with Ghibli's animation style. There is consistent fluid movement depicted throughout the span of the movie, this impressively shown during many of Laputa's flight scenes involving airships, the flying devices of the air pirates, and the technology employed by the titular flying island. Musically, the film consists of mysterious, tense and dramatic tracks masterfully composed by Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi, as the tracks fit in seamlessly with all of Laputa's notable scenes.

Overall, Laputa made for an engaging fantasy-adventure film delving into the mystery surrounding the titular floating island and Sheeta's connection to it. It is a definite recommendation for fans of Studio Ghibli's works.