1986 - CASTLE IN THE SKY aka LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY

Hayao Miyazaki temporarily abandons his themes of mankind's interaction with nature and children adapting to life in a complicated world in favor of this action packed fantasy adventure.

 Our hero Pazu,  is a young boy working in a coal mine.  One night he finds a strange girl named Sheta literally drifting through the sky while wearing a magic crystal.  The two young people team up to learn more about Steta's past life and the magic crystal.  This story features a series of amazing action set pieces that rival and at times surpass about anything that can be found in American action films.  The staging and animation are incredibly exciting throughout the film.

This is sort of a change of pace film for Miyazaki who would write and direct more contemplative films later in his career like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Ponyo on the Cliff.  Castle In The Sky is actually kind of a throwback to an earlier fllm of his, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro which I believe was his first major feature film and also featured a number of exciting action scenes.  In many ways Castle In The Sky has much in common with The Castle of Cagliostro.

 

Disney had cut a deal with Miazaki's home studio Gibli and reworked the  soundtrack replacing the original Japanese voice talent with American actors.  Anna Paquin is now Sheta, James Van Der Beek is Pazu.  Cloris Leachman is the leader of a group of flying pirates and Mark Hamill is the chief villain named Muska.  Disney was fairly careful creating the re-dubbed soundtrack even though at times it's a little jarring to hear American voices come out of Japanese characters.  Still for the most part it works fairly well.

 

Along with the stunning action scenes one has to point out the animation background design with it's  airships, floating islands and giant robots.  Visually this film is also a real treat to look at.  A stunning film.

The film was written by Hayao Miyazaki,  the running time is 124 minutes.