Castle in the Sky (1986)

English Dub Pales in Comparison

I was excited about this film at first but was quickly disappointed. For one they changed the title from Laputa to just Castle in the Sky. Laputa refers to the floating island in the classic tale of Gullivers Travels. Which I adore and had hoped Castle in the Sky would pay tribute to it.

I thought Pazu's voice was a bit old sounding for him and Anna Paquins voice dub just annoyed me. I would have enjoyed this film more if it weren't for the poor choice of voice actors.

The film is gorgeous and for its time it is remarkable. But I feel that it is best viewed in the original Japanese.

Castle in the Sky December 7, 2008

One of Miyazaki's more adventure-based films...

I love almost all of Miyazaki's works (with the exception of Porco Rosso), and Castle in the Sky is no different. Miyazaki's story-telling style tends to be rather slow-paced, which is fine, but I really enjoyed this movie for its faster, more energetic pacing. Almost immediately, the action starts, and it doesn't let up until the momentous climax.
The story itself is filled with entertaining fantasy elements- including sky pirates, princesses, and exciting chase scenes. Overall, the story is not too deep (there is some environmentalist themes in there), it is more of a adventure-driven tale. While watching this movie, I was repeatedly reminded of some of my favorite RPG games-- and that's a good thing. Castle in the Sky is also helped along with some very humorous parts (especially Dola), so it never got dull. I must also say that I enjoyed the English dub and found no problems with it. So, if you love whimsical fantasy tales, then this may be the film for you.

P.S.- While the movie is excellent, the dvd bonus features are rather lacking. This is unfortuneate, since bonus features are one of my favorite aspects of a dvd. The only thing included is a short sequence on the English voice actors (it's okay), a storyboard (who watches those anyway?), trailers (how I love watching ads), and an "introduction" by John Lasseter (what is the point of this?). As for that last part, I have no idea why Mr. Lasseter feels the need to spend five minutes telling us how great the movie will be. He does this on every Miyazaki film (seriously, can they really ALL be his favorite one?!). Well, anyway, I would've liked to have a nice making-of feature, but don't let the dvd ruin your enjoyment of this great film. September 10, 2008

Not A Children's Movie

Apparently most, if not all the reviewers, did not mind subjecting their children to a very violent movie. I do not care what artistic wonder this film may be, it is definitly not a movie for children under 8 or 9 years of age. August 18, 2008

Totally cool.

This movie took me a few watches to get to like, but ended up really liking it. August 17, 2008

terrible voice acting

the voice acting was atrocious, from top to bottom with the exception of mark hamil. unbelievable voicing, it really hurt the film to have this constant feeling that "Yes I'm reading my lines from a page, and I do every line the exact same because I am a terrible actor."

It's a great film, but the voicings ruined it for me. It probably wont make much difference to kids, though, so this film gets the 5 stars, they won't notice how terrible all the voice actors are. July 13, 2008

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