As an animation fan one should be familiar with the work of the great Japanese guru of anime, Hayao Miyazaki. I, personally, am beginning to discover more and more of his amazing genius by seeing his old movies. The great thing about Miyazaki is that he is a director who still personally checks and redraws (if necessary) almost every frame of his movies. His old titles are still a bit hard to find in good (and legal) copies, but Buena Vista, Disney’s distributor, has been releasing old Miyazaki titles and more are planned for the future (including Nausica’ of the Valley of the Winds and My Neighbor Totoro). It is amazing to see the development of the Tokyo-based Ghibli studio throughout the years and, after I had watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky, I had to pick up my lower jaw because this is unlike anything Disney has achieved in the past ten years or more.

Castle in the Sky deals with the story of a young girl, named Sheeta, who is a descendant of an ancient royal bloodline who once reigned over the kingdom of Laputa, a floating island hidden in the clouds. She carries a magical crystal with secret powers and while being chased by a gang of crooks who are after both it and the treasure hidden on Laputa, she encounters the young orphan boy, Pazu. Pazu grew up with the stories of his late father, who once photographed Laputa (which everyone believed he had faked). Together, Pazu and Sheeta decide to look for the magical island ‘ and are helped in their quest by a gang of air pirates, led by Ma Dola.

Castle in the Sky encaptures all those wonderful elements that make a great Miyazaki anime. Miyazaki almost always uses air and the concept of flying in his productions and this film is the ultimate in the use of flying objects, airplanes and clouds. The way the entire movie is depicted is breathtaking ‘ especially when Pazu and Sheeta have found the floating island of Laputa. And it is very clear that a lot of contemporary animations have stolen (or at least borrowed) from this Miyazaki classic: the island of Atlantis in Disney’s Atlantis: the Lost Empire was clearly derived from the artwork of Castle in the Sky.

What’s more, the story is very rich, has a few plot changes and intriguing characters that actually undergo development. Castle in the Sky teaches us a wise ‘ but not Disneyesque ‘ moral about the relationship between nature and technology. The robots shown in the movie are friends of nature and their design is extremely clever and graceful. This movie as whole is the perfect example of Miyazaki’s philosophy: animation is not a goal, it is a means to tell his stories.