A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
- Awards
- 1 win
- Pazu
- (voice)
- Sheeta
- (voice)
- Dola
- (voice)
- Muska
- (voice)
- Uncle Pom
- (voice)
- Shogun Mouro
- (voice)
- Oyakata
- (voice)
- Okami
- (voice)
- Shalulu
- (voice)
- Lui
- (voice)
- Anli
- (voice)
- Old Engineer
- (voice)
- Chinese minion
- (voice)
- Egyptian minion
- (voice)
- (as Shinya Ohtaki)
Hayao Miyazaki's Magic Worlds
Hayao Miyazaki's Magic Worlds
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLaputa, the flying island, was a setting in Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726. Hayao Miyazaki says in interviews that he was unaware that "la puta" means "the whore" in Spanish. If he had known the translation, he would not have used it as a title. Swift, incidentally, is considered the inventor of "black comedy" and, as a well-educated man and satirist, very likely knew the meaning of the Spanish term (in the novel, the Gulliver character lists Spanish as one of the many languages he's fluent in).
- GoofsIn the punchout scene between Shalulu and Pazu's boss, there are instances where we don't hear any auditory reactions, much less punches, when the camera is showing long shots of the crowd in either the Japanese version or the Magnum-English dub. (Disney's version, predictably, adds in more walla and punching sounds for that scene.)
- Quotes
[when Pazu and Sheeta are preparing to launch in the kite]
Dola: Are you up there, Sheeta, my dear?
Sheeta: Yes.
Dola: Best ya come down right now!
Sheeta: But why?
Dola: Uh? 'Cause you're a GIRL! A FEMALE! That's MAN'S work!
Sheeta: But YOU'RE female, Captain! And I was born up in the mountains, I can do this.
Pazu: No, Sheeta!
Sheeta: Be quiet!
[to Dola]
Sheeta: And Pazu agrees with me!
[Dola laughs hysterically]
- Crazy creditsThe end credits show the remains of the castle Laputa floating on Earth's orbit.
- Alternate versionsAn English dub of this film was produced by the Walt Disney Company in 1999 (originally intended to be released that same year), but wasn't released on DVD until 2003. The English dub shortens the title to "Castle in the Sky," removing the word "Laputa," since it means "the whore" in Spanish. The voice cast includes James Van Der Beek, Anna Paquin, Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman, Mandy Patinkin, Andy Dick, and Michael McShane.
- ConnectionsEdited into Miyazaki Dreams of Flying (2017)
- SoundtracksKimi wo Nosete
(Carrying You)
(insert song)
Lyrics by Hayao Miyazaki
Music by Joe Hisaishi
Performed by Azumi Inoue (Tokuma Japan)
Hard to believe that this film is twenty years old and yet looks as fresh and is as engaging as anything else you will see today. The sheer visual style and imagination is quite breath-taking and I could not quite believe that this was made by Miyazaki only 7 years after the vastly inferior (but still OK) Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (or The Castle of Cagliostro as it was in the UK). As writer he has also done well to craft a story that is engaging and enjoyable. It struggles at times with the weight of coincidence needed to make the film move forward but the manner of delivery covers up these little problems by producing regular action and fun characters. The pace of the film is perfectly pitched and things move forward really well and I can't imagine an audience of children or adults will be bothered by the running time. The characters bring out nice relationships as well which adds value to the story but unfortunately points made late in the film about the environment and such are heavily made and clunky.
The voice cast in the English dub are mostly very good. Sadly the weakest link is Paquin, she sounds unnatural and a little wooden too often. She probably isn't that weak but she is shown up by an engagingly fresh and natural delivery from Van Der Beek not something I expected to be saying when I learnt he was doing the voice of Pazu. Just as good is Leachman's Dola blessed with a good character in the first place, her voice is spot on despite sounding a little like Mrs Skinner on the Simpsons. Hamill takes the bad guy role well and shows his experience at animation even if he is a little hammy at the odd point. Everyone works well together and they deliver their characters well to support the narrative and they match the impressive visuals well.
Overall this may not have the emotional depth of Spirited Away but it has strong characters and good relationships. These are grown within a engaging story told with pace and a good rate of action. Of course if none of this interests you then it is still worth seeing for Miyazaki's imagination and style, which is impressive and hard to believe that it is 20 years old this year.
- bob the moo
- Sep 2, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Laputa
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,300,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $523,664
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $197,172
- Nov 18, 2018
- Gross worldwide
- $6,218,229
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1