O Castelo no Céu

A beautiful and moving anime, with all of Hayao Miyazaki's distinctive features. A beautiful girl, a fearless boy, gorgeous music, and plenty of ideas. (14/08/2006)

The individual elements are great – the music, the setting. I found the idea a bit strained, but not too bad. Just a Miyazaki fairy tale. All in all, though, I found it clanging. It didn’t exactly sit well with me. However, the ending and the credits immediately after it spread a beautiful peace in my soul – probably it was mostly due to the musical. A better 3 stars. But I will definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Miyazaki, or cartoons, or preferably both together. Edit: 26 Jan 2017 – saw it in the cinema after five and a half years... obviously I enjoyed it more than the first time, which is why I'm raising the rating. It was a lot of fun, reminded me a lot of Lupin with its lightness and running around. I might have given it 10-20 minutes less. But there's a lot hidden in there. At least this time around I saw a lot in it. (12/06/2011)

I don't think I've ever seen a film (live action or animated) so close to Karel Zeman's adaptations of Jules Verne. Already in the opening credits it’s full on fantasy; the design of the machines and the cities, the beautifully dreamy music, the surprisingly interesting characters and the various story twists that make sure, for example, that the bad guys aren't as bad as they first seemed. I can't say that the two-hour-plus running time flew by like nothing, but it's a good thing – if it had been shorter, or felt like it, it would have been a shame. (23/06/2023)

Miyazaki must have watched a lot of American action movies at the time, how else to explain all the action, gunfire, explosions and war-airships? No, this is just rich and inexhaustible imagination at work again, which can playfully and entertainingly accommodate anything from a fairy tale about a chosen girl to espionage with the army and secret agents. It's certainly not the pinnacle of Miyazaki's work, and the otherwise excellent script lacks a bit of the fantasy charm of Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but it's still one of his funniest and most audience-friendly stories. 85% (25/08/2013)

While Laputa: Castle in the Sky didn't wow me as much as Miyazaki's breathtaking "trilogy" (working title) Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke, it's still a highly above average animated film that stands tall in terms of quality. There is the typical Miyazaki motif of a girl/woman and a boy/man relationship, one of whom is not exactly an ordinary person. There are also some wonderful and elaborate scenes that are full of unbounded imagination. This time there is a certain visionaryism, with the conquest of a perfect place that seems at first sight unattainable. The film does not lack for a witty line, which is especially provided by the characters of the pirates, led by Dora. In short, another great cinematic experience, which is not unusual for Miyazaki, but practically a given. (02/04/2013)

At Laputa, it is a bit visible that the story twists in all directions just to achieve those important visual motifs, with the characters here generally a bit paper-thin. In the background, however, it portrays an interesting world of a land ravaged by a recent war, which has not yet been able to socially recover. In the views of a landscape overgrown with vegetation, we see overgrown giant craters from artillery attacks, the land is pierced with tunnels of abandoned, depleted mines, and the character of the cities, buildings, and infrastructure suggests that at one point there was a monstrous, rapid industrialization in the area, whose products were clearly taken elsewhere. The administrative bodies of the land clearly suggest that the military still rules here and no one cares about the abandoned communities of workers left to languish in abandoned industrial centers. Miyazaki, in this depiction, according to his words, was inspired by his visit to Wales during the miner strikes, when he observed impoverished communities of tough men and women without hope rising up against the arrogant, anonymous state machinery that had taken everything they ever understood. A bit bitter then, that in his work he can only offer them hope in the form of a flying castle, thanks to whose presence the ruling elite destroys itself in its contempt and arrogance. (11/04/2024)

Hayao Miyazaki is such a unique filmmaker that Castle in the Sky is not only still beautiful in its story but also in its animation, which hasn't aged much in 30 years. The film is still full of beautiful imagery and ideas that are unique. One wonders how Miyazaki could come up with so many beautiful works. (16/05/2017)