Title: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Blu-ray Edition)
Alternate Title: 天空の城ラピュタ
Published By: Madman Entertainment
Produced by: Studio Ghibli
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Runtime: 125 Minutes
Cost: $39.95
Classification: This title is classified G. This title is appropriate for people of all ages.
Blurb: “The original Studio Ghibli classic released in 1986, this classic anime movie has been remastered on one blu-ray disc. With the same Ghibli Quality storyline, it is sure to captivate people of all ages with a touching story and design which does not disappoint, even after all these years!”
Resource Copyright: © 1986 Nibariki – G
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to Madman Entertainment for providing me with a review sample of this title.
First off, I would like to state that there may be an odd inconsistency or two. Unlike my normal anime reviews, I do not have a blu-ray player built into my computer, so I am going off two pages of notes which I took whilst watching this series a second time. Whilst I believe it will be of a good standard, my apologies in advance for one or two errors.
Anyway, this is my first time watching Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I have been a long-time fan of Ghibli movies, however I havent had the chance to watch many of the earlier ones, with the ones I have watched including Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Grave of the Fireflies (Is there a more traumatizing movie?) and my oddly all time favourite Ghibli movie, The Cat Returns. Whilst I cannot make a comparison of the original releases to this blu-ray release, I can definitely say that the visual quality of the series is very good on a HD TV. Anyway, since I am here to review, read on for my review of the entirety of Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
The Search For The Legendary Floating Castle…
Pazu, an engineer’s apprentice finds a young girl, Sheeta floating down from the sky wearing a glowing pendant. Together they discover both are searching for the legendary floating castle Laputa and vow to unravel the mystery of the luminous crystal around her neck. Their quest won’t be easy however. There are air pirates, secret agents and astounding obstacles to keep them from the truth – and from each other.
The storyline surrounds two youth, Pazu, a mine worker who has been brought up hearing about his fathers ventures into exploring the mysterious castle only known as Laputa. He then finds the other protagonist, Sheeta, falling from the sky, saved by a pendant around her neck, after she was being escorted by some very suspicious men, who were attacked by pirates after for the one thing that was saving her life. Both of them undertake a journey escaping from the pirates and mysterious agent organisation, all who hold some link to Laputa.
The progression of the storyline is very good, and results in a movie that has a good introduction, content and conclusion within the appropriate timeframe. It also follows a rather basic plotline of Boy meets Girl, Girl Perused by Enemies, Boy Allies with Enemies Boy Saves Girl then both reach a conclusion. Despite this offering nothing unique in the basic outline area, it has a rather interesting storyline that takes the characters to several areas with different characters, a rather interesting backstory and many groups of people with them aiding, inhibiting or switching over to the protagonists. I will admit, I wasn’t even born at the time period this was released, so I cannot really comment on how this is in comparison to other movies of its times, but just looking at the storyline unveiled to us while watching this, it is evident to see how Studio Ghibli has remained a top rated animation studio for so long!
Looking at the character personalities and development, Pazu is your generic young protagonist full of dreams and not fearful of the “Baddies”. Sheeta on the other hand is a bit different from most female secondary protagonists. It is very often that the secondary female protagonists are rather quiet and shy and is rather hesitant (Not trying to stereotype but from my recent observations, it is a trait that is overused). Sheeta however, whilst initially coming across as all these things, starts off by knocking an stange man out and climbing out of the window of a flying train, and despite the “I don’t want to be a burden to others” trait, actually ends up as a rather interesting character.
Whilst not being a main character throughout the series, the pirate group, lead by Dola are most probably the more interesting characters, offering both comedic and heartwarming elements to her, and the teams personality. The antagonist of the series is Muska, a “secret agent” who had been sent to kidnap Sheeta and use her to unlock the secrets of Laputa. In terms of antagonists go in a movie from the 1980′s, there is no poison apple or anything in his arsenal, it is lies, bribery and heavy (ancient-technological) weapons in his arsenal….. and it makes him an interesting character, despite a real lack of backstory.
Overall however, the storyline is rather strong and there is a good set of characters on this series shoulders.
As I stated in the introductory blurb, I am unable to comment on the comparison between the DVD and Blu-ray copies of this movie, however I can say the movie turned out pretty damn well on my 50″ Full HD-TV. The design would not be up to the standard of say, other Ghibli movies made the century or even a fair few animes recently released, however the design quality is very solid. The characters have a sort of realistic feel to them, expressing realistic emotions 100% of the time and the lip-syncing and animation of them are solid. In terms of environment designs, it was well detailed, even for its time, with the environments being vibrant with nature or the little nooks and cranny’s that make an environment stick out. As you can see in most of the images above, they do have quite a liking for sky designs through, with a good portion of the events taking part in the sky.
In terms of music, there is nothing overly complex like we see today, however what is given is pretty much solid work, is suitably paced in the movie, nothing too loud or too soft and it adds, where appropriate, a bit more to the action that takes place, and believe it or not, there is a fair few air and land fights that take place. It is safe to say through, that if you are a fan of the musical elements of other Ghibli films, you will not be disappointed. Voice acting, unless I am mistaken, was undertaken by Disney for their initial North American release in 1998, therefore voice actors and actresses who are now popular are more or less absent from this movie. However, the voice acting talent of all the characters were pretty good and feature a number of prominent people in the film industry currently.
You like extra content? I know you do! Well fortunately the extended capacities of the Blu-ray disc allows quite a lot of bonus content… not as much as I had hoped for but still sufficiently enough.
- Storyboards
- Promo Video in Japanese (Including real life interviews)
- Behind the Microphone
- Textless Opening and Ending (Didn’t actually notice the OP and ED… funny that)
- Original Japanese Trailers
- Studio Ghibli Trailers – My Neighbours the Yamadas, Ponyo, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle
Personally, I love the thought that more and more anime is coming to blu-ray. With the cost of players coming down and down, it is definitely the best time for anime companies to get on board and release higher quality movies (Similar to the movie packs you can now buy with Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copies built in). This is a great sampler movie that shows how even with a movie of this age, that they can still improve the quality for our “Bigger is Better” lifestyle when it comes to televisions. It was an overall enjoyable watch, althrough not good enough to topple The Cat Returns off its perch. I hope that they will continue to release Blu-ray movies of Ghibli movies.
Final Score
Storyline: A
Character Development: A-
Design: A-
Music: B
Voice Acting: B+
Extra Content: B
Personal Opinion: A
Overall Score: A-
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