Castle in the Sky

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Template:Infobox Film Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Template:Lang Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta), or Castle in the Sky in the United States, is a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

1 Characters
2 Setting
3 Plot
4 Differences between English and Japanese Versions
5 Trivia
6 Credits
- 6.1 Cast
- 6.2 Awards
7 External links

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Characters

Sheeta a young girl, the heroine of this story, and possessor of a mysterious levitating stone called a "Volucite crystal". In some sources her name is also spelled 'Cita'.
Pazu a boy around the same age as Sheeta, who serves as an apprentice to a boiler mechanic and helps Sheeta throughout the story.
Colonel Muska a mysterious man, apparently working for some intelligence agency of the government as a secret agent.
Dola (Sometimes considered to be Dora), a stern but motherly head of a small band of pirates which consists of an old friend of hers (affectionately called 'uncle' by the crew), her three sons and several other crewmembers.
General (in Japanese called "Kafka") commander of the armed forces searching for Laputa. Bad-tempered and stubborn, he is constantly at odds with Muska.

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Setting

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The world in which the story takes place is clearly Earth, but apparently in a parallel universe, or possibly an alternate history. None of the place names matches real-life geography, and all of the aircraft (except one or two primitive airships) use different technology from real 20th century aircraft. Some of the architecture seen in the film could belong to an English or Welsh mining town, but is surrounded by landscapes remenisent of rural Ireland. Running through the landscape are railroad tracks set on high wooden trestle bridges, more reminiscent of early railway bridges in the Rocky Mountains, and there are armored military trains that also have no comparison in our world. The overall level of technology seems to be the equivalent of our own world in the 1920s, with telephones, steam engines, and radio using something like morse code.

On the military side, the uniforms seemed to have been inspired almost to the point of direct copy from German World War I uniforms, complete with its spiked pickelhaube, while the weaponry is basically British, including Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles, Webley revolvers, and Vickers water-cooled machine guns.

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Plot

The film's introductory scenes show what is intended to be retrospectively interpreted as the historical foundation to the legend of the ancient flying cities. The skies are initially filled with such city-fortresses, which are later shown disgorging streams of humanity into the world, having come crashing to earth, apparently after a series of meteorological disasters. This suggests that the people of Laputa are the founders of the film's contemporary civilization, who willingly abandoned their violent history and dependence on advanced technology. The film seems to be loosely based on the world of Gulliver's Travels.

One of the fortresses, Laputa, is said to still exist, propelling itself through the sky concealed within the swirling clouds of a violent hurricane. While most people consider Laputa to be a myth, some, like Pazu, believe it to have a basis in reality; Pazu's deceased father once caught sight of Laputa, and even managed to take a photograph of it when his airship was caught in a storm. However, even with this evidence he was ridiculed, contributing to his untimely death.

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One night, Pazu, who is employed as an engineer's assistant in a mine, witnesses a young unconscious girl floating to earth from out of the sky. The girl, Sheeta, has in fact fallen from an airship in which she was being transported under guard by a sinister group of government secret agents headed by Colonel Muska, her plunge being precipitated by an attack on the airship by a family of pirates headed by an aged yet charismatic woman named Dola. Both the pirates and Muska appear to be motivated by a desire to control the strange blue crystal Sheeta wears as a pendant, and which seems to possess levitational powers.

Her pursuers soon trace Sheeta to Pazu's village, and the children are forced to escape by train. About to be captured, they fall from a collapsing rail trestle bridge and are saved from certain death when Sheeta's crystal spontaneously activates, allowing them to float safely into an abandoned mine below the town. There they meet an old miner known as Uncle Pomme who reveals to them that the crystal is made of "Volucite" (called "aetherium" in Disney's English language dub) which was used to power Laputa, and that it is one of the largest such crystals in existence. Pomme counsels Sheeta to remember that the crystal's power rightly belongs to the earth, and that she should never use it to commit acts of violence.

Believing that their pursuers have abandoned the search, Sheeta and Pazu emerge from the mine, and Sheeta admits to having an ancient "secret name" passed down through her family - Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa (Ul means ruler in Laputan, Toel means True) - which includes the word "Laputa". This establishes a direct link between Sheeta, the crystal, and the floating city. She also reveals that after being orphaned she had lived alone on a remote farm in the north of the country until government agents under Muska had come one day to abduct her. Shortly afterwards the children—who have in fact been under aerial observation—find themselves surrounded and are captured by Muska's troops. They are taken to a huge seaside fortress where they are separated—Pazu confined in a subterranean cell, and Sheeta locked away high in a tower.

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In discussions between the general in command of the fortress and Muska it becomes clear that the government is sponsoring a concerted search for Laputa, and that Sheeta and her crystal are believed to be the keys to its discovery. Muska attempts to gain Sheeta's trust and co-operation by showing her the remains of a giant Laputan robot that are kept in a locked room beneath the fortress. He tells her of how in plunging from the sky the robot proved that Laputa's existence was not a myth, and that the advanced technology it represents could become a threat to world peace if left uncontrolled. He shows her that a winged symbol on the robot's casing is identical to the one inscribed onto her crystal. He also intimates that unless she co-operates with him in unlocking the crystal's secrets—which he believes can be used to physically locate Laputa— Pazu is likely to come to harm.

Seeking to protect her friend, Sheeta confronts Pazu, telling him that she has agreed to co-operate with Muska and the government, and asking him to return home and forget he ever knew of her and Laputa. Muska pays him three gold coins to "reward" his efforts in "protecting" Sheeta and returning her to him—an allusion to the Biblical betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Stung by this apparent rejection an angry and confused Pazu returns to his village, only to find Dola's pirate family occupying his home, feasting.

An angry exchange between Pazu (who has been quickly restrained) and Dola ensues, and the chief pirate accuses the boy of betraying his friend for money, and after learning the whole thing she, apart from guessing that Sheeta will probably be killed once the location of Laputa has been revealed, scolds at Pazu for his ignorance of not knowing Sheeta has saved him from being harmed. Pazu recognizes this, and when the pirates decode a government radio transmission revealing that the following morning Sheeta, Muska, and the general are to depart the fortress in search of Laputa aboard the gigantic military airship Goliath, he begs Dola to let him accompany her. Dola looks into his sincere eyes and agrees, reasoning that Pazu's presence will make it easier for her to capture Sheeta and the crystal, but also warns him at the same time that he may never come back to his home again. In no time they are heading for the fortress in the flaptors.

Meanwhile, Sheeta is in despair over her situation, and recalls a spell taught to her as a child by her grandmother that is to be used in times of peril. She recites the spell and the crystal immediately bursts into life, filling the room with rays of blue energy. Simultaneously, in the basement of the fortress, the Laputan robot reactivates. It proceeds to protect Sheeta from the antagonists, firing lasers from its eyes to eliminate anyone and anything interfering. Sheeta, seeing the massive damage it has induced, is shocked and tries to block its eyes to stop it from keep on firing. At that moment Pazu has arrived with Dola, but they cannnot reach her and instead the wing of the flaptor hit the wall. Sheeta tries to get closer to them but the robot catches her. However it merely puts her on the edge of the wall, meaning that it is on the contrary helping her to leave. Not long before Sheeta understands this the robot is destroyed by cannon fire from Goliath. Pazu and the Dola pirates pull up high to evade the fire and Dola is knocked unconscious by a broken piece of brick from the fortress. Just before they are falling into the sea Pazu grabs the control and levels the flaptor, while Dola gains conscious afterwards and pulls the flaptor up before crashing to the cliff. In a last try, Dola pilots the flaptor towards Sheeta and Pazu hangs up-side-down and grabs her in perfect timing. Together they fly off. But during the battle, Sheeta has lost her crytal pendant which is found by Muska; he uses it to track Laputa aboard the Goliath.

Considering them worthless for their search, Dola prepares to drop Sheeta and Pazu off at the mining town, but the children manage to persuade her to take them on the search for Laputa. Aboard the Dola's airship, the Tiger Moth, they pursue the Goliath, with Sheeta serving in the kitchen and Pazu working as a mechanic and lookout. After a day's search, they encounter a huge cloud mass - a 'dragon's nest' - and Pazu recognizes it from his father's descriptions as the place where Laputa is located. Trying to find a way in, the Tiger Moth is buffeted by the hurricane winds which form the cloud, and on top of that they are spotted by the Goliath and taken under fire. The crow's nest glider Sheeta and Pazu are in at the time is separated from the pirate ship, and after a hazardous ride through the hurricane they reach the flying city of Laputa.

The children awake to find the city devoid of human life, only a robot - similar to the one in the army fortress - and animals and birds occupying it. They also find a huge greenhouse with a gargantuan tree, whose roots have pervaded all of Laputa's base - which is largely formed by a huge black metallic sphere - and whose crown forms a huge green roof over the palace.

The serenity of the place is rudely disturbed by the soldiers, who have reached the island safely thanks to Sheeta's pendant and now begin to plunder the city of its riches. The Dola pirates are also present, alive but as prisoners. As they attempt to free them, Sheeta witnesses Muska and two of his men locating for an entrance to the black sphere and is subsequently captured. Pazu manages to evade his alerted pursuers and free the pirates.

Sheeta, with her hands bound, is taken by Muska into Laputa's core: a chamber with a large crystal hovering in it, the power source of Laputa. From there, Muska machinates his take-over of Laputa's formidable arsenal. Here the film directly links the Laputan civilization to Judeo-Christian and Hindu texts: when Muska demonstrates the immense destructive power of the floating fortress (which is presumed to be nuclear), he asserts that it was the basis of the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Vedic weapon "Indra's Arrow". He then murders the soldiers in cold blood, but his other plans are dashed by Sheeta, who has managed to get free and regains the crystal. She runs through the ruins, with Muska in pursuit.

Meanwhile, after many difficulties, Pazu finds a way into the sphere. He briefly manages to get in contact with Sheeta, who passes the crystal to him.

Finally, Sheeta is cornered by Muska in the city's throne room. Pazu arrives just in time to prevent him from shooting the girl, and together they cite the spell of destruction which blows up the pendant and drives the core crystal from its chamber, triggering the collapse of the metal sphere. Sheeta and Pazu escape death when they are hurled into the giant tree's roots by the power they release, but Muska, blinded by the resulting flash, is trapped in the sphere and eventually falls to his doom. Freed of the sphere's weight, the island begins to rise higher, prevented from falling apart by the tree roots.

Sheeta and Pazu finally awake and manage to get back to the glider, which they use to depart Laputa. They are met by the Dola pirates who had managed to escape the collapse by their flaptors and get their hands on at least some of Laputa's treasures. After having reached the coast and a cordial farewell, the companions part ways in the beautiful sunset sky.

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Differences between English and Japanese Versions

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Although the plot and much of the script was left intact, Disney's English dub of LAPUTA: Castle in the Sky contains some changes.

Examples of these include the addition of a significant quantity of 'background chatter' and comical one liners (similar to Disney's dub of Kiki's Delivery Service), and the extension of the musical score to cover sections of the film which previously had no score. (The latter was done, as mentioned below, by the original composer, Joe Hisaishi.)

Pazu and Sheeta, as portrayed by James Van Der Beek and Anna Paquin, are made to sound as though they are in their mid-teens, rather than their pre-teens. (Ironically, both parts in the original Japanese version were voiced by women who could raise their pitch significantly higher to sound like children.)

The Japanese version makes references to Gulliver's Travels and Treasure Island; these do not appear in the English version.

While some critics and fans called these alterations in to question, it should be known that all of them were approved by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki.

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Trivia

The flying city Laputa is based on parts of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, though the two stories are not related in any other way. The name of the movie was changed in several western countries (such as France, Spain, Mexico and the United States) to Castle in the Sky because "la puta" means "the whore" in Spanish. Swift undoubtedly knew this, but Miyazaki probably did not. In the Japanese edition of the movie, Pazu says that Laputa is in Gulliver's Travels but is a false story.
Many believe that characters from Miyazaki's 1978 series Future Boy Conan were prototypes for the characters of Laputa: Castle in the Sky. In addition, Miyazaki's plot outline for Castle in the Sky was also re-imagined by Toho as a TV series. The result was Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, a 1990-91 TV series aired on NHK, made by the Gainax studio and directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi (the predecessor to the same team's hugely successful Neon Genesis Evangelion).
The Laputan robot design is identical to the robot that appeared in the Miyazaki-directed Lupin III TV episode "Farewell, Lovely Lupin" from 1981.
The Laputan "fox-squirrels" originally appeared in Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
On the roof of the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo there is a lifesize model of the robot from Laputa.
The Disney-produced English dub was recorded back in 1998 and planned for release on video in 1999, but Disney eventually decided to release it to theaters instead (presumably because the first release under their deal with Studio Ghibli, Kiki's Delivery Service, performed better than expected on VHS). After the box office failure of Princess Mononoke in the U.S., however, LAPUTA's release date was pushed back yet again; on occasion the completed dub was screened at select children's festivals (to tremendous, although localized, success). The movie was finally released on DVD and video in the U.S. on April 15 2003, alongside Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away. Even though the dub received mixed reviews (as mentioned, criticisms were directed at the leads while Cloris Leachman's Dola and Mark Hamill's Muska drew raves), it (as with Disney's other English tracks for Miyazaki's movies), found an audience.
The Sega Dreamcast game, Skies of Arcadia, borrows heavily from Laputa in terms of plot and style.
LAPUTA: Castle in the Sky was the second-best selling DVD from Studio Ghibli distributed by Disney in 2003, the year of its release (after Spirited Away and ahead of Kiki's Delivery Service).
For Disney's English version, original composer Joe Hisaishi was commissioned to rework and extend his original synthesizer-composed soundtrack into a 90-minute piece for symphony orchestra in an effort to make the movie more accessible to U.S. audiences. This caused controversy with fans, many of whom argued that the new soundtrack taints the movie (mostly in the case of scenes which previously involved dramatic use of natural silence, as in the opening airship raid or for when Pazu and Sheeta pass through the stormcloud). On the other hand, according to a diary about the reworking of the music, Miyazaki is said to have applauded Hisaishi's efforts, and even some critics gave the re-scoring high marks in their reviews.
The old-fashioned car driven by Dola during the car chase sequence has a strong resemblance to the 'Alligator bonnet' series of De Dion-Bouton single-cylinder automobiles produced in large numbers in the early 20th century [1].
In the UK the film was screened many times on ITV (ITV 1 as it is now known)in the late 1980's early 1990's. The film was often shown during the CITV childrens television slot on weekday afternoons but also sometimes on Saturday afternoons. The film was always cut for time and used an earlier English dub distributed by Streamline Pictures for a brief arthouse run in the late 1980's; the dub can be found on the Japanese DVD. The current UK Region 2 DVD is uncut however and contains the Japanese soundtrack as well as the Disney dub. The film was called Laputa: Castle in the Sky on its ITV showings and the current UK Region 2 DVD is also called Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
The cover of Pazu's father's journal reads "RAPUTA". This is an extremely rare appearance of Engrish in a Ghibli film.