| Laputa: Castle in the Sky | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster |
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| Kanji | 天空の城ラピュタ |
| Rōmaji | Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta |
| Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Produced by | Isao Takahata |
| Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Starring | Keiko Yokozawa Mayumi Tanaka Kotoe Hatsui Minori Terada |
| Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
| Cinematography | Hirokata Takahashi |
| Editing by | Hayao Miyazaki Takeshi Seyama Yoshihiro Kasahara |
| Studio | Studio Ghibli |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
| Release date(s) | August 2, 1986 |
| Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta) (or simply Laputa) (re-titled Castle in the Sky for release in the United States) is a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli. Laputa: Castle in the Sky won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986.
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In the movie's backstory, human civilizations built flying cities, which were destroyed during a catastrophe, forcing the survivors to live on the ground as before. Just one city, Laputa, remains in the sky, concealed by a thunderstorm. In the opening scene, a girl named Sheeta is escorted by sinister-looking agents under Colonel Muska. The ship is attacked by sky pirates led by an old, yet vivacious woman named Dola. Sheeta escapes through a window, but she accidentally falls from the airship. As she falls, a pendant she took from Muska glows and she floats. A boy named Pazu witnesses Sheeta floating, catches her, and takes her back to his home. He tells Sheeta about the floating city of Laputa and his deceased father, a pilot that saw Laputa.
Dola's pirates arrive and pursue them, but they are cornered by soldiers. The children fall from a collapsing rail trestle and are saved by the pendant, leaving them inside the mines. They meet an old miner named Uncle Pom, who tells them of a mysterious, forgotten element called aetherium. Sheeta shows Pom her pendant, and he explains that it is one of the pure crystals used to keep Laputa aloft. He tells her that the power of her crystal belongs to the earth and that she should never use it to commit violence. [1]
After the children leave the mine, Sheeta reveals to Pazu she has inherited a secret name: "Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa". Then, the children are captured by Muska and the army and taken away to a fortress. A general and Muska discuss the search for Laputa and agree that Sheeta and her crystal are the keys to its discovery. Muska shows Sheeta a huge Laputian robot, reveals his knowledge of her secret name, and tells that unless she cooperates in the search for Laputa, Pazu will come to harm. Seeking to protect him, Sheeta tells Pazu that she has agreed to help the military, and asks him to forget her. Stunned, Pazu returns home, where he discovers Dola's pirates occupying his house. He is captured and they decide to work together to rescue Sheeta.
Meanwhile, Sheeta absent-mindedly recites a spell her grandmother taught her, causing her crystal to point to Laputa. The spell also reanimates the robot, which wreaks havoc. The robot attempts to rescue Sheeta before it is destroyed by the Goliath warship, causing Sheeta's pendant to tear from her neck and fall from the tower, which is later recovered by Muska. After the robot was destroyed, Dola and Pazu come and rescue Sheeta from the tower. The children and Dola's pirates decide to pursue Goliath to Laputa and that night, Sheeta tells Pazu about the Spell of Destruction, a power she has never used, and that she wishes she'd thrown the crystal away.
As the children keep watch above the clouds in a glider, a massive stormcloud becomes visible, which Pazu recognizes as Laputa's hiding place. As the pirates try to find a way in, the Goliath warship attacks and the glider is blasted away. After a harrowing ride, the children land in Laputa, which is devoid of human life; a robot takes care of the plants and animals.
The soldiers plunder the city's treasures, holding the pirates captive. After locating a hidden entrance to the city's core, Muska captures Sheeta and takes her inside. Pazu frees the pirates and finds another way into the sphere. Muska reveals to Sheeta that he is also an heir to the throne of Laputa, takes over all of Laputa's technology, and uses it to activate hundreds of robots and wipe out the army and Goliath while Dola and the pirates hide inside the remains of their ship. Sheeta steals back the crystal from Muska and runs through the core of Laputa, trying to find a way to escape. She does, however, find Pazu, and passes the crystal to him.
Muska corners Sheeta in the throne room but Pazu enters and the children decide to use the Spell of Destruction. With a single word, the pendant triggers the collapse of the city's core. Muska falls to his death, while Sheeta and Pazu are saved by the tree's roots. They find the glider stuck in the tree's roots nearby and use it to leave Laputa. Dola and pirates are also able to escape, and are reunited with the children, with some Laputian treasure as a compensation. The ending credits show the remains of Laputa continuing to rise, establishing an orbit high above earth.
| Character | Japanese | English (JAL / Streamline) | English (Disney, 2003) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Sheeta (Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa) |
Keiko Yokozawa | Lara Cody | Anna Paquin Debi Derryberry (young Sheeta) |
| Pazu | Mayumi Tanaka | Barbara Goodson | James Van Der Beek |
| Captain Dola | Kotoe Hatsui | Rachel Vanowen | Cloris Leachman |
| Colonel Muska (Romuska Palo Ul Laputa) |
Minori Terada | Jeff Winkless | Mark Hamill |
| General | Ichirō Nagai | Mike Reynolds | Jim Cummings |
| Uncle Pom | Fujio Tokita | Ed Mannix | Richard Dysart |
| Charles (Shalulu) | Takuzō Kamiyama | Barry Stigler | Mike McShane |
| Louis (Lui) | Yoshito Yasuhara | Dave Mallow | Mandy Patinkin |
| Henri (Anli) | Sukekiyo Kamiyama | Eddie Frierson | Andy Dick |
| Boss | Hiroshi Ito | Cliff Wells | John Hostetter |
| Old Engineer | Ryūji Saikachi | Eddie Frierson | Matt K. Miller |
| Okami | Machiko Washio | Lara Cody | Tress MacNeille |
| Madge | Tarako | Barbara Goodson | Debi Derryberry |
| Laputa: Castle in the Sky | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Joe Hisaishi | |
| Released | 25 August 1986 |
| Label | Tokuma |
All compositions by Joe Hisaishi.
The name Laputa itself comes from a novel written by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels. In this story, Swift's Laputa is also a flying island that may be controlled by its citizens. Anthony Lioi feels that Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky is similar to themes from Swift's Laputa, where the technological superiority of the castle in the sky is used for political ends.[2]
Laputa is credited by Colonel Muska with having been behind Biblical events and sacred Hindu legends — thus tying the world of Laputa to our Earth (and to western European civilization) — as do the medieval castle architecture of parts of the fort on the ground; the Gothic and half-timbered buildings in the village near the fort; the Welsh mining-town architecture, clothing, and even ground vehicles of Pazu's homeland; and the Victorian ambiance of the pirate ship. The anime also makes references to the Hindu epic Ramayana, including "Indra's arrow", while the name Sheeta may possibly be a reference to Sita, the female lead in the Ramayana.[3]
Some of the architecture seen in the film was inspired by a Welsh mining town. Miyazaki first visited Wales in 1984 and witnessed the miners' strike firsthand. He returned to the country in 1986 to prepare for Laputa, which he said reflected his Welsh experience: "I was in Wales just after the miners' strike. I really admired the way the miners' unions fought to the very end for their jobs and communities, and I wanted to reflect the strength of those communities in my film."[4] Miyazaki told The Guardian, "I admired those men, I admired the way they battled to save their way of life, just as the coal miners in Japan did. Many people of my generation see the miners as a symbol; a dying breed of fighting men. Now they are gone."[5]
In the late 1980s, an English version of Laputa was briefly shown in the US by Streamline Pictures. This dub, produced for showing on international flights to Japan, was not produced by Streamline. According to Fred Patten of Streamline, "Streamline Pictures theatrically distributed an English-dubbed print of Laputa from March 24, 1989 for the next year, but Streamline never dubbed it. Streamline licensed Laputa from Tokuma Shoten in late 1988 or early 1989, and was sent a print from Japan that had already been dubbed into English for use as an in-flight film by Japan Air Lines on its trans-Pacific flights. "We have no idea who actually dubbed it."[6] Reportedly, Carl Macek was disappointed with this early dub, which is available only on the Japanese DVD release.
The Disney-produced English dub was recorded in 1998 and planned for release on video in 1999, but Disney eventually decided to release it to theaters instead.
After Princess Mononoke flopped financially in the US, Laputa's release date was pushed back yet again; on occasion the completed dub was screened at select children's festivals. The film was finally released on DVD and video in the US on April 15, 2003, alongside Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away. As with Mononoke and Kiki, critical opinion was mixed about the new dub, but Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill's performances as Dola and Muska drew praise.[7] Laputa was the second-best selling DVD from Studio Ghibli distributed by Disney in the year of its release (after Spirited Away and ahead of Kiki's Delivery Service). Laputa was reissued on American home video in March 2010 as a tribute accompanying the home video release of Ponyo.
The film currently holds a 94% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[8] In an audience poll (with 80,402 voters) of 100 best animations of all time, conducted by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2007, Castle in the Sky was the second highest-ranked animated film, and third highest-ranked animation overall on the list.[9]
The film received a re-screening on May 22, 2011 in Aberystwyth as part of a charity fund for Japan. The print shown was the original theatrical Japanese print with English subtitles.
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English language dubs of Laputa have been released under three different titles by three separate distributors. This is largely due to an unintended similarity to the Spanish phrase "la puta" (meaning "the whore") which would be offensive to many.
Although meaningless in Japanese, "Laputa" comes from Gulliver's Travels. In 2003, the film's title was shortened from Laputa: Castle in the Sky to Castle in the Sky in several countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Spain. In Spain they named the castle: Lapuntu. This change was carried to a number of non-Spanish speaking countries, including Britain and France, under Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment label. Although "Laputa" was removed from the title, it appeared on the rear cover of the DVD, and was used throughout the film, without modification.
The film's full name was later restored in Britain, in February 2006, when Optimum Asia – a division of London-based Optimum Releasing – acquired the UK distribution rights to the Studio Ghibli collection.
Additionally, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the original English dub (the older, non-Streamline dub, or the pre-Disney dub) was screened in the UK, as an art house film, under the alternative title Laputa: The Flying Island. It was shown at least twice on British television, but some scenes were cut.[6]
Although the plot and much of the script was left intact, Disney's English dub of Laputa: Castle in the Sky contains some changes. These differences do not appear in the original dub.
Although all these alterations were approved by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki, there have been a number of critics who called them into question. On the other hand, Miyazaki himself is said to have approved of Hisaishi's reworking;[10] his compliments were echoed by several reviewers.[11][12][13] The 2010 DVD re-release omits most of these changes. The new score has been removed, having been replaced by Hisaishi's original synthesizer score, and a lot of the added dialogue has been eliminated, making the dub closer to the original Japanese. Additionally, the subtitles on the newer release are mostly dubtitles.
Japanese video game developer HOT-B began work on a video game adaptation of Laputa. The final product, released in Japan as Koutetsu Teikoku for the Sega Mega Drive video game console as a shoot 'em up, is very different to the source material. The game was subsequently brought to western market in 1992 by Acclaim Entertainment's label Flying Edge under the title Empire of Steel in Europe and Steel Empire in the United States.[14]
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