Tentacle-Free Anime: "Castle in the Sky" (1986)2017 has been quite the year so far. It’s easily on par with the dumpster fire that last year was, so it's nice to have things that you can watch and just tune everything out for a few hours. Thus, today's review. One of my favorite Ghibli films, and one of the more innocently charming works of the studio. I can't wait to talk about it, so let's get to it.
Despite my lack of coverage of Studio Ghibli on this website, I'm a huge fan. I keep meaning to get around to covering more of their films. I believe until now the only other Ghibli work I've covered on this page is Princess Mononoke back in 2013. I'll definitely work to remedy that. Especially since Isao Takahata is my favorite of the founders and I haven't even covered any of his masterpieces yet.
Let's actually discuss the movie, however. The story of Sheeta and Pazu finding one another, falling in love and working to protect one another as they journey to discover the flying castle in the sky is fundamentally nothing new, save for the castle bit. I cannot attest to how new this was back in 1986, but my guess is that it wasn't very new back then either. The boy meets girl trope is played out through generations of storytelling and Miyazaki himself will go on to use that trope in pretty much all of his films. 
Don't leave your robots unattended for centuries please.
But this film tells it in such a simple, whimsical way that it's easy to forgive it for adding to a stereotype. The characters are all likable, you get just information about all of them to understand why they are acting the way they do, and the cast is small even though they are navigating and intriguing world around them. I love Dola and her pirate family, there's so much charm and personality that bleed right off of the screen when they're around. And the narrative is easy enough to follow the how's and why's to them going from villains at the beginning of the story to heroes. The actual villains are bad all the way through, but you still understand why they are after Sheeta throughout the film. Pazu follows the same character arc as Ashitaka eventually will in Princess Mononoke, in that he really doesn't have much of one. He is a good person all the way through till the end and doesn't change much, however Pazu is at least lifted up by the fact that I find him to be a bit more interesting. 
Movie should be retitled Girl floating in the Sky
Pazu's history about his father, the little things he does in his daily routine that are just so innocent, and how he carries himself throughout the story lends more interesting features to Pazu that help us to get to know him and how he ticks. Sheeta on the other hand is an enigma at the beginning but a constantly good character throughout. She too has a fascinating backstory, and her ties to the Castle are incredible. However, not once does she feel like a stereotype even when she's tasked with working in the kitchen. Sheeta really carries this film and if she were any less interesting in her drive, and curiosity in what is going on with her then this film would not be as strong as it is. But there are flaws in the film to be sure. It's very basic in its storytelling. Though the ideas are interesting, the narrative itself feels elementary. As well as, again, Pazu and the bad guys themselves don't have much of an actual arc throughout the story that changes how they think about things. And also we never really learn much about the actual Castle itself. Without spoiling too much we do learn that the Castle is far older and more advanced than we originally believe it to be at first. There's a lot going on with it that at first glance is incredible to watch. But there's still a layer of mystery shrouding its history that we never learn about. And given we get to fundamental backstories about Pazu and Sheeta throughout the film, it would not have been out of the ordinary for us to get one on the very object of everyone's desire. But I digress, ultimately I love this film. Currently I consider this to be my favorite Studio Ghibli film, but that could change easily after I do a grand re-watch on all of these films because most of the Takahata works are incredibly close seconds. Why do I love this movie so much? I'm not sure why. I love how innocent and imaginative it is. I love the characters. I love this world's aesthetic. Or perhaps it's because it was one of my first Ghibli films. There's just something about these earliest works of the studio that are so filled with the desire to tell a story, any story as long as it was interesting to the person creating it. It's a theme Ghibli carries throughout its entire catalog, and all of that started officially started here. 
The film has the most fun street brawl I have ever seen on screen
The animation and character designs of the film are gorgeous and fun. From the city layouts to the exaggeration in how people often interact with one another. The robots in this are just really cool and given so much life in their bit of screen time. The music is lovely and innocent, fitting really well with the story we're being told. I don't have a lot of bad to say about this film. I just don't. And that will probably be the case for a lot of these films when we get around to discussing more of them. I love Studio Ghibli, and I feel bad for not having talked about them more. 1986 was the beginning of an era, and though we currently live in a climate where Miyazaki has once again retired and then stepped back up to the plate yet again for “one last film,” it's hard to say if this era of Ghibli is yet closed. Like proving the existence of a castle in the sky, we're still waiting to find out. But the journey to get there has been truly amazing. Final Score: 4 Fun-Loving Pirate Brothers out of 5 Have you seen "Castle in the Sky"? Is it truly a classic? Let us know in the comments! 
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