Castle in the Sky (1986)

Title: Castle in the Sky
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: Anime
Highs: Fantastic story of love and friendship.
Lows: None
RhynoBot Grade: A

Here is another Miyazaki film, this time he tells a more contemporary story of a girl being sought after by government officials and pirates searching for treasure as she is believed to posses the key to finding the fabled castle in the sky. This is straight up pure fun and adventure with everyone after you, never knowing who to trust except for the one true friend you meet along the way. The film was a lot of fun, something I hope my own children will enjoy someday - when he's old enough. This is not for small children since there are some potentially scary scenes but would be good for kid in the 7-8 range and older.

There are several elements of this movie that reminded me of other films. Normally I would be bothered by this and brand said movie a rip-off of other movies I like but in this case I have to stop and remind myself when this movie was actually made, 1986. This pre-dates all the other movies it reminds me of, making Castle in the Sky the source material for several movies to follow - amazing. I'll give you a good example. Brad Bird of Pixar's "The Incredibles" fame started out with a great little animated feature called "The Iron Giant" (if you have not seen this it is a must see as well). The giant robot in Iron Giant looks remarkably like the giant metal robot in Castle in the Sky, see the comparison below. In fact, the weapon systems and the near complete indestructibleness of the robots are almost identical in both stories.

IRON GIANT









CASTLE IN THE SKY












Bottomline - this is a fun movie filled with adventure and excitment. The best part for me is at the heart of this movie is a touching tale of love and friendship in places you would least expect.

This is a great movie, you should see it.