Castle in the Sky - Blu-ray + DVD

Up Front, I am a fan of all things Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. I will admit that Castle in the Sky may not be his best, or the studio’s most beautiful, but this is the action adventure movie for which I have been waiting since I was 8. Given that according to my wife I am still 8, perhaps not a long time.Miyazaki grabs your attention at the start with an attack on an airship by a group of sky pirates on steampunk wigged insect flying machines. A girl, flees the approaching marauders by thumping her adult, stealing a necklace and falling to what has to be her death. Cut to credits…. Comon this is classic adventure movie and better than a just a cliff hanger.We have armored trains, dangerous mines, more dangerous flying, sympathetic robots, treasure and magic crystals. The romance between young boy and girl is properly without kissing or any teen age yucky stuff. There is a fun take on the street fight and things blow up and, and, and.. ok I am about to hyperventilate, so adventure story- Right?The Girl, Sheeta, American voice by Anna Pankin finds herself under the protection of Pazu, an orphan- American voice James Van der Beek. Together they face all the adventures a young boy might hope to face and by bravery and grit the two solve the riddle and the day. Speaking of American Voices, Cloris Leachman voices Dola, the garrulous head of the Sky Pirates who clearly has more fun with her character than any two other people in the cast.Yeah I know girls don’t have to be under the protection of boys. Sheeta does get herown points and her own dramatic moments, but this is really about Pazu, or maybe that is just the boy in me, .Girls may see it different. And that goes to the genius of Miyazaki.To be fair there are weaknesses with the movie. As a youngster I prolyl would have not noticed the needless death and destruction. This movie is family friendly with all caps. The casual death of an army bothers the adult in me as much as the rest of the story was all I ever wanted of the heroes of my youth.Compared to other Studio Ghibli movies Castles in the Sky is not quite, scene for scene as beautiful. There are also some plot points that were unnecessary or do not bear close inspection.

Now this is a film that matters. Gkids has released this perfectly, as they have done with pretty much all of their releases. The highest bitrate possible outdoes the Disney version, and you have multiple options for sound and subtitles. The animation is absolutely top-tier, and any fan of the genre should have this on their to do list if they haven't experienced it yet. Castle in the Sky is probably a top 5 overall film in the Ghibli catalog for me due to some absolutely stunning set pieces that involve a fantasy world that is both detailed and emotionally engaging. There is a sense of wonder here lacking in titles that are less great from this studio. You can tell their creative sensibility is very high with this film.It is an old film, being released in 1986, and it is Miyazaki's first with Ghibli, but it is not dated in the slightest bit. It's just a timeless retelling of a story about a boy and girl in trouble. And it happens to have some of the most talented animators on the planet let loose to do whatever they please in a steampunk-styled world. The dub is also really good in my eyes, so either the Japanese track or the English dub will do. I think when Ghibli does a dub well, it actually enhances the animation at times. I like both tracks here, and I recommend people listen to them both at some point. Not enough can be said about this one folks. Pure classic. This is a top notch bluray with fantastic detail and resolution. Go out and get this one.

Okay. So a few years back I bought this for $15 at Costco. Was super excited. I remember first watching it rented from blockbuster. The comic relief of the Dola Gang....the spine chilling scene of the ending scene when they use the spell of distruction while musca is screaming about his eyes....BEST PART OF THE MOVIE.. Anyways, I was super excited to finally own it. Mind you, this was the Studio Ghibli and Disney Vault version with the gold trim at the top of the cover for Disney to flaunt it's lies. Let me tell you how incredibly disappointed I was when I sat down to watch it and comic relief lines were sensored out entirely. I don't know why. Maybe because it was a form of promoting violence and everyone's too sensitive these days with the nwo's agenda being pushed hard on us (and it's flippin Disney!) I don't know. It made me so disappointed that while in the middle of shit falling apart on Laputa, THEY CUT THE MUSIC OFF ENTIRELY. LITERALLY MUSCA RUNNING AROUND WITH THINGS FALLING APART SCREAMING ABOUT HIS EYES AND THERE'S NO BLOODY MUSIC PLAYING ANYMORE. And it wasnt even a smooth fade transition for the music to stop..it was just suddenly and abruptly stopped once they said the spell. Facepalm! No! That was not the movie at all. Anyways, after searching high and low for a different version, I found this one. The original looking one..I was hesitant to buy thinking maybe I was crazy and double buying something only for the same outcome. I finally ordered it. And I watched it and I'm so happy this version is how I remembered it! I was very ready to get rid of this copy, too, if the music cut out in the end but it didn't! Super thrilled!

Ghibli movie - Castle in the Sky. One of my favorite Ghibli movies. Will watch it again.

Yes, I would purchase again.

It is one of the most memorable anime classics straight from the 80s.