Dizzying architecture of the sky...

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2002)

(Review of DVD in Japanese with English Subtitles)
This is probably the most over-the-top Ghibli film in terms of heavy handed symbolism and hard-to-believe (but thrilling) action sequences.
Still, it is an easy 10, since like all of Ghibli's films, if you listen and watch carefully, it stamps an imprint of beauty on your soul which haunts you for days after.
In this case the gorgeous and dizzying architecture of the sky, the clouds, and humans teetering on the brink of the abyss is unforgettable. There also is an enchanting faux-European world of pirates, dirigables, explorers, and miners set against the backdrop of the ancient Atlantis-like Laputa. Except Laputa is in the sky, not the ocean.
Like most of Ghibli films its hard to imagine anyone who would not like it except the terminally unimaginative. Ghibli's art is for the ages, not just our narrow little frame of time. So if you miss Laputa in this lifetime, don't worry, you can catch it in the next.