Splendid but weird

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2010)

Disney leaped to animation superiority in 1939 and then stayed there for decades. Warner Bros made a spirited showing but they, and everyone else, were demonstrably lower down the scale. But in the later years of the 20th century Studio Ghibli made a definite play to be an alternate line of animation features - not a competitor, for the Japanese movies were - and continue to be - resolutely un-Disneylike in every possible way.
Castle In The Sky from 1986, one of the early Studio Ghibli films, is a case in point. It tells the story of two waifs who are looking for the legendary floating city of Laputa while being pursued by two opposing groups.
I can't praise this film highly enough. It is always exciting, and visually stunning with an astonishing level of visual imagination. This is impossible to describe, but the two things it called to mind are the general feel of Jean "Moebius" Giraud's unfamiliar worlds (there is a sequence with a railway chase where the railway tracks run on trestles halfway down a cavernous ravine where dwellings are cantilevered out of the canyon walls), crossed with organic/non-organic hybridisation: the nearest thing I can suggest is the impact of HR Giger's Alien and Species design, although the visual aspect is nothing like that.
This film is exciting, involving, and a feast for the eyes. I enjoyed it greatly.