Miyazaki turns fantasy on its wonderful, conventional head once again

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2008)

Castle in the Sky (full title Laputa: Castle in the Sky) is another in the extraordinary works in the cannon of Hayao Miyazaki, who is arguably the master of fantasy in animation, worldwide. It's plot should be able to read through easily, at least for anyone who's seen the main conventional point of either the Dark Crystal or Lord of the Rings (probably the former is a little more accurate).
A princess has to get to a location with a sacred object- in this case an rock-amulet- and take it to the main power source on Laputa, a secret castle that can barely be said to exist except in rumor. She goes on an adventure with another curious party, a boy, and the two of them have to contend with pirates and a nefarious man in a suit along the way. The twists are turned on a familiar premise at every step, however, because Miyazaki lets his imagination and influences spring out all over the place.
We get vines and clouds and Superman-inspired robots! What Castle in the Sky promises is what it delivers full-throttle; it's action and excitement for a family audience (and it's not to sound patronizing; dudes in their 20s and gals in their 30s will love this as much as the little ones who sought out Spirited Away and Totoro so), and humor in bits and pieces as well (maybe not as much as Totoro, or skewed in a surreal way like Mononoke, but it's still there in a light tone with the pirates). And the design overall should capture everyone's fancy; from the Goliath ship to the little details of the robots to the expanse and crevices of Laputa, to what looks like it MUST have been special visual FX animation, it's all mind-boggling and mind-blowing at the same measure.
It might not be Miyazaki's ultimate triumph, but it's still great film-making, a triumph of imagination to deliver on a tale of good vs. evil.