Classic fantasy adventure, plain and simple

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2012)

Castle in the Sky is the first film by Studio Ghibli, released originally in 1986. It is every bit as good as one would expect from a Ghibli film: beautiful animation and art, colourful and memorable characters, great score and a good story.
The story concerns a boy named Pazu who on one day sees a girl called Sheeta falling from the sky. Together they set out to find the legendary flying castle of Laputa. The story is well paced and truly an adventure: by the end the small village Pazu used to live in feels like the distant past.
The first thing I should say is this is A GREAT FILM. It's well written, beautifully animated and overall masterfully executed. Yet Studio Ghibli has produced so many fantastic films that this one stands out as a more simplistic story. There's not the ecological message of Nausicaä, the overwhelming adorability of Totoro or the grim moral ambiguity of Mononoke. After watching it twice I still haven't detected much of an overarching theme or message overall. Also the female lead, Sheeta, is somewhat disappointing as more of a typical damsel in distress. This is a bit jarring considering Ghibli's history of producing strong female characters one after another (Chihiro, San, Nausicaä, Satsuki, the list goes on).
The animation is good and the visual design is very impressive. Still, some of the technical aspects are hopelessly dated: the animation can be choppy at times, and the characters are fairly devoid of detail. Though considering just how much happens in the film, the simplistic designs are somewhat forgivable, especially when we see entire armies on-screen at times.
But mostly this is just nitpicking. Castle in the Sky is a wonderful, imaginative piece of fantasy adventure, and shows more creativity, personality and imagination in 5 minutes than most mainstream films show in 500 minutes.
Recommendation: A must-see for any fan of fantasy cinema or Studio Ghibli. For everyone else, highly recommended.