These screenshots of Laputa: Castle in the Sky come from Ghibli's Japanese DVD, and ran through PowerDVD 8 on my computer's Blu-Ray drive. This movie looks about as good as is possible in standard-def.
I scanned through this movie while searching for the riff that appeared in Ponyo, and as always happens with Miyazaki, I become engulfed. This was my favorite Miyazaki film for a long time, a terrific mix of romance and adventure, of slaptick comedy and sober commentary. That free-range episodic approach to storytelling is far more engaging to me than the simple rehashes of Star Wars. One storyline? One conflict to overcome? How boring.
These four screenshots might as well have come from four different movies. And these only show a glimpse of Castle in the Sky. There is the spectacular action setpiece involving the giant Superman robot. There is the scene of Pazu feeding his birds and playing trumpet. There is the scene of Pazu and Sheeta embracing in the night's sky. There's the scene of the forest cemetery. There's Joe Hisaishi's soaring music that plays in your mind for ages.
This is why I always say my favorite Hayao Miyazaki movie is "the last one I saw."
1 comment:
I revisited Castle in the Sky recently and this is the Miyazaki that I love. None of that strange stuff, well grounded, clear, focused, comprehensible, well made. Viewing it was unhesitatingly awesome.
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