One of two really superb movie posters for Studio Ghibli's inagural feature, 1986's Laputa: Castle in the Sky. For its time, this is really a remarkable event in anime. Far too many features are tied to television shows, manga, or some other gasket of the corporate machine. Here is a fully original movie, not tied down to anything but Miyazaki's own illustrious past. But while owing a great deal to Future Boy Conan, Lupin III, or Animal Treasure Island, Castle in the Sky pushes deeper into the darker, more emotionally complex realm Miyazaki revealed in 1984 with Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. These two films would form the emotional template for Studio Ghibli. In a sense, they still do.
This poster is terrific, taken from the movie, and full of deep blues. The entire setup to the picture is on display, at least the romantic heart of the film. That's probably what I enjoy the most about Castle in the Sky. In the midst of the laughs, the sorrows, the tragedies and the thrills, it's really this simple romance that everything is centered upon. John Lennon would have loved this.
1 comment:
Beautiful poster!
I find Miyazaki's simplicity to be his strongest point. He makes films that are easy to understand and to emotionally relate and he does it with care, intellectual clarity and insight. I am studying and writing about aesthetics and art and I find Miyazaki to enbody the very essence of what makes art good - universality, simplicity, tehnique, reflection of being in the world and humanistic ideals that are not filled with shallow optimism or cynism and free from antropomorphism. His existential ethics is similar to buddhism and daoism where The All is reflected in every little thing. At the end his message is simple but done with great reflection and portrayed not with words but with montage of picture and sound: To live as one part of being among other parts, never mistaking myself for the whole.
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