A young lad's hard-working life quickly becomes an adventure when a mysterious girl falls from the sky. Chased by pirates and government agents, they must protect the key to the fabled city of Laputa. But does the floating castle of Laputa really exist?
Laputa The Castle in the Sky is an exciting fantasy-adventure brilliantly brought to life by world-famous animation director Hayao Miyazaki, featuring breathtaking animation and enchanting music. Miyazaki's second feature-length film, Laputa was inspired by a story in Gulliver's Travels. According to legend, the Laputians were a people so advanced that their technology seemed like magic. They built a floating castle and lived above the ordinary people of the world. Eventually the Laputian civilization was destroyed because of their own hubris, but it is said that their city still exists, lost somewhere amongst the clouds...
English Release
The current English language version of this film was translated by Disney/Miramax. It was first shown at the International Children's Film Festival in New York in February of 2000. Home video release date was April 15, 2003.
Some changes were made for the English release of this film. The title (literally "Sky Castle Laputa" in Japanese), was changed to simply "Castle in the Sky" for international release, since 'la puta' is an offensive word in Spanish.
In a more major change, Joe Hisaishi was asked by Disney to rework the Laputa music to "make it more suitable for theatrical release and the American market". The American producers were concerned that much of Laputa has no background music whereas Western animated films, in contrast, generally have music almost continuously throughout. Hisaishi therefore rescored Laputa in a western style, which is based upon each character having a musical theme. Hisaishi and Miyazaki have been quoted as saying they are pleased with the results.
Some voice casting details: Anna Paquin ("The Piano") plays the role of Sheeta, James Van Der Beek ("Dawson's Creek") plays Pazu (now called "Patzu"), Mark Hamill ("Star Wars") plays Muska, and Cloris Leachman plays Dola [quoted from The Miyazaki Web].
There was actually an earlier English-dubbed version of Laputa from Streamline, which had a limited theatrical release and was never released on home video.
Castle in the Sky is a wonderful movie that anyone with imagination and a heart for adventure is sure to enjoy.
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DVD - Castle in the Sky (Movie 1986)