I’ve been working my way through the films of acclaimed Japanese
writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, and after the isolated, bucolic beauty
of My Neighbor Totoro, I was startled by the industrialism and violence of Castle in the Sky,
originally from 1986 but recently released by Disney in America with
dubbing by English-speaking actors. This movie is considerably darker
and longer than Totoro and involves an epic quest to discover a legendary floating city along the lines of Atlantis but concealed in the clouds.
Our heroes are Sheeta (Anna Paquin), a mountain girl whose mysterious
amulet makes her the target of kidnapping by two different groups of
unsavory characters, and Pazu (James Van Der Beek), the working-class
boy who finds her floating above the quarry where he lives after she
escapes her would-be captors. It doesn’t take the children long to
realize that the necklace is the reason she is endangered, and they soon
make the connection between it and the lost city that Pazu’s father, an
explorer, once claimed to find. Both seek the city for answers about
their heritage, but they will have to contend with slimy government
official Muska (Mark Hamill) and his minions, who are after the
knowledge and power the island houses, as well as a ramshackle band of
pirates led by cantankerous matriarch Dola (Cloris Leachman), who has
her eye on its fabled treasure.
This is a bleak movie. It has a
futuristic feel to it, as so much of it takes place in the sky aboard
“airships.” Given Miyazaki’s love of nature, I expected to see more of
it, but we are offered only fleeting glimpses. Granted, what he does
show us, particularly in the pristine garden that greets the children
after they finally reach the island of Laputa, is stunning. Mostly,
however, it’s cold fortresses, crumbling mines and lots and lots of
propellers. Unlike Totoro, the world of this movie was not one I
wanted to visit, particularly since explosions seem to rock the
landscape about every ten minutes.
Hamill is flat-out creepy
as he voices the slick Muska. For the most part, his manners are
genteel, but underneath that cajoling exterior is roiling malice. It
doesn’t take too long to realize that of the two villainous factions
pursuing Sheeta, his is the more malevolent. Leachman is hilariously
ornery in her role as the unkempt pirate queen who reminds me of
hillbilly Ma Gogan in Pete’s Dragon. The pirate family is
ultimately a twinge more warm-hearted than that dastardly crew, and
Dola, her husband, who usually wears only an undershirt above the waist
and whose build and enormous mustache make him look like the Lorax, and
their many borderline dopey sons are consistent sources of much-needed
comic relief.
The heart of the movie, however, is the deep
friendship that develops between the elegant, ethereal Sheeta and the
earthy, rough-and-tumble Pazu. They bond quickly, particularly during
their time with a slightly daffy elderly miner Pazu calls Uncle Pomme
(Richard Dysart). It is at this point that they realize just how strong
Sheeta’s connection to Laputa is and what a potentially dangerous object
she carries. Shades of Lord of the Rings entered my mind as
Uncle Pomme uttered dark warnings about the amulet’s powers falling into
the wrong hands. While Sheeta feels guilty for dragging Pazu into a
dangerous situation, he seems to thrive on the adrenaline rush, and the
movie includes an amusing number of instances in which he falls, dangles
or crash-lands. He has great physical strength and little foresight. It
isn’t really until the climax that he learns to think things through a
minute before he leaps.
My Neighbor Totoro left me feeling warm and fuzzy, wanting to run out in a rainstorm and twirl around or give someone a great big bear hug. Castle in the Sky
has a very different tone to it. While there is happiness in the
conclusion, it is elegiac, and the final image strikes loneliness into
the soul, as does the state in which the children find the island and
the assertions Muska makes about it. The film seems to be largely a
fable about the dangers of superior power unchecked by compassion. The
central friendship brings it down to a more relatable level, while the
antics of the pirates keep us from getting too bogged down in despair.
Hope does peer out through the crevices of this movie. However, at times
it feels almost as elusive as the titular castle.
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