“The Castle in the Sky” is a swashbuckling adventure that can also stand to just sit in awe every now and then.
Then, of course, there is Laputa, which should in no way live up to the runaway train of fantasy that Miyazaki has deployed throughout the film, but somehow it does. “The Castle in the Sky” is a swashbuckling adventure that can also stand to just sit in awe every now and then. It is that reverence — for imagination, for the spirit of humanity and the world — that makes “Castle in the Sky” and all Miyazaki movies shine brighter than any gem, magic or otherwise. —SS