Castle in the Sky

UPC: 786936791617

Studio: Walt Disney

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:null

Summary: Hayao Miyazaki's fantasy adventure Castle in the Sky begins with a chase scene through a flying ship, where all the passengers are after the young girl, Sheeta (voice of Anna Paquin). Going overboard to avoid capture, Sheeta is rescued by her powerful crystal necklace which floats her down to safety. She's recovered by Pazu (voice of James Van Der Beek), a young resourceful boy who works in a small mining town. Sharing a common desire to see Laputa, the castle in the sky, Pazu and Sheeta team up to outrun the pirates and the military. Led by hard-bitten matriarch Dola (voice of Cloris Leachman), the pirates are a rowdy yet dimwitted group of brothers who are after Laputa's treasure. Led by the greedy yet civilized Muska (voice of Mark Hamill), the military is after Laputa's secret powers. Everyone races to get to the abandoned castle of Laputa, which has been overgrown with vines and plant life. Its only inhabitants are the animals and robots who protect a magical garden. As the different parties fight over who gets to control Laputa, it's up to Sheeta to use her ancient knowledge to save it from ultimate destruction. The English-language version also includes the voices of Mandy Patinkin and Andy Dick. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Category: Fantasy

Features: The World Of Ghibli-Visit Castle In The Sky In This Imaginative Interactive Experience!

Enter the Lands- Meet the Characters and Hear the Story of the Movie

Behind The Studio-Discover the Film's Inspiration through Documentaries, including new Interviews with Hayao Miyazaki

Introduction by John Lasseter
Storyboard Presentation Of The Movie

Castle in the Sky

Format: DVD

Release Date: 03/02/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 125 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) French,English

Subtitles: English,French

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Castle in the Sky
1. Opening Credits/ A Special Stone [1:00]
2. The Legend of the Castle In The Sky [:19]
3. Beware of the Pirates [1:06]
4. Lost in the Mine [:06]
5. Captured [1:25]
6. A Broken Promise [:06]
7. The Rescue [1:09]
8. An Adventurous Trip [:06]
9. Something's Wrong [1:44]
10. The Wonder of a New Place [:06]
11. The Invasion [1:32]
12. Redemption/ End Credits [:31]

Andrea LeVasseur

Inspired by a passage in Gulliver's Travels about a floating castle, Hayao Miyazaki created the myth of Laputa for Castle in the Sky. Well-suited to younger audiences, it's a fast-paced adventure story filled with many daring chases, captures, and escapes. One of the first feature-length anim� films from Japan to receive international distribution, the setting has a strange Western feel to it with Industrial Revolution-style machinery and Caucasian-looking main characters. Being an aviation adventure, a lot of the action takes place in the air, with wildly contrasting flying machines and thousands of propellers. The design is especially notable when they all get to Laputa, which has a futuristic structure amazingly in tune with the natural surroundings. In this film, it seems that Miyazaki is developing the ecological themes, morally complex characters, and fantastic settings that he often returns to. For instance, the lovingly grotesque pirate mom Dora (excellently voiced by Cloris Leachman in the English-language version) manages to stride the line between good and evil like the characters in his subsequent works. Even the robots of Laputa are simultaneously creepy, destructive, and amazingly gentle beings. Though it's visually proficient and contains an expertly re-recorded musical score by Joe Hisaishi, some of the dialogue in the English version is corny and inconsistent with the original images. The story still delivers a standard fantasy adventure with glimpses of the director's trademark humanism and whimsy. Assembling the production team for Castle in the Sky led to the formation of the successful animation company Studio Ghibli. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Isao Takahata  Producer 
Tatsumi Yamashita  Producer 
Hayao Miyazaki  Director 
Hayao Miyazaki  Screenwriter 
Joe Hisaishi  Composer (Music Score) 
Yasuyoshi Tokuma  Executive Producer 
James Van Der Beek  Actor 
Anna Paquin  Actor 
Mark Hamill  Actor 
Cloris Leachman  Actor 
Richard Dysart  Actor 
Jim Cummings  Actor 
John Hostetter  Actor 
Michael McShane  Actor 
Mandy Patinkin  Actor 
Andy Dick  Actor 
Mayumi Tanaka  Actor 
Keiko Yokozawa  Actor 

Country: Japan