I saw this film at NYFF and didn’t know I was seeing an animated feature until the movie started, having blindly selected most of my films. Judging from the audience, I knew it was a kid’s film when I sat down. The subsequent violent content made me wonder how much of a family film it really was.
“I think that’s a great idea Emily,” a Manhattan mother informs her nanny who has just decided to take the troop of children to the front of the house to look up close at the screen before the movie started. Later, during the movie, the violence would prove to be too extreme and send Emily and the distressed child out into the hallway. The Manhattan mother would decide soon after to lead the rest of the children and her grey-haired friend to a premature exit.
Castle tells the tale of girl Sheeta who, guided by the levitating powers of a family crystal, literally falls from the sky into the life of boy Pazu. He speaks of a mythical land of Laputa (a Swiftian reference), a castle in the sky discovered by his disgraced father, which is actually her home of Gondoa. Sheeta’s rock contains volucite, whom Pazu’s Uncle Pom later informs them can bring “happiness as well as misery.”
The self-sufficient Pazu forges his own existence in a big dilapidated house, working in the local coalmines. He leads a more earth-bound, yet still charming existence, unleashing a dule of doves from their nest as a greeting to every morning. Pazu wants to seek redemption for his father who has been ridiculed for all these years having claimed Laputa exists. The preoccupation with power and riches threaten their innocence, as they spend the film making their way to Sheeta’s home outsmarting the agendas of pirates and the military ship Goliath.
There are constant themes of societal top echelon greed diminishing the quality of life for the impoverished. The only way to survive is to harness the power of technology and take what you can by force. The only price for that is a hardened existence. The pirates, who flit around on winged air chariots are led by a leader simply known as Mama—looking like a man dressed poorly in drag is actually a mother figure in command of her bandit sons. (While I am positive I’ve misinterpreted a cultural aspect lost in translation, Mama’s boys quite often shamelessly display their ardor towards the very young Sheeta.) Ultimately, the resilience of nature will always prevail over man.
There is plenty of Japanese-irreverent humor. The hijinks and exaggerated displays of masculinity elicit plenty of laughter from both children and adults. Oddly, but not abnormally, the two-dimensionally drawn characters look like very Anglicized Japanese. Why is that?
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