Overall, Castle in the Sky is my favorite of all the Studio Ghibli works. Not only because the Japanese voice acting is far superior, but also because the original musical score is so special. So if you are going to watch Castle in the Sky, I would strongly recommend you watch it in its original Japanese with subtitles. The English dub back then was also serviceable but not great, with the newer English dub being not that much of an improvement (with Hollywood stunt casting sadly being to blame here). Prior to that, Castle in the Sky used its Japanese name of Laputa for its release abroad, as I remember watching it on UK television when I was little. In that the name “Laputa” has a somewhat unfortunate meaning in Spanish, and no doubt Disney wanted to avoid issues with the film’s release in the West.

This additional musical scoring also makes this set somewhat unique, as most anime retain the original Japanese music rather than having a whole new score created for the English language version.Īs for the name change for the movie’s Western release, that’s likely because of the same reason Swift chose to use the name “Laputa” in Gulliver’s Travels for a similarly technologically powered floating city. The original musical score is also an interesting point in this Blu-ray and DVD release, as the English dub has an entirely different score, although still penned by Joe Hisaishi. In many ways, Conan and Lana are prototypes for Pazu and Sheeta, with the general theme of mistrusting ancient technology also being woven into the narrative fabric of both works.Ĭastle in the Sky is definitely a more compressed story compared to Future Boy Conan, but much of the pacing and plot structure are very similar. In any case, if any of the above story and setting sound familiar that’s because writer and director Hayao Miyazaki already dealt with many similar themes in the excellent Future Boy Conan. 'Castle in the Sky' is easily one of Studio Ghibli's best movies.

Castle in the sky english dub