Laputa: Castle In The Sky (1986)

An airship carrying Sheeta — an orphan girl abducted by government agent Muska — is attacked by Dola and her air pirate sons, seeking Sheeta's blue crystal amulet. While attempting to escape, Sheeta slips off the airship and falls unconscious. However, the amulet, emanating a mysterious blue light, catches her and lowers her slowly to the ground (“The Girl Who Fell From The Sky” / “Sora kara Futtekita Shoujo”). An orphan boy named Pazu catches her and takes her to his home in a mining town. Pazu shows her a picture of a legendary floating city, Laputa, taken by his late father.

When Dola's pirates and Muska's men appear and pursue them, Pazu and Sheeta, aided by the amulet, fall into an abandoned mine, where she tells of how she was kidnapped from her mountain home by Muska and his agents. In the caverns, they meet the old miner Uncle Pom, who shows them the glowing deposits of Aetherium around them.

Leaving the mines, Sheeta tells Pazu her full name — Lucita Toel Ul Laputa — revealing her as a descendant of the Laputan royal family. Muska captures them and takes them to his fortress where the children are imprisoned. Muska shows Sheeta a broken Laputan robot; knowing her name, he intends to make her reveal Laputa's location. Muska threatens Pazu, and for his own safety, Sheeta orders him to go back home. A despondent Pazu returns, where Dola and her sons await and capture him. To rescue Sheeta, Pazu joins them on their quest to find Laputa.

Sheeta recites a spell her grandmother taught her, unintentionally activating the amulet and the robot, which wreaks havoc until it is destroyed by the military's huge airship, Goliath. Pazu rescues Sheeta, but Muska obtains the amulet, which now emits a beam of light in the direction of Laputa. Pazu, Sheeta, and the pirates return to their airship and pursue the Goliath, which is navigating by Sheeta's amulet. Along the way, Dola tells Pazu and Sheeta how to turn the lookout into a kite, giving them a higher vantage point. Pazu spots a swirl of clouds in an approaching hurricane. Recognizing the clouds from his father's stories, he tells Dola they have found Laputa and insists that they head toward the eye of the storm. However, the Goliath appears, damages the pirate ship and severs the lookout kite from it, sending Pazu and Sheeta into the clouds.

Sheeta and Pazu safely reach Laputa (“Castle In The Sky” / “Tenkuu no Shiro Rapyuta”), where they find plants and animals thriving in the ruins of the castle, which surround a huge tree. However, the army plunders the city, with the pirates as their captives. Muska captures Sheeta while Pazu frees the pirates. Muska takes Sheeta into the center of Laputa, a vast repository of scientific knowledge where an immense crystal powers the city. Muska reveals his real name — Romuska Palo Ul Laputa — another member of the royal line that left Laputa centuries ago. Using the amulet to access Laputan technology, he unleashes Laputa's secret weapon of mass destruction and a dormant robot army, destroys the Goliath and its crew, and declares his plans to conquer the world. Horrified, Sheeta takes the amulet back and flees. She gives the amulet to Pazu through a gap in the wall, but is cornered by a pursuing Muska in Laputa's throne room.

Sheeta rebukes Muska, declaring the people of Laputa left because they realized humankind was meant to live on Earth. Undaunted, Muska threatens to kill her unless she gives him the amulet. Pazu arrives and bargains for a brief truce, allowing the two to recite a spell of destruction connected to the crystal, causing the center of Laputa to collapse. The resulting flash of light blinds Muska, who falls to his death, while the children are protected by the tree roots. The remainder of Laputa's ruins ascend until they disappear from view, supported by its crystal. Pazu and Sheeta take the kite to reunite with the pirates before both groups part ways.

During the closing credits sequence, Laputa is shown floating in orbit above Earth.

TRIVIA

Design

• The mining town where Pazu works in is a steampunk-influenced take on Europe. In particular, there is close reference to Wales and its mining towns in the 1980s. The whole of Pazu's hometown, from the single street containing long rows of terraced housing to the imposing railway line to the huge valley where the miners have clearly been working down for decades, is a phenomenal piece of art design - fantastical and exaggerated yet oddly functional.

• A wonderful fusion of classic European (with particular reference to Ancient Greek) architecture and science-fiction, Laputa feels like a functional place and long abandoned.

Easter Egg(s)

• On Laputa, there are fox-squirrels, the same species that appeared in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.