That's really a testament to Miyazaki's skill as both storyteller and animator his approach is always cinematic in a medium that's often dismissed.

'Laputa' should appeal to both children and adults neither group is likely to mind its two-hour length. It's full of 'Star Wars'-style confrontation, but it's also nice to see it handled on equal terms by male and female protagonists. Miyazaki's world, so full of color and life, is always just across the borderline of imagination, its acute details softened by clouds and shadows, its principles revealed by actions more than words. Even the robots and levitating cubes have a moral duality. Miyazaki has built some delightful propeller-driven planes with parts from Jules Verne, Rube Goldberg and comic artist Ron Cobb, and Laputa itself is a wondrous planet, an Atlantis-in-the-air where technology and ecology have fallen out of balance. Although some action takes place on the ground, most of it is in the air. Naturally, there are many adventures along the way, particularly after the youngsters team up with the air pirates, a jolly albeit bumbling crew led by their mother, Dola.

Pazu's looking to clear his father's reputation Sheeta turns out to be long-lost royalty Muska has his own devious agenda. When Sheeta and Pazu discover that the pendant she's wearing is not just a family heirloom (or airloom, since it turns out to be a magical levitation stone), they set out to find the floating city before the government can usurp its wealth and power. Seems Pazu's father was a photographer who once got off a shot of the legendary and elusive Laputa, only to be disgraced when it was dismissed as a hoax.

Trying to escape, Sheeta flies out the window, but instead of crashing to the ground, she floats unconscious to a soft landing in the arms of Pazu, an orphan who works in the mines but whose head is constantly in the clouds. A young orphan named Sheeta has been kidnapped by the secret agent Muska and is being flown to a military fortress when their transport is attacked by air pirates. The film kicks off with the kind of slam-bang, pre-credits confrontation Jones would appreciate. Miyazaki uses that to spin off a modernistic sci-fi fable with a subtle ecological message that is delivered only after two hours of Indiana Jones-style adventure. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it is an imaginative extrapolation of a reference in Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels' to Laputa, a floating island-city hovering over Balnibarbi. 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' is a frequently astounding animated feature from Japan. ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky’ (NR) By Richard Harrington

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