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Castle in the Sky (1991)
Castle in the Sky, also known as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, is a 1986 Japanese animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Isao Takahata, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by the Toei Company. The film stars the voices of Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Kotoe Hatsui, and Minori Terada. In the film, orphans Sheeta and Pazu are pursued by government agent Muska,…
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki · Cut by Takeshi Seyama, Hayao Miyazaki · Music by Joe Hisaishi · 124 min
How it was made
- Studio Ghibli was founded on 15 June 1985 specifically to produce this film, after Topcraft, the studio behind Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, went bankrupt.
- Miyazaki scouted Wales alone in May 1985, and the disused Big Pit coal mine, by then a museum, shaped the film's opening mining-village scenes, while Cardiff Castle provided a reference for Titus Fort.
- The film was hand-animated using at least 69,262 cel drawings and ended up using over 300 shades of colour rather than the planned limited manga-style palette, up from roughly 250 shades on Nausicaä, to cover the film's varied lighting conditions.
- Some shots used the Harmony Process, developed by colourist Noriko Takaya, in which cels were cut into custom shapes and painted to match the background layer, then moved between frames like stop-motion so foreground details did not have to be redrawn every frame.
- Laputa's holograms were created with double exposures that left parts of the image only partially exposed, while the opening sequence used a deliberate overexposure technique called transmitted light to make the crystal necklace appear to glow.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Hayao Miyazaki
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