Odell, Colin; Le Blanc, Michelle (2009). Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Kamera. ISBN 978-1-84243-279-2.

About 700 years after Laputa was abandoned by humans, only a single moss-covered gardener Robot remains operative. This gentle individual spends its days taking care of the great tree and its surrounding gardens, having been befriended by the animals which keep it company. Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: Sheeta mentions to Pazu that her pendant has a spell of destruction that her grandmother taught her, but told her never to use. Guess what they wind up using at the end? Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dola's speech to Pazu about him choosing to forget about Laputa and leaving Sheeta behind is enough to snap him out of his Heroic BSoD. Laser-Guided Karma: For the Big Bad. Muska wanted to restore Laputa and use it to rule from on high as he looked down upon the people of the earth. At the climax of the film, he's blinded, falls to his death, and Laputa crumbles away.Not to be confused with either the Chinese Series Novoland: The Castle in the Sky or Castle in the Air, the literary sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, the latter of which was also adapted into a film by Studio Ghibli. Pazu says to Sheeta after they have landed that Laputa can only be reached with the flying stone. [7] However, this does not explain how Pazu's father was able to get to Laputa. [1] Perhaps he also had his own flying stone with him, which was never seen in the film. Bertoli, Ben (June 4, 2017). "A tale of two Totoro". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017 . Retrieved June 20, 2023. Anachronism Stew: The general technology level is roughly that of 1920-1925: radios are used as wireless telegraphs, long-range air travel is done with dirigibles, steam engines remain commonly in use, and automobiles have not yet become commonplace. Pazu's rural village lags a couple decades behind. Laputan technology/magic was obviously at least a century ahead, with highly adaptable robots and energy weapons. Even within these split tech levels, there are technological anachronisms: all of which was probably intentional to add to the fairy-tale atmosphere. Armies Are Evil: The army is a ruthless antagonist in the movie. Although still not as bad as Muska.

In the control center, Muska, and presumably previous rulers, can access the high-technology electronic repository containing all of Laputa's secrets and knowledge, in turn contained within the modules, as well as control the robots, project his voice through loudspeakers throughout Laputa and make holograms appear. Since Muska can control the individual modules, he was able to dissolve the floor of the viewing platform and thus let the soldiers fall into the depths. The dome is criss-crossed with dark corridors, the walls of which have been carved in straight lines. Some of them are guarded by robots. Not far from the holocite crystal is the coronation hall. [8th]

Despite their humanoid body plan, Laputan Robots are only primarily bipedal, and are capable of moving as well on all four limbs as on two. Their arms are considerable longer than their legs, though, and are both asymmetrical and flexible.

General Muoro decides Muska has outlived his usefulness after he test-fires one of Laputa's superweapons on the surface (the understated enthusiasm Muska showed while doing so may have also pushed the General toward this). Unfortunately, he finds out that he's only shooting at a hologram of Muska and Muska feels the same way about him and subjects him to a Disney Villain Death.

Castle in the Sky". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on August 23, 2015 . Retrieved August 6, 2023. Victoria's Secret Compartment: Dola somehow manages to fill her cleavage with jewels even as they barely escape with their lives. Then there's the grenade launcher plus reloads she keeps hidden in her stuffed trousers. The flying machines powered by Holozite could be made much larger than previous of their kind. Eventually they reached the size of a city. But the goddess of the wind blew incessantly from time immemorial. So it came as it had to come, the floating island cities crashed and the people gave up the dream of soaring in the air. [4] But the dream of flying lived on in people - one island city remained: Laputa. Blown Across the Room: When Pazu is hanging from the roots of the tree at Laputa, he suddenly gets blown into a duct by some explosives going off beside him. Later in the movie, the robots falling from a destroyed Laputa are seen to fall apart in midair, although it is unclear about what exactly caused them to break apart.