What can you say about a film that is all around masterful that doesn't line up with one's own personal taste, or a director who makes consistently ambitious and imaginative films whose style you just don't dig? "Castle in the Sky" is the fourth of legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki's films I've seen following "Nausicaa", "Howl's Moving Castle", and "My Neighbor Totoro", and again find myself failing to be drawn in by the material for no good reason than its not really to my liking (oddly, I did enjoy the recent "The Secret World of Arrietty which Miyazaki wrote but did not direct). Like many of his films, "Castle in the Sky" is an tells an environmentally conscious tale of lonely, young people finding inner courage, here a young girl living in an aircraft and in possession of a vital crystal who, with a friend, must ward off pirates and other devious types who seek its power. I don't wish to offend any of the many who are justifiably ardent towards Miyazaki's work and, as mentioned earlier, I just don't enjoy this brand of animation and storytelling.
