“Castle in the Sky is an astounding animated feature 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. Miyazaki uses that to spin off a modernistic sci-fi fable with a subtle ecological message.
“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. 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.
“Sheeta and Pazu set out to find the floating city before the government can usurp its wealth and power.
“Most of the action is in the air. 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.” - The Washington Post