Yesterday and the day before were bad days for ol' Egg, so last night I threw on Castle in the Sky to cheer myself up and it was such a good move that I moved my score up from a 9 to a 9.5 and moved it from my 15th to 9th favorite movie. Just for the spectacle alone it's one of my favorite movies. The only movie that looks as good to me is Kiki's Delivery Service. There's such a majesty to some shots. The hills, the clouds, the shadows, it's gorgeous. Laputa breaking down is one of the most impressive looking things I've ever seen. This was the 80s. People had to draw all that debris and make it fall. Amazing. But it does fun visuals extremely well too. There's a crazed, manic quality to the action that I've never seen anywhere else. And there are so many absurdly dangerous close calls that would really bug me in another movie, but here it's part of the charm. I usually hate it when characters are excited about getting into danger, but in this setting it just makes sense to me somehow. The story is simple, but it doesn't over explain anything. There's a moment where Patsu sees his father just outside Laputa and it has no explanation but it doesn't need one. The movie lets you use your imagination to fill in some gaps. It doesn't heap exposition on you. It's mostly a mix of fun and beauty. The action is so fast and fluid and yet the movie always feels like it's taking it's time.

I dunno, I just love it.