¶ Spider-Man 2 and Laputa Castle Discussion
Welcome to episode 66 of Project Geek . Project Geek Critique .
Project .
Geek Project , geekology . Let's just run with it yeah . Episode 66 of Project Geekology . We should have done something order 66 related , but instead we're deciding to go with a very classic anime 1986 or 87? .
No 1986 . Yeah , I looked it up .
Was it 86 ? Okay , yeah , so Miyazaki's third film , hayami Izaki . Previously he did two films up to this point . This is he did Lupin the Third , the Castle of Kagliostro , and then he did Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind , which is one of . Nausicaa was the one that put him on the map , really .
And then this was his follow-up and I don't think , or I think , this was the first film that he did under Studio Ghibli , like officially . But we're going to talk all about Laputa Castle in the Sky in just a minute . But before we begin all that , my name is Dakota and I'm joined , as always , with Anthony .
I love how our introductions have just devolved into just us like rambling for like two minutes and then introducing ourselves and like , and finally we get to the part where we ask each other what we've been up to this past week or so .
You know , aside from early podcast ramblings , I think since the last time we recorded , I've been playing Spider-Man 2 . A lot of people have been playing Spider-Man 2 . I enjoy it , you know . You get to play Peter , you get to play Miles . You get to swap off on either or and there's some missions that you could play either or .
And then there's some Miles specific missions , peter specific missions . And it's really cool because sometimes you'll be like swinging around in the city and you played the first Spider-Man right . Yeah , you know how you have , like , the random crime encounters , like they'll just pop up . Well , sometimes you'll go and start fighting .
You know you'll go to stop the crime and if you're playing Miles or Peter , every once in a while , like one of them will come in and help you stop the crime .
They also exist in this world and they're coming to help their buddy out .
Right right , it's not like you're swapping off a skin , you know .
Yeah , so even though this is Spider-Man 2 and the previous game to this was Miles Morales , so this is actually like the third game in the series , even though this is technically the second one , you know .
Right . So this is like the full sequel to Spider-Man , but I will say that playing Miles Morales very relevant because they talk about stuff that happens in that game . So I mean , Miles Morales was kind of the sequel and this one was , I mean I guess it was . No , it wasn't long enough to be a sequel .
I'd say it was an expansion , but they charged it like it was a full sequel . Okay , All right .
That's cool , though . That's really awesome , so I'm guessing you like it .
Oh , absolutely . It's that first game . I think that Spider-Man game was like the only game that I platinumed . Like I played it so much that I got like all the trophies for it , and I'm probably going to do the same thing with this one .
So do you not normally platinum games ? No , no , I play them .
I usually play them and even though , like I absolutely love and enjoy it , some games require you to do just several playthroughs to get all of the trophies , and I'm like no not about that , you know , especially some games are long .
Yeah , I platinumed the first three uncharted games for the PS or PS3 and PS4 . I think it was . I forget if they were all . No , I think they were PS3 games , right , I don't even remember .
Yeah , I think you might be right , those ones .
And they specifically wanted you to . So beat it on hard mode , then it was like an extra mode on top of that Once you beat that . You unlocked the last and final like just impossible mode . You had to do that to eventually the game . Like it was tedious .
Like . As much as I love playing like Persona 5 , I'm never going to platinum that game and that's like one of my favorite games .
So why don't you think that ? Or it's just a matter of , like , the time commitment ?
the time commitment dude . Persona is so long , you know , and the Persona games are games that I would definitely revisit , but I'm not going to .
Sorry , my cat turned on Siri .
I started hearing music . I'm like what's happening ? That your cat wanting to like change the mood .
I have no idea what even song that was , but my cat turned it on .
Your cat wanted it . All right , I wanted it to the mood that was hilarious your cat just like , and I saw your cat in the back you see him in the background Right . Yeah .
Yeah , yeah , he touched the sorry guys . Let's , let's continue . We can keep that into it's kind of fun ?
Yeah , definitely , I was thinking I was like man , I think I want to keep that in . That was awesome but good . But yeah , no , we're just talking about platinum gaming games and stuff . Yes , I mean , there's never going to platinum Persona five , you know yeah , I mean I might play through it again , but I don't know .
I mean I guess I would need to look into it to see what it would require to platinum Persona five . But I mean I've been playing Persona five Royal , which is the even longer version of Persona five , so or ? I played it and I beat it Gotcha , gotcha .
So Spider-Man , to anything else you've been up to , and oh well , so , preparing for this episode , I rewatched this movie , and so for about 45 minutes of watching this movie , I just for the heck of it , I watched it on VR .
Why I'm so confused . Why would you do that ?
So I've been . So I kind of like busted out my VR , like recently , every once in a while , like I get in the mood to play like a specific system . You know , like I'll play my . I'm on my PC a lot , but I'll play my PlayStation for a good bit . I'll play my Xbox for a bit . Sometimes I get in the mood to play my switch .
That's just like how it is , and so I was in the mood to mess around on my VR . I've been playing Beat Saber and like different games and I was like you know what , like let me watch a whole anime movie . No , I don't watch the whole movie . Oh well , you said 45 minutes and it's about what two hours long .
So yeah , I wanted to just like experience , watching something kind of like in VR . I mean I kind of did , but like I never like really spent too much time and honestly it's like a really really cool , especially like when you watch something in the .
It's like the horizon browser , some meta horizon browser , and when you put something in full screen it makes everything around you black and then it puts up like a screen like right in front , like not right in front of it .
Backed up a little bit , so that you can see like a theater , yeah , like a theater , and that's cool .
And so like I thought that was like an interesting thing . I was like you know what , like I kind of wanted to change things up and try it that way . So I thought that was pretty fun . It was pretty cool watching that and I hooked it up to some , to some speakers , so it kind of really enhanced that experience too .
Gotcha , you mentioned earlier , I think last weekend you were watching the Scott Pilgrim adaptation . Oh yeah .
Netflix , yes , yes .
How was ? I haven't had the opportunity to check it out yet , but I've heard good things .
It's good . I really enjoy it . But do not go into this anime thinking that you're gonna be seeing a one-to-one from the movie or the manga . It's like completely different . It's right , it follows certain beats , but it's like very , very different .
It's a new thing which , honestly , is kind of cool , like I've heard people like either love it or hate it , depending on how closely they Enjoy my cats going crazy .
But yeah , I've heard people like it or hate it , depending on which what they like , how much they like the original or how much they like appreciate what the Creators doing with this new move or this new show you know me and Scott Pilgrim , like I , absolutely loves the movie and remember I was reading the mom and I showed you remember Like I was reading and
I showed you some of the stuff that was happening in it .
And some of it was very close to the movie , right , right , right . So this one is almost like it almost feels like you're like in a Multiverse where , like the point of view is , it's more like Ramona than Scott Pilgrim . So but I've been enjoying it . I like the . It's funny , I like the humor behind it and
¶ Marvel Movies and Podcast Success Discussion
you know the music .
They brought the cast of the . They brought back the cast of the movie isn't that insane ? Yeah Is it . Is it mostly everyone , or pretty much everyone ?
I would say , yeah , pretty much like all the main people like Chris Evans is in it , Michael , sarah , mary , elizabeth's when said that's .
Aubrey Plaza and Ralph .
Yeah , like everybody . Brie Larson like I mean , oh my gosh , what's his name ? Oh , was it Mark Webber ? Like everybody , like literally everybody that like was a part of the original Young neo Steven Stills , was it Kim ? Like ever I do , everybody that was like a main character in that movie or like was like a had like a speaking role or a prominent role .
They all came back . That's awesome .
I . What's funny is that we did a podcast on Scott Pilgrim versus the world the movie , like really early on , and I was just like , is that just a memory I have , or like something that I dreamed up ? And I had to look it up just now and yeah , episode 6 , our Episode for Scott Pilgrim versus the world the movie specifically .
So if you guys are interested in checking out our thoughts on the movie we've already done it you get a whole episode there and I think it's probably longer than this episode . Why ? yeah , oh , yeah , yeah this back , then we would go . We were just talking till , we had nothing else to say . We were nuts like that .
Yeah , we were just . We would just go on for like hours .
We were unrestrained .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah we went in .
Yeah , that was like peak COVID years , though Everyone was a little crazy at that point .
We were still trying to like kind of figure out like what we wanted to do and like what our identity was .
And yeah , and so I don't know who it is of you , if it's one person or a bunch of you , but y'all on Wednesday went , just like , went and listened to a bunch of our episodes or downloaded a bunch of our episodes , and we absolutely appreciate that , like every episode you had a boost of like 80 or 90 downloads in like one day , which is a lot for like
a podcast of our size .
So thank you , guys , and yeah , is there anything else ?
you , you can't even see it , we got it , we got a , we got a boom today too .
Really .
Yeah , about 70 episodes . What the ?
heck , where are you guys coming from ?
We all coming from . Bring more people .
Tell your friends , tell your friend of the wonders of this beautiful , beautiful podcast .
Yes , but yeah , I know I just been Doing a lot of that and , you know , taking care of some personal stuff . But how about you , man ? Like , what have you been up to ? I seen that you released a video or two a single video .
Oh well , actually yeah too , since our last recording , I did a . I did a short video on the marvels , which came out two weeks ago , I think it was after our last recording .
I saw that I watched that movie too .
What did you ? What do your thoughts ?
I thought it was a fun watch , but I feel like this movie might have worked earlier in the MCU days . But I think that right it's . It's losing its charm .
Yeah , it's definitely lost its charm , but I feel that what's really like against it is the superhero fatigue because , I'll be honest with you , I'm kind of like I really don't want to watch Marvel stuff anymore , like right now . I think that we need like I mean I'm gonna go see Deadpool , don't get me wrong .
But yeah .
I think that we need like a good year or so of like no like Marvel material . We need time to miss it and Give them time to like write out , because they're just trying to like pump them out like a factory and like the quality of it Is now starting to look very , very just not good right .
Right , you're gonna get like some good quality stuff and then some not so good quality stuff , and so we just need better writing .
Yeah , I agree , I think I mean I too enjoyed the movie , but and actually , like some of the action was really really fun and really creative , like the entire Idea of them , like whenever they would use their powers , they would literally switch bodies in different locations , and I thought that was really creative , like they were quantum entangled .
But yeah , there's something about it that does feel like , even though I liked it , even though I want to see more like it , it does feel like a thing of the past now and I do want to Get that opportunity to miss it a little bit .
Also , when it comes to like missing it , I think that we will get that opportunity , because I think next year we only have Deadpool 3 coming out . I'm cool .
I'm cool .
Yeah .
I'm hoping that Deadpool 3 is good . It's looking like it's going to be fun . You know , I mean , look , it's been a while since we've had a Deadpool movie and that's like a different type of a movie . It wasn't under the different type of Marvel , right , yeah right , it wasn't under the MCU umbrella , so we've had the opportunity to miss a Deadpool .
I mean , we've been wanting a Deadpool for a while now and now we're finally starting to get it . I think we need that same thing for the MCU , like I think the MCU needs to . Their production needs to like go down a Little bit .
I know that you know they want to make money and stuff , but the thing is that I'm tired of these movies that have like some good written moments and then like the rest of its trash . You know , like I'm just . I'm like like what are you guys doing ? You know , take a moment , think about it .
And I also . I did a review of the MCU timeline book . I think I mentioned that I was reading it last time we were on the show .
Yes .
I finished it , I did a review . I liked some of it . I didn't like a lot of it and that was kind of a big video for me because I've been Focusing so much on the MCU timeline the past couple years and like mapping everything out like that . So to see such an official project have what I believe to be so many mistakes was a little disheartening .
So I just had to basically vent in that video and people seem to agree , at least mostly , you know , I think . I think they see the cracks too . It's not just the cracks in the writing , it's cracks in like the overall Understanding of the world that they're building . So yeah , that's what I've been up to .
Oh , also , we got a new TV show on Apple TV called Monarch Legacy of Monsters . I don't know if you've given that a shot yet .
No , I haven't been able to give it a Watch , but it looks good dude .
I have been watching that . There's three episodes now . Such a solid series , so it like bounces around the monster verse . So you know the series that started with Godzilla in 2014 , then went into Kong , squall Island , godzilla , king of the Monsters and then Godzilla vs Kong a couple years back . It kind of bridges all of those .
Well , mostly it bridges like early Monarch days , to the first Godzilla film basically . But it kind of shows the story of like how Monarch got started , why they were Necessary early on in the 40s and 50s and so on and so forth .
It's really cool and it bridges into like modern day , or like the modern day is like 2015 , so it's like a year after what happens with Godzilla in San Francisco . It's . It's just really well we've together . I'm really excited about it .
Nice . Yeah , I need to . I've been wanting to check it out . It looks really good All
¶ Reflections on Castle in the Sky
right .
So you want to talk about Castle in the sky a little bit .
Let's head to the castle in the sky , so that we can become the podcast in the sky .
So this is such a like . It's like a hidden gem of Miyazaki , because it's a really good movie but it's also a little forgettable and when you think of Miyazaki , this is usually not the first thing that pops up .
So I'm happy that you said yes to like doing a podcast on this particular movie , because you know , when I suggested let's do a Miyazaki , you probably were like yeah , and then I said Castle in the Sky and you're like huh .
I mean it was interesting because , like for me , like there's certain Miyazaki movies that I've only seen once in my life . You know , yeah , castle in the Sky was one of them , yeah , but there's , and a lot of people .
That's enough , you know right Like .
Another one that I think is like pretty like popular with some people is Ponyo , and I've only , I've only seen that once . I've seen it that one time with you .
Yeah , I remember that that was fun , yeah , and I think going back to some of these films is just a really nice opportunity to reacquaint yourself with , like , what made this movie tick , what made this work for you know the audience in , say , 1986 or like whatever .
You first watched it because it is a good movie and I think that you and I both enjoyed it when we first watched it , you know right right . Yeah , so a couple of years ago I did a video on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind .
I remember that .
That's one of my favorite videos . It was such a good time making that and like really diving into the history of Miyazaki , and in that video I kind of explored how Nausicaa was basically like the blueprint for Miyazaki's career .
You know , a lot of the tropes that we see in future Miyazaki films was in Nausicaa , but a lot of development of those ideas is featured in Castle in the Sky , like the idea of , you know , lost civilizations being a thing that pops up again and again in Miyazaki's work .
Or what I really like about this one is that it kind of idealizes the working man's life in a way . You know , like the town that Pazu lives in is a very like it's a mining town but it's like situated on , like inside a , like a cavern almost , or not a cavern . It's featured in like a valley between different crags of mountains .
It's such a beautiful fantasy setting . But it also feels so real and his idea of like these people are happy because they have purpose , they're working , they're working with their hands , they're a part of the earth's like ecosystem and that's what keeps them happy .
You know , I think that that's that's like a really unique viewpoint on the world and he seems to really run with that idea that you know it's nice , it's a good calling to do simple work even though it's not simple , like mining is not a simple job but it's a trade , you know right .
A lot of times in future Miyazaki films you'll see a lot of people working trades , like in a spirited way .
We have Chihiro go into the bathhouse and she's learning to work the baths basically , and then you go into like the steam room , in like underneath the bathhouse , and you have that one guy with all those arms working the cranks and like putting the coals in the fire .
So you see a lot of like physical labor in his work and I think that that's such a cool concept . I don't know , I think a lot of fantasy and sci fi people move away from that into a more like futuristic world , but he's very set on like this is a good way to live , you know it's interesting .
I do like it when I watch any like movie or anime where the future isn't exactly what we think it is . You know , like sometimes you see that the future is hyper advanced . There's cyber like it's like very cyberpunk and so like this one was like definitely it felt , yeah , like you said , like a lot more realistic .
Yeah , so a lot of anime goes for the more urban , like Tokyo vibe versus Miyazaki , who likes the suburbs , the towns and like nature . And I think that that's what sets his work apart , because , like he never sets things in the big city , he never sets things in Tokyo . Now , there are big cities in his works . Like you know , we have Kiki's delivery service .
She lives in a city , but it's a very almost like a European city . It's not a modern city . It deals with a lot of , you know , small towns put together . Basically , it's just like that idea , it's like been seeping into , like my consciousness as I grow up , like what was Miyazaki trying to tell us about all this ?
And I just think it's such a it's a beautiful like viewpoint of the world that he's been able to capture .
Yeah , watching this movie , honestly I felt like I was watching it again for the first time because yeah , there's a lot about it that I don't remember . I fairly kind of remember the like that the castle at the end , like I remember I had like a faint memory of like what it looked like , but other than that man like it was , it was very .
I was surprised like how well the animation like held up . It looked great for a 1986 film and you know how there's some anime from like back then that doesn't really hold up .
But I mean even like American animation it just doesn't like hold a candle , you know . But yeah , I totally agree and I think you know I was rambling earlier about like you know , like the idealization of , like the blue collar worker and whatever , but what ultimately boils down to is this is a cozy movie , you know .
Like there's so much that's like sleepy day Viewing about this , you know oh , yes , yes , it's very like it's slow , but there's a lot going on and people are just living nice , simple lives that you know you can respect . I just think it's cool . I just think the whole idea of it's cool .
But , like , even from like the beginning , when , like posers , like he wakes up , he plays his little horn to like wake up the town , it's such a simple , cozy little idea . I don't know it's like who would think of this ? Only Miyazaki . But yeah , I saw this recently .
I've seen it a few times now at this point I've probably seen it twice Years ago and I watched it once a few months ago in theaters . That was a really nice experience . There's a Alamo draft house near me that I go to and they occasionally play old movies , so this was a fun one .
But even then , like it's not a super memorable movie , I had to rewatch it . I literally watched it right before we got onto this podcast To just remember , like all the small details , like I didn't remember like the characters names , or Pazoo and Sheetha , I , or like that the pirates were , like Dola and her Children , her men , whatever , I don't know .
But yeah , it's weird , like when you're watching it it's just as dog upstairs . Go crazy . Sorry , guys , I gotta , there's a dog upstairs and I can't control him because I don't know him . So , yeah , let's jump into this movie because , like , there's so much to cover .
But yeah , I just wanted to get across that I just feel like it's such a cozy movie and I've been trying to boil down why it's such a cozy movie for a while and I think it's just Miyazaki style , you know .
¶ Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" Analysis
Well , I think you were saying that . You didn't you say that this was and I'm not trying to to drum up any Controversy but didn't you say that this was like your least favorite Miyazaki film ?
Did I say that ? I don't think I did . I mean I might have at one point believed that , yeah , you sent me .
You sent me a text .
Oh , I did say it's honestly one of my least favorite Miyazaki movies , but I have a lot to say about it .
Yeah , I remember you typing that , but for some reason that's not on my phone .
It's like in one of my longer messages . Yeah , like I , I mentioned it a couple .
Yeah , remember you , yeah , you said you're writing an article about it , and .
I think actually that's probably gonna be the idea of my articles , because I'm working with a bunch of people For a site called streamer just for this particular project . I volunteered for it .
I think I'm gonna be telling me about that actually .
Yeah , they're doing a Miyazaki thing . We're like one writer every day leading up to the boy in the Haran , the new movie . It's gonna release an article about one of the Miyazaki films and I think my article comes out in two days .
So pretty much today and tomorrow I'm gonna be writing like just a quick little article about what makes this movie work and like how it changed Miyazaki's legacy . So I'm excited about that . You can check that out . I'll be posting about it on my Twitter . So if you are interested at all , look up my Twitter in the show notes below .
We can post it in the show notes to the actual , like you know . Oh , yeah , yeah , your article , if you'd like yeah , that sounds good .
Oh , I'll send it to you . Somebody mode their line . Yeah , it's so . It's not that it's somebody , it's like a mowing company . Sorry guys , this is like super annoying , but they're usually done within a couple minutes All right . I'm gonna lower the . They're like right outside my door and I think they're blowing their blowing leaves .
It definitely got very loud , but I mean honestly , like , while we're waiting for that , I did want to talk about that . The movie was really interesting because you had this whole dynamic where a bunch of people were after this pendant that Sheetah has so that they can get to the castle in the sky , that civilization , and so like .
For like a little while you're thinking that the pirates are bad but they end up being the good people and , like the government ends up being the bad people . And you know , you find out that she does this like long . She's like a distant ancestor of , or she's related to , the people of this .
Lafita yeah , like she's like literally a princess Right , or like a lost princess because , for whatever reason , like her ancestors left Lopita and they abandoned it and , you know , left for the ground for whatever .
You know something that this was a thought that like randomly it popped up in my head . But you know the robots and La puta where they kind of reminded me of like a mix between Bastion and overwatch and K2so and the reason why I say Bastion is because they're like very like Gentle and like with the bird and all that stuff .
I was like , oh my gosh , that reminds me of Bastion . I wonder if that was the inspiration turns out .
It was really no . Yeah , so so there's actually a lot that's inspired by this movie . So , like the most striking visual in the entire movie , after they make their way to Lafita , they , they encounter those like rock golems or you know , ancient machines yes , whatever that are protecting the wildlife and the gardens .
On this floating castle , you have one of the machines like hands , shita , a flower like in its palm , and what's amazing about this is that , like , just like , maybe like 30 minutes before this , we just saw a One of these robots destroy a whole like military base . You know like these are massive , like their mass weapons .
You know they have a lot of firepower , they are super destructive and they're autonomous , pretty much you know .
So it's such a striking visual of this like it's basically like being offered a flower by an atomic bomb , but like when you see , like that , how gentle they are on this planet or this castle in the sky , you Kind of realize , oh , they're just protecting what they love , basically .
So that visual has seeped into Popular culture quite a bit and actually , like I was doing some research , this movie inspired quite a bit . So you mentioned Bastion , I think one of his what was it ? I think it was his .
They made a Bastion animated short , they did , and in it they actually have something similar where there's a bunch of like Bastion , like corpses all over , like a green field , and that's very reminiscent of like what we see in the castle in the sky at one point and they also have him like his interaction with his bird Ganameed , I think is the name of the
bird is very reminiscent of . You know how they treat the wildlife there . It's 100% Like there's no way , there's no ifs , ands or buts about it , like that's inspired by that . Another direct one , like a super direct one , is the rock golems in Minecraft .
Oh , yeah , okay , I remember , I know they actually they actually give you .
They give you flowers like they hand out flowers to you , oh that .
I don't know if you're not attacking them .
Yes , that's something that's pretty cool , man , I wish these people outside would like leave me alone , but they're blown . Sorry guys , this is like a very noisy and raucous between my cat turning stuff on and these people outside and the dog upstairs . Another thing that's interesting is you know Ethereum , the cryptocurrency .
Yes .
So it's the second biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin , ethereum and I was just like , wait , the element in this Chita's emblem her necklace is made of Ethereum , like it's a pure Ethereum crystal .
And I was looking it up and apparently the creator of Ethereum , ethereum , the blockchain was basically looking up like fictional elements on Wikipedia and he's just like , oh , that sounds cool , so that's where they got the idea for naming their thing , ethereum .
And also like the symbol of Ethereum is like a diamond and that diamond is what's powering Laputa Castle in the sky , like the big diamond . Oh yeah , yeah , yeah . So I don't know .
I think it's a very influential movie , even though , even though it's kind of forgettable , there are certain elements to it that seep into you like your consciousness , like you'll never forget the robot .
Right , I'm handing out some . You know . Well , it made an impression . It made me think of , yeah , it made me think of , like Bastion , Like I'm telling you that was like one of the characters that popped up and I'm like man , there's such a similarity .
I wonder if there was an inspiration for Bastion from this and like come to show that there was an inspiration . So that's insane that there was that and that you know the rock ooms and Minecrafts , because they look like almost exactly like them and dude , come on , let's be real Like the body of it and stuff .
I mean , I don't know if they got the inspiration , but there's definitely something about it , about them that reminded me of K2SO also .
Yeah , sorry , you also mentioned K2SO and I think so . I know some , like I know , concept artists in Lucasfilm and a lot of them really love Miyazaki . I know one in particular who's like written several articles about Miyazaki and I'm sure if I asked them they confirmed that .
Yeah , k2so is definitely based in part on , you know , miyazaki's robots , so I think that that's really cool , and they you know K2 also has that gentleness to him , even though he's like a powerhouse of evil sometimes . Not evil , but like weaponry .
Right , no , no , I guess you're talking about , but yeah , no , no , it . That's really cool that that there's , and we're just talking about the rock golems , well , I mean , and then you talked about the Ethereum , but I'm pretty sure that there's probably other inspirations from this film too .
I really thought that their source of transportation was really cool you know , the airships and stuff but I really liked those like firefly , like things that they were using . The airships , the pirates yes , the pirates .
Yeah , the pirates they had , like it was almost like in Dune . They have those like helicopters that have the flapping like dragonfly wings .
Oh yeah .
I think they call them ornithopters . I might be wrong , but it's kind of that same design of it's like a flapping thing . It's kind of like in the first Avengers movie , remember , like the Chitauri that were invading New York . They were like kind of riding those floating vehicles . Yes , it was like those floating vehicles but with flapping dragonfly wings .
I thought that was really cool .
Before I forget about it , like one of the early scenes in this movie is when she does falling from the sky and talk about like an anime trope , like someone falling from a sky , like when I first saw that , I was just like oh , this is just like Kingdom Hearts , you know , like that idea , but like that's a very common thing in anime and I can't confirm
this , I can't confirm this , but that's the earliest thing that I've seen do that , you know , and like she's floating down to earth with such grace . But that became a thing not only in Kingdom Hearts but like Final Fantasy and I've seen it in a bunch of other stuff .
Yeah , they have that in Weathering with you .
Yes , yes . So I have a feeling that that's 100% like some , at least some inspiration from Miyazaki Dude guys the legend , Guys the legend . I can't wait for his new movie , by the way . Oh yeah , If you've seen the trailer .
Yeah , I'm definitely going to go see it . I'm really stoked . You know , when it comes to physical media , I really , really want to get an entire Studio Ghibli collection , but I think I want to hold off for now . For what ? Because I mean
¶ Impact of "Castle in the Sky"
Miyazaki . He always says that this is his last film and then , like two years later , I think he's just going to continue to make films until he dies , Like really , that's just going to be him . He's like oh no , actually the last one , his last film , and then this one's his last film .
Supposedly , no , actually , he's now saying that , like after this finishes its theatrical run , he'll begin his work on his next film .
Okay . So yeah , now you know that this man is going to literally make movies until he dies .
I think that he just respects the craft and I think that seeps back into his idea of like work and like labor and how much he idolizes that like the working man's life and what he does is a trade . You know , I think that way he puts out into the world isn't just content like you or I are putting out .
You know , he's putting out art and that's his job and I respect that . I'm excited to see what he comes up with .
So what you're saying is that we don't put out art . I mean no , we do ? Content is an art , yeah , but I get what you mean , but I think that he just thoroughly enjoys making these films and I mean honestly , like if you find joy , and your crafts , whether that's you know working on a movie or you know creating a podcast .
Man keep more power to you . Yeah , yeah , absolutely . I keep that flame going because it does give you purpose . It does give you a feeling of satisfaction , being able to put something out into the world and be proud of it . So I 100% agree with that and I think that Miyazaki's love of storytelling and animating why should he stop ?
If he has more to say , then tell it .
I like the connection and the chemistry in this movie between Shita and Pazu . Like there was this closeness but it didn't go full throttle into romance , you know , like there was a deep caring for one another .
Yeah , I think what's great about it is that they were both young enough where it didn't need to be romance .
Right right .
It didn't need to be anything like that , and I think that's kind of why he chose to make the two characters children . But also I think it's cool that children are capable of so much , and I think that's part of the message .
In a world of corrupt adults , corrupt military people , corrupt politicians like Muska , who's trying to take the power of Laputa for himself , or scientists whatever you have good-hearted children who are willing to try to keep the world a better place .
I think that's cool . Actually , I like that you said that because , honestly , when it comes to children out of us and a lot of adults don't give them credit for where credit is due , yeah , children are capable of a lot more than we give them credit and yeah , like you said , this shows that .
I mean , sure , this is an anime , but sometimes people , sometimes a child , will do something and an adult will be surprised . It's like , well , you shouldn't be surprised , because children are a lot smarter than we think they are .
Yeah , they may be dumb . They may be dumb , but they're very smart , you know , like they're intelligent beings . They have agency , they are capable of .
They are sentient you know .
Yeah , they can keep the Sorcerer's Stone away from Voldemort . They can do that , you know .
They can figure out where the location of a hidden civilization is or a lost civilization is .
You know yes unlock the Chamber of Secrets with a little whisper .
Or unlock the Kingdom Hearts .
Oh yeah .
I mean I'm pretty sure that Sora in that first one was like 14 or 15 .
That sounds about right . Yeah , I think he's 14 and Riku's 15 . About the same age as .
Shita and Pazoo . Yeah , I think they were about like 13 .
Yeah , I think that that's my favorite age for you know , like children , characters where it's like stranger things with their teenagers . They're maybe just in middle school or early high school , stuff like that . That's another one like stranger things , stranger things like the entire world is saved by these kids in Hawkins , Illinois . For Like how many times .
Like it's four seasons now .
Yeah , absolutely . They're like some of the very few people that know the existence of this other , like alternate reality , that like lives . You know the very thin rail and so , yeah , I don't know you're right . No , I agree , it's like that . It's that slot where it's like the coming of age they're like early teens .
It's the coming of age or they're in that moment where they're trying to Figure there's still innocent . Yeah , they're innocent and it's like the beginning of their journey to adulthood and where they're trying to figure and find themselves .
And this movie definitely like kind of falls into that , you know , especially with Sheeta finding out About her path or her lineage , you know right ?
Yeah , for sure . Yeah , that's a good point . Innocent until proven guilty . I always miss you , miss mischievous . One thing I really liked about this movie was its idea of so this is like a parallel world to ours . Obviously , none of this happened .
None of this exists Right , but it feels like it could because they do such a good job of world-building early on , like , if you like , pay attention to , like the Early credits , you have several civilizations of , like , giant floating cities that are crashing into or they like fall out of the sky , basically , and all the people who live on Ground now are the
descendants of these flying cities . I think that that's a really just clever way of world-building .
I wonder if Oda got inspiration from this movie , because there's definitely like a whole civilization that lives in the sky and One piece , yeah , and there's like a piece of land that gets shot up into the sky by this thing you know , I feel like we could do .
We could do a whole , we could do a whole . Are you talking about skypea , skypea , yeah , and then maybe it is there's the , there's the .
They call like first and it's like the only like piece of like actual land that's up there , like earth , that's like , you know , dirt and trees and all that stuff , and so it gets shot up and there's a civilization that lived there . The civilization isn't lost , they just kind of got kicked off of that land .
But it kind of reminds me of that now that I think about it . You know , it's like the civilization in the sky , you know . So I'm looking it up .
We're not the first people to come up with this theory . Like on the one piece reddit , there's a theory that says in my opinion , one piece took more than 90% of its main story from castle in the sky . Yes , 90% , I mean it .
I Don't know about that , but I think there is definitely a lot of inspiration that's been stemmed out of this and I think what's great about it is that , even if it's not your favorite Miyazaki movie which doesn't my favorite Miyazaki movie it's still a fantastic movie . A and it seeps into your consciousness , whether you like it or not .
You know like it draws on , like these base instincts of like what makes life good and what makes life fantastical and the mythologies that we believe in or the histories that are lost to us .
Like this is very much Like a post-empire world , not necessarily , like you know , the Empire of Star Wars , but like the castles in the sky were basically the Roman Empire of the past .
And then what they're currently living through is , like you know , just after the Middle Ages , when people have kind of forgotten about the empires and they're now in an era of Industrialization , like their civilization has become industrial . So this is like turn of the century stuff , 1900s-ish world that they're living in .
Yeah , it was yeah .
It's , it's a and then they're basically like rediscovering all these old myths about , like where they came from , like Laputa , you know . Yeah it's cool , there's something to it , something to it .
Absolutely . Is there anything else that you want to discuss ?
No , I I do want to cover more me as Otto yeah .
I do too . I've been wanting to for for a good bit .
It's interesting . I feel like this movie isn't something that I want to like talk about scene by scene , but it's more of a feeling , right , right ?
Yeah , it is more of a feeling , I agree , and it is actually really nice . I mean , you know , we did brush a bit upon , like you know what the movie is about and I would say that you know it's really nice , like looking at some of the inspirations that this film has given it's .
You know , although we do say that it's largely Forgettable , but there's still a lot that was taken from it that inspired other things . So that goes to show you that there is a lot to love about this film . Yeah for sure .
Would you be interested in covering the boy in the Harron ?
Oh yeah , I really want to go see that .
Yeah , let's do that for our next show .
Let's do it , alrighty , bro . Um Any last thoughts on castle in the sky .
There is a castle and it's in the sky . Not too much longer anymore . If you have seen the ending , alright , yeah , no , I just it's a . It's a beautiful film . I think it's such a good vibe Altogether . If you haven't seen it , I don't think we really spoiled all that much .
Like there's so much more to the story than what we've actually discussed here on the show . But I'm encouraged to cover more Miyazaki in the future , especially here on project ecology . So if you're interested , be sure to check this movie out .
Obviously , follow us in the show notes , where you can find us at Twitter and Instagram on both , you know , like the podcast handles as well as our personal ones . And , yeah , so next week we're gonna be covering the boy and the Harron .
Well , the next , yeah , next up , yeah , next episode , cuz I don't think it'll be out by then . I think it comes out right fit .
I think it comes out next week or in a week or two or something like that . When is it come out ? Actually , it might actually be too far away .
No , no , no , I think we're good . I think we're good because I think that this episode will be . It'll come out Because we released that episode this week , so it'll be like another couple . Yeah , no , I think we'll be good .
I think we'll be good .
I think it's beginning of December , so if not if you listen to this and if not , if , if the if it's a different podcast , right Right , because the the movie come out in time for us . But yeah , well , I would say my last thoughts are I agree with Dakota . It's a beautiful movie , there's a lot to love about it .
It's something that I haven't seen it in a while , so you know , yeah , there are some bits and pieces of it that are , you know , largely forgettable , but it's still something worth watching , at least in my eyes , like something to come back to every once in a while . I haven't seen it since I was a kid , so this was a nice revisit .
Thank you for joining us for episode 66 of Project Ecology , where we talk about Castle in the sky . Join us next time to listen to Boy in a Heron , hopefully . And if you want to catch us on social media , go to Twitter , or go to ex , formerly known as Twitter , and we are at P Geekology there or Instagram , which is Project Geekology only one .
We will have our links in the show notes . We thank you so much . If you enjoy this podcast and your podcast application allows you to make reviews , give us a nice five-star review so that we can read it here on the show . Thank you so much and we hope you all have a great rest of your week .
Thank you make it a six-star review , if you can . That would be even better . 27 star review execute order 66 . All right , guys , bye , bye .