Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney and with special guests Graham Day and Bríd Martin, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.
This year, we are proud to continue the tradition of Anime May, a fortnight looking at two of the animated Japanese films on the list. This year, we watched a double feature of Hayao Miyazaki’s Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta and Hauru no ugoku shiro. We’ll also be covering a bonus on a recent entry on the list, Naoko Yamada’s Koe no katachi.
This week, the first part of the double bill, Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta, the first official Studio Ghibli film.
Perhaps overshadowed by the movies either side of it – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind preceding it and My Neighbour Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies following it – Castle in the Sky is in some ways an archetypal Hayao Miyazaki film. What begins as a chance encounter between a lonely boy and a girl who falls to Earth evolves into a fable about the perils of militarism and the importance of environmentalism.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show notes:
- Recorded 14th April 2020.
- Anime May is an annual tradition on The 250, picking up from Anime April, with our anime experts Graham and Bríd Martin. This was Graham’s idea, and prompted in large part by our satisfaction with the episode that we recorded on Your Name. 2018’s installments were Isao Takahata’s Hotaru no haka and Hayao Miyazaki’s Tonari no Totoro. 2019’s installments were Hayao Miyazaki’s Kaze no tani no Naushika and Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Akira.
- Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
- Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta at The Internet Movie Database.
- Read Graham’s reviews at Scannain.
- Hear Graham on Speaking Geek.
- Read Graham’s guide to Irish Gaming at Gameir.
- Follow Graham on Twitter.
- Hayao Miyazaki talks to Japan Today about the prospect of a sequel to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, August 2013.
- Direct TV offers a brief introduction to the films of Hayao Miyazaki and the work of Studio Ghibli, February 2020.
- Kat Lawson at The Film Magazine offers a brief introduction to Studio Ghibli, February 2015.
- Mark Hamill talks to Film Freak Central about dubbing Laputa: Castle in the Sky, March 2013.
- Joe Hisaishi talks to Keyboard Magazine about remastering the soundtrack to Laputa: Castle in the Sky for American audiences, August 1999.
- Joe Hisaishi talks to Nausicaa.net about the logistics of re-recording the Laputa: Castle in the Sky soundtrack, July 1999.
- Robert O. Rusli at Wesleyan University discusses the craft and technique of Joe Hisaishi, April 2010.
- Andrew Osmond at Animation World Network discusses some of the controversy around the re-recorded soundtrack to Laputa: Castle in the Sky, April 2000.
- James Southall at Movie Wave reviews the soundtrack to An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, November 2006.
- Germain Lussier at io9 argues that the “butthole cut” of Cats cannot exist, March 2020.
- Yohana Desta at Vanity Fair discusses the infamous “butthole cut” of Cats, April 2020.
- Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew on the history and legacy of The Flintstones, September 2010.
- Bradford Evans at Vulture discusses the history of adult-targetted animation in the United States, February 2013.
- Kazuaki Nagata at Japan Times on what distinguishes Japanese animation from its western equivalents, September 2010.
- Rachel Lovinger at Entertainment Weekly offers a brief introduction to Stripperella, August 2002.
- Gary Susman at Entertainment Weekly on the lawsuit over Striperella, July 2003.
- Daniel Kurland at Den of Geek celebrates Duckman, March 2019.
- Jason Alexander talks to Emmy TV Legends about the production and history of Duckman, July 2014.
- Caitlin Aamodt at Discover Magazine on “the Mandela Effect”, February 2017.
- Jasper Sharp offers a eulogy for Isao Takahata to The Guardian, April 2018.
- Toshio Suzuki talks to Cartoon Brew about the complicated legacy of Isao Takahata, August 2018.
- Nick Bradshaw at Sight & Sound discusses the long and pained production of The Tale of Princess Kaguya, May 2018.
- Will Oremus at Slate discusses the Twitter record set by Laputa: Castle in the Sky, August 2013.
- Game Spite on “the Laputa Effect”, April 2008.
- Hironobu Sakaguchi talks to Edge Online on how the airships in the Final Fantasy series were inspired by Laputa: Castle in the Sky, March 2006.
- Will Thorne at Variety reports on plans to bring the Studio Ghibli catalogue to HBO Max, October 2019.
- Christopher Runyon at Movie Mezzanine argues for Pom Poko as one of the most distinctive movies in the Studio Ghibli canon, January 2014.
- Hayao Miyazaki talks to The Guardian about his influences and inspirations, September 2005.
- LibCom.Org offers a brief history of the Japanese Miike miner strikes of 1960, August 2018.
- Hayao Miyazaki talks to The South China Morning Post about his politics, July 2015.
- Hernán K at Medium on Miyazaki and antifa otakus, June 2019.
- Roland Kelts at Japan Times on the generation divide on Hayao Miyazaki and his politics, October 2013.
- Rebekah Higgitt at The Guardian takes a look at Jonathan Swift’s feud with Isaac Newton, March 2013.
- Jean Balchin at SciBlogs on Jonathan Swift’s cynicism towards the Royal Society, January 2018.
- Marianne Eloise writes at Dazed Digital on the inspirations and history behind Laputa: Castle in the Sky, August 2016.
- Tom Kington at The Sunday Times discusses the popularity of Civita di Bagnoregio with Asian tourists, September 2018.
- Global Times looks at the Chinese tourist boom in Civita di Bagnoregio, September 2018.
- Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli at The Washington Post report on how the coronavirus has affected tourism to Civita di Bagnoregio, February 2020.
- Anthony Lioi argues for the radical environmental pacifism of Hayao Miyazaki at Image Text, Spring 2010.
- Tim Hornyak at Japan Times debates the discomfort around the Japanese “Moe” stereotype, July 2014.
- The Story of Utopias by Lewis Mumford, July 1922.
- Taylor Nicole Rogers at Business Insider looks at how nature is reclaiming open spaces in the midst of the coronavirus, April 2020.
- Reuters offers a gallery of wild creatures moving into public spaces during the coronavirus pandemic, May 2020.
- Natasha Daly at National Geographic on the tendency to exaggerate stories of nature reclaiming public spaces int he pandemic, March 2020.
- Lauren Lola at YOMYOMF looks at thirty years of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, August 2016.
- Rob Bricken at io9 on how the robot from Laputa: Castle in the Sky snuck into Avengers: Age of Ultron, June 2015.
- Follow The 250 on Twitter.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: anime, anime april, brid martin, castle int he sky, environmentalism, graham day, Hayao Miyazaki, laputa, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, pacifism, Studio Ghibli, weapons of mass destruction |
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