Not A Children's Movie
Apparently most, if not all the reviewers, did not mind subjecting their children to a very violent movie. I do not care what artistic wonder this film may be, it is definitly not a movie for children under 8 or 9 years of age.

Totally cool.
This movie took me a few watches to get to like, but ended up really liking it.

terrible voice acting
the voice acting was atrocious, from top to bottom with the exception of mark hamil. unbelievable voicing, it really hurt the film to have this constant feeling that "Yes I'm reading my lines from a page, and I do every line the exact same because I am a terrible actor."

It's a great film, but the voicings ruined it for me. It probably wont make much difference to kids, though, so this film gets the 5 stars, they won't notice how terrible all the voice actors are.

Beautiful animation and wonderfully written story
Castle in the Sky is a 1986 anime film directed by Hayao Miyazaki and released by Studio Ghibli.

The story begins with a young girl named Sheeta being taken to an unknown area by Colonel Muska. When sky pirates attack the flying vehicle, Sheeta is able to grab the pendant from Colonel Muska and escape. But when the sky pirates try to capture her, Sheeta falls off the vehicle. Her pendant emits a blue light and allows her to float gently to the ground. A boy named Panzu sees her floating and catches her.

Panzu and Sheeta become friends, and Panzu shares that his deceased father saw Laputa, an ancient city that, according to myths, floats in the sky. Panzu was the only person to believe his father, and Panzu is determined to find the city someday. Panzu and Sheeta have some adventures together, and Panzu ends up learning that Sheeta is actually part of the royal family of Laputa. When they're ambushed by government agents, Panzu and Sheeta are separated. During the rest of the film, Sheeta learns more about her heritage and connections with Laputa, while Panzu ends up teaming up with the sky pirates to rescue Sheeta.

This DVD release was a bit of a disappointment. While the film itself is great, there isn't much in the way of bonus features. The first disc includes an introduction by Pixar's John Lasseter (which is exactly the same as what you see at the beginning of the film), a "Behind the Microphone" feature that features most of the voice actors from the English dub (however, Anna Paquin, the English dub voice of Sheeta, is noticeably absent from the documentary), and the original Japanese trailers (but the trailers only run for slightly over four minutes). The second disc just contains the storyboard version of the film.

Castle in the Sky combines beautiful animation and a wonderfully written story. During the film there is action, adventure, drama, and even a giant robot. While the DVD release is a little disappointing, you should still acquire it for your DVD collection if you're a fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, because the film itself is worth the money you spend on buying the DVD.

Not Miyazaki's best.
Sure the artwork is fantastic, and the characters and voice work are decent, but no matter how hard I tried I just could not get into this movie. The plot tries too hard to be mature, and then it seems like they decided to switch the direction of the film halfway through and made it seem like they were trying to aim it towards kids. Normally I like Miyazaki's plots, and how they can appeal to everyone, but something just went wrong here. I actually consider this to be Miyazaki's worst. I'd say it's still worth checking out if you're a Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli fan.