A shining masterpiece among animes. Up until a few days ago, My Neighbor Totoro was my favorite anime. Then when I saw Kiki's Delivery Service, I had a hard time deciding between the two. Now I'm certain. Castle in the Sky is The Lord of the Rings of animation. It is hands down the finest anime I've seen and definitely among the top ten animated movies of all time. It evokes a sense of wonder and magic. It is stunningly beautiful and emotional. It transports you to a wonderfully believable world and keeps you there until the end with great characters that sparkle and come alive. The voice acting for the English dub is stellar work, featuring many top name actors and some veteran VAs like Jim Cummings. The movie is equal parts wildly cartoony humor, all coming from the characters' brilliant personalities, and equal parts dark drama and violence. The movie effectively hammers home messages about war and using power for evil ends, much like Disney's Atlantis but in a more superbly crafted way. The background drawings are utterly wonderful. The character animation, though, is decidedly 80s and never reaches the soaring brilliance seen in My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service, both of which come from the same decade as this movie. And the animation seen in Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are so stunningly detailed that most anime fans will keep to them as favorites. However, Castle in the Sky keeps to the simple, straightforward style of storytelling seen in its 80s cousins while still featuring the attention to seriousness and drama of its modern cousins. They're all great movies, though, and whichever you choose as your favorite, I'd still recommend Castle in the Sky if you haven't seen it. I recommend it to Ghibli fans, to anime fans, and to animation fans who want to see anime that's weighty but not ponderous. At any rate, it's a soaring, remarkable movie.