{"id":9628,"date":"2012-02-01T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=9628"},"modified":"2012-02-01T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T09:00:50","slug":"laputa-skypirates-against-the-patriarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/02\/01\/laputa-skypirates-against-the-patriarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"Laputa: Skypirates Against The Patriarchy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exciting news! My very favourite film, Laputa<\/strong><\/a> (aka Castle In The Sky<\/strong>) has just appeared on YouTube with its rare original English dub rather than the grotesque Disney version featuring James Van Der Beek. This is, of course, bad and wrong and you definitely shouldn’t go and watch it all.<\/p>\n

\"Sheeta,<\/a>It’s the first Studio Ghibli<\/a> film proper, and it’s a corker, containing two reasonably kickass female characters, a steam train chase, skypirates, magic crystals, airships, a mysterious floating city and some damn fine robots. It’s a sort of steampunk sci-fi ecofable. It even has a section set in what is clearly a parallel universe Welsh mining town, inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s trip to Wales and interest in the miners’ strike in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli can generally be relied upon for more interesting and resourceful heroines<\/a> than your average Disney or Pixar fodder, even if they are a bit, er identically similar. But in Laputa<\/strong> you can read the whole film as a condemnation of patriarchal power. Seriously \u2013 the government, the military and the monarchy line up against a girl and her male friend (who represent the future, protecting one another and fighting alongside each other as equals) and a band of pirates captained by a truly formidable woman.<\/p>\n

There is a bit of a science vs nature theme, but it’s not clear cut, as the pirates rely on technology as much as the military do. Technology and nature are shown to be in harmony in the great overgrown gardens of the ancient city of Laputa, tended for centuries by a solitary robot.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the womens. Orphan Sheeta is the central character, and although she might at first seem more passive than the Ghibli girls to come in Spirited Away<\/strong>, My Neighbour Totoro<\/strong> and Howl’s Moving Castle<\/strong>, she is quietly courageous, getting in a fair bit of fighting, struggling, attacking, escaping and running away. In the dramatic first minutes of the film, for example, she acts boldly and bravely and strikes out against her captors:<\/p>\n