Castle in the Sky: Commentary (S3E22)

Why are we talking about Castle in the Sky and Studio Ghibli on our Dragon Ball show? Tune in to this episode to find out! It's time for Final Forum's Dragon Ball-oween Spooktacular!

In this episode, Jelli and Bekinney break down the 1986 movie, Castle in the Sky directed by Hayao Miyazaki and released by Studio Ghibli via a watch-along commentary. It's part of our October/Halloween Festivities where we're taking a break from breaking down Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon and delving into times our franchise's creators have "put on a costume" and worked on other shows and movies. 

In this episode:

• Jelli and Bekinney get right into it, with no time for frivolousness. This movie is two hours long. There's no time for silliness.
• Contextualizing Castle in the Sky and why we're covering it on a Dragon Ball podcast
• Where Castle in the Sky fits into the timeline of Dragon Ball, notably during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai in the anime, and the Red Ribbon Army Saga (specifically during Tao Paipai's appearance and the training with Master Korin) in the manga
• How Miyazaki was inspired by a trip to Wales and the Coal Miner's Strike in the UK
• Shindo Productions, who did keyframe animation for this movie....and Curse of the Blood Rubies
• A brief biography of Mitsuo Shindo, and his worko n Dragon Ball, Dr Slump and Dragon Ball Z
• Tadayoshi Yamamuro, and his career in Dragon Ball, including his work as lead character designer for Dragon Ball Super
• How Yamamuro's style differs from that of Minoru Maeda
• What drew Yamamuro to Dragon Ball and his thoughts on characters such as Goku, Frieza, Bojack, and Janemba
• Yamamuro's thoughts on the most difficult thing to draw
• Voice actress Mayumi Tanaka, voice of Pazu, Yajirobe, and of course, One Piece's Monkey D Luffy
• How Tanaka utilized a career in theater, to break into the world of voice acting via Urusei Yatsura, and leveraged her part as Pazu to become cast as the voice of Luffy in One Piece
• Other Dragon Ball notables from the voice cast: Keiko Yokozawa, voice of Sheeta here and Anin from the Bansho Fan filler episodes we just discussed; Ichiro Nagai, voice of the General here and Crane Hermit and Master Korin; Ryuji Saikachi, voicing the engineer here, and Grand Kai in the Other World Tournament filler arc; Tomomichi Nishimura, voice of the Supreme Kai of Universe 4 in Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power arc
• Notable actors from the dub cast including Eddie Frierson, voicing the train engineer here, but Tienshinhan in the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon Ball, as well as Ken in the Street Fighter II animated movie
• Anna Paquin, Jim Cummings (leading to a lot of Winnie the Pooh talk), Mandy Patinkin (Hallo, my name is Inigo Montoya), Richard Dysart (The Thing), Tress Macneille (a million things including Mom in Futurama and Agnes Skinner in The Simpsons); and Cloris Leachman aka Frau Blucha
• Mark Hammill...ever heard of him?
• Discussing Studio Ghibli, their start, and how a double bill of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro finally led to them breaking out; their partnership with Disney; Disney helping propel Ghibli to Miyazaki's first Oscar win at the 75th Academy Awards Ceremony for Spirited Away; and how GKids wound up swooping in due to a disagreement between Ghibli and Disney over From Up on Poppy Hill
• We also talk about how Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was edited for a movie called Warriors of the Wind, give thoughts on Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, When Marnie was There, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returns, Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, Ponyo, Arrietty, The Wind Rises and Earwig and the Witch throughout the episode, as well as our plans to eventually watch The Boy and the Heron
• Miyazaki's career, including his work on The Wonderful World of Puss in Boots (and Toei's mascot Pero), Wolf Boy Ken, Doggie March (and helping to launch the Toei Manga Matsuri), and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
• Miyazaki's philosophical disagreements with Takashi Yamazaki (director of Godzilla Minus One and The Eternal Zero) as well as Naoki Hyakuta (author of The Eternal Zero)
• Miyazaki's influences including Osamu Tezuka, Lewis Carroll, Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), Roald Dahl and the 1957 animated Soviet film, The Snow Queen. 
• Miyazaki being dubbed the Disney of Japan as well as the Kurosawa of Animation
• ...and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual 

Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise....or in this case, the Sand Land trans-media franchise....for our special Dragon Ball-o-Ween event!

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