History YMMV / CastleInTheSky

* MagnificentBitch: [[LovableRogue Captain Dola]] is a tough-as-nails, boastful [[SkyPirate pirate]] who pillages the skies for wealth and treasures beyond compare with her own family for crew. Having learned of the existence of a necklace capable of leading one to the lost, floating city of Laputa, Dola stages on attack on a military escort blimp, tearing through the defenses and only losing the necklace when the young girl Sheeta slips away with it. Tracking down Sheeta through use of disguises and allying with her friend Pazu to rescue her from [[BigBad Colonel Muska]], Dola recruits the children to her crew and uses them as guides to find Laputa for herself. Even when caught by Muska's men, Dola escapes with Pazu's help, imparts a useful weapon to him in return, and goes on to loot Laputa for as many riches as her crew can carry, walking away from the adventure immensely rich and having gained the friendship of Sheeta and Pazu for her gruff, yet lovable, maternal nature.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack, in both the original Japanese version and the longer, more extensive rescore for the Disney dub. Both composed by Joe Hisaishi. Special mention goes to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8MEO_2AYo the main theme]].

* SubbingVersusDubbing: Although the Disney dub has its fans, there have been Japanese purists who have taken issue with the dub's more liberal translation, additional dialogue and the leads sounding considerably more mature than their Japanese ocounterparts. Joe Hisaishi's rescore, too, despite receiving praise from the director, also received controversy. Disney would later re-release the dub without the extra dialogue and music, which then [[DuelingDubs caused fans of the 2003 cut of the Disney dub to express their misgivings]].

** Backlash towards the added dialogue and new musical score in the Disney dub probably caused Disney to remove both from its re-release. This, too, caused backlash from fans of the Disney dub, especially those who preferred the new score. As mentioned, though, Creator/{{GKIDS}} would later include both scores in its release, giving viewers the option to choose.

* SubbingVersusDubbing: Although the Disney dub has its fans, there have been Japanese purists who have taken issue with the dub's more liberal translation, additional dialogue and the leads sounding considerably more mature than their Japanese ocounterparts. Joe Hisaishi's rescore, too, despite receiving praise from the director, also received controversy. Disney would later re-release the dub without the extra dialogue and music, which then [[DuelingDubs, rather ironically, caused fans of the 2003 cut of the Disney dub to express their misgivings]].

** "Balse!", the [[spoiler: Spell of Destruction used by Sheeta and Pazu]]. It's so popular that fans post this to social media sites at the exact moment it is said in the movie whenever it airs in Japan, sometimes causing them to crash from demand.

** The Disney dub has the opposite problem - characters are heard speaking when their mouths aren't moving and the audio of sound effects is reduced, likely due to the new musical score. Disney's re-release would remove the extra audio, but [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not without backlash from fans of the older version]].
* {{Squick}}: In the original version, the Sky Pirates treat Sheeta like a mother figure when she starts dressing like a pirate, but the Disney dub has them trying to romantically court her. Although their clumsy overtures are funny, it doesn't quite distract from the fact that we have a group of men, the oldest looking like they're well in their thirties, trying to court a girl of twelve or thirteen.
* SubbingVersusDubbing: The Disney dub has been a subject of contention with Japanese purists due to script liberties, added dialogue, a new musical score that plays over scenes that were silent in the original version, and the leads sounding older than their Japanese counterparts. Disney would later re-release the dub without the extra dialogue and music, which then [[DuelingDubs caused contention among fans of the dub]].

** Backlash towards the added dialogue and new musical score in the Disney dub caused Disney to remove both from its re-release, but this in turn caused backlash from fans of the dub, especially those who preferred the new score. Creator/{{GKIDS}} would later include both scores in its release.

** The JAL dub lacks crowd noise in certain scenes and characters aren't always heard speaking when their mouths are moving.

** Whenever a character yells in the Japanese dub (Ex. Pazu), there's an audible echo to the line.

** Backlash towards the added dialogue and new musical score in the Disney dub caused Disney to remove both from its re-release, but this in turn caused backlash from fans of the dub, especially those who preferred the new score. Creator/GKIDS would later include both scores in its release.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack, in both the original Japanese version and the longer, more extensive rescore for the Disney dub. Both composed by Music/JoeHisaishi. Special mention goes to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8MEO_2AYo the main theme]].

** As mentioned, the '80s dub of ''Laputa'' wasn't well received upon its initial release, but when Disney's came along, many longtime fans of that version excoriated both the dub and rescore.
** Purists loathed the new orchestral score and extra chatter in Disney's dub, to the point where Disney omitted both in home media releases post-2003. This ended up backfiring, as that created a camp of fans who were ''furious'' at Disney for removing them (even if others applaud Disney for trying to be more faithful). Ironically, removing the rescore has only caused [[VindicatedByHistory some reviews to recognize its own greatness]] and lament its loss from the dub (e.g. [[Webvideo/JesuOtaku Jacob Hope Chapman]]'s review at Anime News Network). The Disney dub has since [[VindicatedByHistory been reviewed more favorably and accepted, mostly by newer fans,]] and the sentiment only became greater once Joe Hisaishi's open preference of the orchestral soundtrack was made clear (he considered the 1986 score a rushed job, which explains its unusually sparse, synth-driven sound). Even better, Gkids has reissued the film with two English dub options, providing viewers with the opportunity to see Disney's dub with either the rescore, or the original. Still others TakeAThirdOption and state both scores have their merits.

* {{Squick}}: Although the clumsy overtures of the Sky Pirates towards Sheeta once she dresses like a pirate are funny, it doesn't quite distract from the fact that we have a group of men, the oldest looking like they're well in their thirties, trying to court a girl of twelve or thirteen. An important note: This relationship was apparently only true in the Disney dub - In the original version, the pirates treated her more like a mother figure.
* SubbingVersusDubbing: The Disney dub has been a subject of contention with Japanese purists due to script liberties, added dialogue, a new musical score that plays over scenes that were silent in the original version, and making the leads sound older than their Japanese counterparts. Disney would later re-release the dub without the extra dialogue and music, which then [[DuelingDubs caused contention among fans of the dub]].

* SubbingVersusDubbing: This is not the only Disney-Ghibli dub to receive such an atmosphere (''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' and ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' also qualify), but it seems as though viewers can't really seem to unanimously agree if the Disney dub is an entertaining experience in its own right, better than the Japanese in many ways, or even a watered down travesty of a great film. Purists strongly claim it is the latter (often stating that the Japanese version is the ONLY way you should watch the film, to a lesser extent the JAL English dub), but there are still many fans of the Disney dub. In an even more ironic case, when the now extinct Streamline dub was released, it too received a similar split reaction. But when Disney's dub was released, the atmosphere quickly changed for some into a TheyChangedItNowItSucks attitude. Some still even resent the Disney version for replacing the older dub, period. All the more ironic because Carl Macek thought the original '80s dub didn't turn out so well. (There are others who TakeAThirdOption and state that both the Disney and Japanese versions have merit and are good in their own right.)

* EvilIsCool: Muska stands out as probably the only truly depraved and evil Ghibli villain, and pulls it off with such style and charisma it's hard not to be a little impressed when [[NearVillainVictory he finally takes control of Laputa]]. Being voiced by [[Creator/MarkHamill Mark Hamill]] in the English dub certainly helps.
* GeniusBonus:

** To some fans, the JAL dub suffers from a lot of bizarre-sounding lines:
*** "I'm built as hard as a brick moppet, if moppets were made out of bricks!"
*** "How very dumb, these earthlings." "Not many shows better than THAT one!" "There's no WAAAAAY you can escAAAAAAAAPE!"
*** Rather bizarrely, a pirate says "just like in the movies!" in the JAL dub. This is line is both out of place with the rest of the film's atmosphere and isn't even in the original script.

** In both the JAL dub and the Japanese version, the scene with Pazu's boss fighting with the pirates, specific sound effects like a punches and the crowd's auditory reactions are eerily absent. The Disney dub, predictably, adds more chatter and crowd reactions to the scene, arguably making the situation more realistic. There are added in punch sound effects as well. (Complaints from purists caused Disney to dial back some of those added in lines, however, as well as the additional punches.)
** The JAL dub, more embarrassingly, is devoid of any soldiers shouting during the scene where they are being chased in the climax by the robots. Both the Japanese version and the Disney dub clearly have walla sound effects (and in the latter, a longer, more drawn-out EvilLaugh from Muska echoing over the solders' screams).
* {{Squick}}: Although the clumsy overtures of the Sky Pirates towards Sheeta once she dresses like a pirate are funny, it doesn't quite distract from the fact that we have a group of men, the oldest looking like they're well in their thirties, trying to court a girl of twelve or thirteen. An important note: This relationship was apparently only true in the Disney Dub - In the original version, the pirates treated her more like a mother figure.

** General Muoro and his lackeys showed their complete willingness to torture Sheeta to squeeze the secrets out of her and also tried to kill Pazu. Which also makes Muska's [[spoiler: massacre of them a case of KickTheDog]].