Behind most great Hayao Miyazaki films is a soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi. Hisaishi has been Miyazaki’s go-to composer ever since he scored Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind. He has since created some of the most memorable Studio Ghibli compositions in the company’s history. His follow-up score would be for Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and many Ghibli fans consider this score to be one of the composers most memorable compositions.
Yet Laputa: Castle in the Sky has a unique distinction from most of Hisaishi’s other scores: There are TWO different versions! What’s more, this isn’t a situation where America has it’s own score while Japan has the original. No, in this case Joe Hisaishi composed BOTH scores and both can be considered 'official.' The story behind why he did this is interesting, humorous, and ultimately a bit disappointing when all was said and done. It involves big plans, a desire to improve on what came before, and a company that got cold feet about the project at the last minute.
Disney Sets Their Sights on Laputa: Castle in the Sky
In 1996 Studio Ghibli made a surprising deal with the Walt Disney Company: They would sell the American distribution rights of their entire catalog to Disney, who would go on to produce English dubs of the films and release them in America. The anime fandom was worried that Disney wouldn’t respect the source material, but they would have little to worry about; one of the stipulations was that Disney wouldn’t cut the films or make any changes to them. Except for the dubbing themselves, they would remain intact.
It appears that slight music changes weren’t part of the original agreement though. The first film Disney released was Kiki’s Delivery Service, which was released straight-to-video on September 1, 1998. Disney was true to their word and didn’t cut anything, but they did ad-lib some dialog, fill in the silence with extra Hisaishi music, and replaced the Japanese score with two American songs by Sydney Forest. The video was an instant hit and was a surprise bestseller. Famed film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert even reviewed the movie on their show (where they gave it ‘Two Thumbs Up’). It was also on this tape where the next Ghibli release would be advertised: Castle in the Sky.
Disney Has Bigger Plans for Castle in the Sky
Disney decided that Castle in the Sky (dropping Laputa from the title as it was an offensive word in Spanish) would be the next release from Studio Ghibli. When Kiki’s Delivery Service outperformed in video sales though, the executives paused and took a second look at Castle in the Sky. They started to wonder if maybe they weren’t jumping the gun a bit. Maybe – just maybe - Castle in the Sky could be a hit at the box office. It had all the ingredients to be a huge hit, from memorable characters, excellent action, and it would likely stick to a PG-rating. There was one problem the executives had with the film though: The score. While the executives thought the tunes themselves were fine, unlike other Ghibli films the score for this film was done with a synthesizer.
While it was common for movies of the time period to use synthesizers to score films (sometimes to great effect; check out the Oscar-winning score to Chariots of Fire), it was the nineties, and movies today were scored with lavish orchestras.
They couldn’t put a product out that sounded like it came from the eighties (even though it essentially did), so Disney went to Joe Hisaishi and asked him to re-record the score for a modern audience. They wanted the music recorded with an orchestra, new pieces to fill out the silence a bit, and they wouldn’t spare any expense.
Excited to be able to revisit one of his first major works, Hisaishi agreed, and a new score was produced. When it was delivered Disney was happy with the end result. The problem was, during the time they asked him to re-record the score to when it was finally delivered, plans to release Castle in the Sky had changed.
Castle in the Sky is Shelved
During the dubbing process, a little film called Princess Mononoke hit Japanese cinemas, and Disney decided to change course and release that as their first theatrical Ghibli release. That decision would be a disaster that the company never fully lived down, but happen it did, and that meant that Castle in the Sky was delayed. When Princess Mononoke bombed it prompted Disney to shelve the entire catalog until John Lasseter came along and convinced them to release the rest of the titles on DVD. This included Castle in the Sky on April 15, 2003.
The DVD had a dub that was met with mixed reception, but the newly revised score did receive praise from fans who loved how much better it sounded. It also received criticism from purists who didn’t like the idea of the music being altered at all, with some feeling the old synthesizer score added a lot of charm to the film. Ultimately the revised score was only available if you watched the movie in English, and the CD itself could only be purchased in Japan in limited quantities. Hisaishi’s revised score may have been met with praise, but its time in the limelight was short-lived.
The Revised Score is Shelved Again
Once Studio Ghibli’s brand became stronger in America, it prompted Miyazaki to look at the dubs and have…questions about the music. While Disney technically had the right to modify the music a bit, he was becoming more uncomfortable with the changes being made to it (as well as the ad-libbing by the English comedians). When the contracts were renewed the English songs from Kiki’s Delivery Service were removed, extra dialog was deleted, and the original score for Castle in the Sky was restored.
This means that the 2005 DVD is the only way for Americans to hear the re-recorded score in the movie (though some international BluRay have the revised score with modified dialog). One has to wonder what would have happened had Disney released the more family friendly (and more marketable) Castle in the Sky in theaters before their mishandling of Princess Mononoke, but at least have an alternate score for those who want more polish to the classic tunes Joe Hisaishi wrote for this movie so many years ago.