My first contact with Hayao Miyazaki's work was "Warriors of the wind", which was one of the best animated movies of my childhood, and thanks to internet I was able to get the original Nausicaa movie, which I love even more (I have watched "Princess Mononoke" prior to that, and "Spirited away" after that). Altough Miyazaki's movies are made for kids, I have found every last one of them full of meaning and symbolism, and to me they are oriented to all ages, not just kids. My brother bought me dvd a boxset of Miyazaki's movies (Porco Rosso, My neighbor Totoro, Laputa:Castle in the sky, etc) and tonight I watched "Laputa:Castle in the sky". And I cannot but think that the story of Laputa is set in the past of Nausicaa. Why do I think that?? For starters, the techology level in Laputa is contemporary with the technology of the beginning of the 20th century, the airships of the Laputa are similar to airships of Nausicaa, but the former use propeler engines, while the later use jet engines (sort of). That there's the robots in Laputa that look very much like the 'God Warriors' which burned the world in 'Seven days of fire' in Nausicaa. And lets not forget the squirells in the Laputa gardens, that look the same as Nausicaa's pet. These are the things that I have noticed tonight, I will have to watch it again to settle my impressions and also to see if missed some other clues. Has anyone else thought of this and made the same connection?? Or not?? Comment away.
I think its just another case of Miyazaki's art looking the same, the design of the robots originally was from a Lupin the 3rd episode he directed.
Actually he just likes putting little things like that in his movies. The robot for instance is his variation on the robot from one of the old Fleischer Superman cartoons. The squirrels were specifically a reference to Nausicaa. If you look at his newer movies, you can usually find similar references throughout.
A lot of his animation are symbols of humans work or the interaction of people. like Nausicca about pollution of humans also a scene from Spirited Away in the train, you might reconized the people on the same bus you go to work but you have no idea who they are.
