If you’re a frequenter of this site, you probably already know what huge fans we are of Studio Ghibli and its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. I’ve written both heaps and gobs about the films and truly can never get enough of them, but I have a strange fondness for Miyazaki’s early sci-fi/fantasy/adventure pastiches, like The Castle of Cagliostro and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. His thematic trilogy ended in 1986 with the production of the first film under the Studio Ghibli banner, Laputa, also known as Castle in the Sky.
The tale of people in airships looking for a fabled mystical clockwork castle that flies would spark anyone’s imagination, and apparently did in the form of a LEGO music box.
This build was the work of Banghoo H and Yeom-E who not only constructed Laputa itself, but used the clockwork of a wind-up music box to make it rotate and to make LEGO clouds bob up and down as it does so. It looks as though a good portion of the music box’s parts are actually made of LEGO, aside from the metal necessary to make the song play. And what song is that? Well, obviously it’s the theme to Castle in the Sky composed by Miyazaki’s longtime musical collaborator Joe Hisaishi. It sounds great both in its chiming form or in the full orchestral version heard in the video above.
It’s amazing when the creativity of one artist can inspire the creativity of another, and I think anybody would love to have this Laputa LEGO music box in their home, whether they’re fans of the film it depicts or not. There’s something so relaxing and hypnotic about watching it spin around as the music plays. That’s your kid’s lullaby machine forever.
You can see more of Bangoo H’s impressive LEGO builds on this Flickr page under the banner of Ailur Works (Laputa is easily the crowning achievement).
How much would you love this in your home? What other Miyazaki things should get made into LEGO music boxes (You’d think Howl’s Moving Castle would be a no-brainer)? Let us know in the comments below!
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HT: Brothers Brick
Images: Studio Ghibli/Ailur Works
Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!
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