Castle in the Sky returns to theaters for five nights in August
GKIDS and Fathom are screening Miyazaki’s 1986 film August 22 through 26 in both subtitled and dubbed versions. Disney distributed Studio Ghibli in America for roughly two decades, and GKIDS has held the catalog since.
Hayao Miyazaki‘s Castle in the Sky turns 40 this year, and GKIDS and Fathom Entertainment are putting it back on American screens for five nights.
Dubbed showings run Saturday, August 22 at 3 p.m. and Sunday, August 23 at 3 and 7 p.m. Subtitled screenings follow Monday and Tuesday at 7 p.m., with a final dubbed showing Wednesday, August 26 at 7 p.m.
Every screening includes a clip from the bonus featurette The World of Laputa.
Tickets are on sale through Fathom and GhibliFest.com.
What Castle in the Sky is about
Pazu, an engineer’s apprentice, watches a girl come down out of the sky held up by a glowing pendant.
Her name is Sheeta, and she’s looking for Laputa, a floating castle out of legend. The two of them go after it while air pirates, the military, and government agents chase the crystal she carries.
It runs 2 hours 9 minutes, and it’s rated PG.
Who’s in the English dub
The dub cast is a time capsule of late-nineties Disney casting.
Anna Paquin as Sheeta, James Van Der Beek as Pazu, Cloris Leachman as Dola, Mark Hamill as Muska, and Mandy Patinkin in the cast.
That recording happened because Disney held the rights, which is a piece of history a lot of younger Ghibli fans have never heard.
Disney used to be Studio Ghibli’s American distributor
For roughly two decades, if you bought a Ghibli film in North America, you bought it from Disney.
The arrangement started in the mid-nineties through Tokuma Shoten, Ghibli’s parent at the time, and covered home video and theatrical distribution. Disney produced the English dubs, cast them with recognizable American actors, and put the films into stores.
Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 under that arrangement.
The relationship also produced the most-repeated story in Ghibli fandom. When Miramax handled Princess Mononoke and pushed for cuts, Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki is said to have sent a katana to Harvey Weinstein with a note reading “no cuts.” The film went out uncut.
Why Disney and Ghibli stopped
GKIDS picked up North American theatrical rights to the Ghibli catalog in the early 2010s and later took over home video. The Ghibli Fest screenings that run every year now exist because of that handoff.
What else is left in Studio Ghibli Fest 2026
Two films after this one.
The 4K remaster of Princess Mononoke runs September 26 through 30. Spirited Away closes the series for its 25th anniversary, October 17 through 21.
Both follow the same pattern of dubbed weekend showings and subtitled weeknights.
Forty years on, a hand-drawn film about a flying island still fills theaters for five nights every August.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Fathom Entertainment press release (April 2026), the full Studio Ghibli Fest 2026 schedule including every Castle in the Sky showtime and the remaining Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away dates
Cartoon Brew (August 12, 2026), Jamie Lang’s report on the 40th anniversary engagement and the World of Laputa featurette
Regal and Fandango listings, the English dub cast, the runtime, and the rating