Castle in the Sky

After seeing Castle in the Sky, I'm convinced the creators of Skies of Arcadia were Miyazaki fans.

From the architecture to the ship designs to the characters, and even the themes (to a certain extent), there are plenty of similarities between the film and the game.

Even Dola (Castle in the Sky) and Aika (Skies) are rather similar, at least in terms of their hair:

And more uncannily, Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog looks like the Old Engineer in Castle in the Sky. No relation to Skies except that both games were made by Sega (albeit different divisions).

Also, the funny thing about the final showdown in Castle in the Sky is that neither Pazu nor Muska have any live ammunition in their weapons. Pazu only had two shells and spent both, and Muska shows that he's used up all of the bullets in his gun when he reloads it. They're both bluffing. The real power-- Sheeta's crystal-- is concealed.