Well, yes, you do. But it is no big deal to sign up. You don't have to give any personal information until you decide to buy or rent content. By the way, renting is fairly good deal if you don't intend to have the movie forever. After you start watching a rental movie, you have access to it for 48 hours. During that time you can watch it as many times as you want. Some movies I first watched by renting it, and then if I really liked it, I might actually go back and buy it. The SD (Standard Definition) is plenty good enough for movies like this, so I never pay the premium for the HD (High Definition) version.
I doubt it. But I have no way of knowing. The link with Japan Airlines was only the impetus to start work on the film. They never actually got any money from the airlines and there is no on-going relationship with them. By the way, Miyazaki put elements of flight in almost all of his films, including (and I don't know why I didn't think of this first) "The Wind Rises" which is based on the true story of the Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Japanese fighter aircraft used in WWII, including the A6M Zero. That's another aviation-related film I like. The reason for Miyazaki's interest in flight may be that his father was director of Miyazaki Airplane, a company that made rudders for fighter planes in WWII. You can see fantastical flying machines in other Miyazaki films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Howl's Moving Castle.
