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Lupin the 3rd - The Castle of Cagliostro Director: Hayao Miyazaki Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Letterbox Format: Dubbed, Subtitled Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 100 minutes Studio: Palm Pictures/Manga Video Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-04-25 Buy from Amazon |
 "Great caper film which happens to be anime."Monday, May 03, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Great caper film which happens to be anime. This was my first full length film exposure to the Lupin mythos. Long ago I had played the laser disc game 'Cliffhanger' in the arcades when it first came out, it incorporated most of its plot and scenes from this movie. It was great to finally see the whole thing as I only ever made it about half way through the game, heh. Lupin and sidekick rob a casino and during the ensuing pursuit happen upon a princess chased by thugs. Ultimately leading back to a castle, a count, and a small country holding secrets to counterfeiting and beyond this was an excellent early anime with a great plot. It's interesting to see the character and stylistic cues later anime, particularly Cowboy Bebop, took from the Lupin saga. The plot was what surprised me the most, very sophisticated and entertaining for an anime, it was almost like an animated Bond film, or similar spy caper/mystery. Recommended.  "Now we're cooking with gas!!"This is the cream of Lupin films and was created by a celibrated master storyteller and director. It's got everything a good adventure aught to have. The dashing roguesh hero. His faithful assosiates of great skill and daring. A beutiful damisal in distress. And evil and dastertly villan. Lost tresure. Harrowing escapes and great car chases. All of which are crammed into this rip-roaring ride that is Castle of Cagliostro. Throw in international esponage and intrege. Add a dash of comic relief.While stirring in the boys from Interpol and you get the general idea. This film simply ROCKS!! "The best Lupin movie; one of Miyazaki's best movies"This film is great! A great mix of genres(suspense, action, romance, humor), a feel-good tone throughout the film, and a great, light-hearted story make this a must-see film for anime fans and even non-anime ones. Fujiko goes from being brunette to blonde in this one, although it's not really important. A bit of Lupin's past is revealed when he and Jigen trail a counterfeiter to Castle Cagliostro. What can I say? It's just good. The English dubbing(on the DVD, as I've never heard the original English dub) is excellent, far beyond the horrid dubbing used for the TV series. Unlike Tony Oliver, David Hayter(Metal Gear Solid) does a perfect job of capturing the same tone of the late Yasuo Yamada. Sadly, this was the first and last Lupin show/movie he did(as of now). The dubbing people of the Lupin TV series should watch this film and pay attention on how to make a good dub! But enough said, the movie's EXCELLENT! "DVD Review"Castle of Cagliostro is Miyazaki's first feature and stars the characters of the Lupin series. Miyazaki worked on much of the first season of Lupin and did two episodes in the second including the finale. I haven't been able to determine if these episodes are avaible on any in-print English release. While the animation is considerably cruder then Miyazaki's later works, the film is filled with thrilling adventure and fun humor. The breakneck pace and knock out action set pieces make up for the cruder animation style. Even without any prior knowledge of the Lupin characters, the story is simple to follow. Only the appearances of the female spy and the samurai seemed odd to an unititated viewer. Film: 4 stars out of 5. It is not Miyazaki's best, but it is easy to see his style emerging. The character designs for the count and the bride would soon appear in Nausicaa as Kurotawa and Nausicaa. Castle of Cagliostro is a great adventure film, but lacks the emotional realism and epic narratives that make up his later films. It may be Miyazaki's best on a pure entertainment factor. Think of it as a James Bond film by way of Pink Panther with Jackie Chan. Manga's dvd is less then stellar. Picture quality is dicey. Most of the time the picture is fine with good color, but there are problems that pop up. Black spots appear on the film from time to time and several times heavy black blobs show up on the frame. The print also suffers for instances when the images shudders and appears to shake a bit when there isn't movement in the frame. These problems do detract, but generally they didn't distract from my viewing. The video is presented in letterboxed format with subs that are half on the frame, half on black. I avoided the dub because the Japanese audio was just fine. Purists might be annoyed to find that the end credits are typed in English over a black screen without music, I don't know what the orginial Japanese print had. There aren't any extras other then several lame Manga Video ads. Castle of Cagliostro is not part of the Disney/Ghibli deal so don't plan on them for releasing a new dvd. I would still recommend this dvd, although hopefully someone in the future will release it without the minor picture problems. Pioneer and Funimation both have recently put out other Lupin dvds, but I don't know of plans to pick up this title. "Bond.... James Bond (Japanese style)"Grown-ups and non-anime fans should not be put off by the cover art for this DVD. This is a great action movie that reminds me of a Bond movie. It has exciting car chases, a clever hero that gets himself out of precarious situations, and an evil super-villain. But Bond with a big difference: ironically, this movie is LESS cartooonish than the real Bond movies! Bond has lots of gadgets that are incredibly specialized yet just happen to come in handy EVERY TIME, villains who are usually just too loony to be believed, and he has babes who want to jump in the sack with him after eyeballing him for 30 seconds. As a teenage boy fantasy movie, Bond rules; but if you want to see a fun, rollicking adventure/spy movie, then Castle of Cagliostro is actually a better bet. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is one of the earliest movies by a Japanese director named Miyazaki. Most Americans have never heard of him, but in Japan he's looked upon like Spielburg and Lucas rolled into one person. Many people have compared him to Disney, but I think that's not a good comparison. While Disney worked in the same medium, his films were much more child-oriented, and for better or worse, he established many of the animation formulas and cliches that have become the norm for American animation (with notable exceptions like the superb Iron Giant). Disney has become synonymous with dumbed-down and formulaic. No one would EVER use those terms to describe Miyazaki. While it is really Miyazaki's later work, such as the incomparable Spirited Away, that earned him his reputation as a genius, this film is still very much worth seeing. In fact, what I generally tell anyone who will listen is that you can't go wrong treating Miyazaki's name as a sort of brand name: just rent or buy anything made by him and you're guaranteed to see a movie that is well made, thoughtfully written, a visual feast, and most of all, wonderfully original. How many directors can you think of that fit that description? The main character of this movie, Lupin, is from a long-running series. But I haven't seen any of the other episodes, and I assure you that you don't have to see any of the series beforehand to be able to enjoy this movie: it stands on its own. In closing, let me mention that there is a persistent myth perpetuated on various Internet sites that Steven Spielburg called this one of the greatest adventure movies ever made. As far as I can tell, he never said that. Still, this wonderful movie doesn't need any made-up endorsements. See it, and you'll see why. |
