[.ca] The Castle of Cagliostro (Lupin the III) (Special Edition)

From Amazon.com:
Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) achieved his first international hit with this delightful 1979 adventure yarn. Quick-paced, high-spirited, and loaded with wit, Cagliostro is a dandy throwback to the caper pictures of the '60s. International man of mystery Lupin III stumbles back into the picturesque European duchy of Cagliostro with his faithful and gruff sidekick, Jigen. They will encounter, in no particular order, a runaway bride, a magical ring, an evil count with a dastardly plan, an inspector bent on catching Lupin, perilous rooftop chases, hooded guards with superhuman powers, a well-used dungeon, a counterfeiting scheme, and an ancient mystery promising grand treasure. Lupin deploys an array of Bond-type gadgets, razor-sharp wit, and a surprise up both his sleeves. Despite the hail of bullets, this caper is great fun, never taking itself seriously. Miyazaki's career illustrates how limiting the term anime can be for these films; there are hardly more than 10 live-action films of this genre as entertaining. Far less mean than Hollywood fare, it nevertheless is for ages 9 and up with language and gunplay. The Lupin character has been featured in other anime films, but never as successfully or with as much fun as in Miyazaki's film. The new English-language dubbing is excellent to boot. --Doug Thomas

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!!

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. DVD: 3 out of 5 stars.

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.

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!

The castlew of Cagliostro:
This movie is interesting and if your looking fro an action packed movie this is it. This movie isn't rated and does contain fowl language. But that's because it's dubed in American and it needs to be more Americanized. If your kids want james bond but are too young try this.