foxdvd

I have been a fan of anime for about 15 years. When The Castle of Cagliostro came out on dvd, I did a back-flip from the joy inside of me. The only way I had ever seen this movie was on a third generation vhs copy, that has seen better days. From Hayao Miyazaki, the maker of Princess Mononoke, TCOC is a masterpiece of animation. It is easily a top 3 anime of mine, and a top 20 movie.


For those that do not know anything about The Castle of Cagliostro, it is a comedy-adventure movie. A little bit of Bond, and Pink Panther, and even some Indiana Jones. Of course, this movie came out in 1979, so in reality, Steven Spielberg has used many of the ideas from this movie in his own works. Steven even calls this one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. It truly is an amazing movie.


The story focuses on Lupin III, a happy, on-the-edge of you seat, thief, with a bit of a Romantic in him. Along with his partner Jigen, he gets into all kinds of trouble when he searches for the source of the worlds leading counterfeiter, and falls in love with a mysterious girl held captive.

This story has everything. From the start, you will have a smile on your face. It starts out with a bang, and slowly gets funnier and funnier. Halfway through the movie, you will find yourself laughing out-loud at the antics of Lupin. Combined with this humor is some amazing action set pieces. For an old piece of anime, it sure looks good. In fact, it looks better then even some modern animated movies. It holds up that well. Hayao really knows how to make movies.

If you like anime, pick this up. If you have only seen the sci-fi, ninja, big breasted anime up to this point, and do not like what you saw, check this out. It is a different side of anime, that many will love. If you are an anime nut, you probably already own it. I can not say enough good things about it.

The dvd itself is a revelation. The movie looks like it was made this year. The sound is average at best, with both English and Japanese along with subtitles. Both sets of actors do a fine job, with a slight edge to the Japanese cast. This is a rarity with anime, as many know, because most of the time the English actors blow. I am not sure if it is just the nature of the show, but the English actors hold their own this time. There are a few extras, not much to talk about. The only thing worth noting is some film jitter. This is an old movie, so the technique used to hold the frames of background animation still as they changed character pictures is not the best, and you will notice some jumping of the image about 15 minutes into the movie. This last about 9 minutes, but is real minor, and you might not even notice it.

This is a must have dvd. It is not rated, but would probably get a pg-13 if it was, for some minor language, and violence.(it does say 13 and up on the cover I think) Nothing real bad, and in fact, it might actually be a pg movie (esp. if you watch it with the Japanese track, because the English track has all the harsh language)


[This message has been edited by foxdvd (edited May 24, 2000).]

Kundun

You are absolutely right! This is a real masterpiece of the genre, really enjoyable movie. Buy it!

sfsdfd

My optimism isn't quite as rampant, but I also recommend the disc. This anime is a lot of fun and the story is great. If you want to start getting into anime, this is the disc to start with - not too much violence or wacky stuff, just a great cartoon.

- David Stein

foxdvd

If that 10$ coupon at buy.com is still good, this would be something to get. It is 16.99, so only 6.99 plus S/H. I think they got their shipment in of this dvd, so it should ship out faster then it did about two weeks ago.

milo bloom

How does the DVD of this hold up today? I was looking on DVDAficionado and discovered this was by Myazaki and my wife loves Lupin III.

Is it 16x9, if not how does it look on a 16x9 tv or is there a redo in the works?

thanks

C Roberts

I also recommend this movie and to respond to the above poster here is an excerpt from one of the reviews on animeondvd.com (link below)...

http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/211.php

Hiro11

1. The opening car chase (with Clarisse and Lupin's turbo Fiat) is one of the best and certainly the most fun to watch I've seen.
2. The Castle itself is a freaking cool setting, chock-a-block full of dungeons, secret passageways, enormous clockwork and the like.
3. Lupin, Jigen and Goemon are great characters. The Count is a great villain.
4. The bulletproof ninja attack is excellent action.
5. Lupin's jump to Clarisse's tower is nailbitingly good.

This is one of the best action/comedy movies I've seen. It would be truly fantastic as a live action pic (though they'd have to stretch the laws of physics a little).

indycohiba

There is an expensive Japanese relese that is anamorphic. That is what I own and the video is better than the R1.

See the comparison review here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?...131&story=1816