Ranked #220

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Castle of Cagliostro is a really great movie. It's obviously quite old, seeing as how the animation can be choppy at times, but the characters are great and the story is wonderful.

Story-

The storyline of this movie is well-developed and fast-paced. Unlike some Miyazaki movies, the Castle of Cagliostro has a fast-paced storyline that is very easy to understand.

Art-

The art in this movie is alright... It's certainly not the best from Hayao Miyazaki, considering it's one of his first films, but the art is still good. The backgrounds and
buildings, however, are very beautiful and realistic, and the characters look a little like cartoons.

Sound-

The music in the movie was pretty good and enjoyable. When there was music (which there often was) it fit very well to the current situation or setting.

Characters-

The characters begin well-developed and stay that way. I really wish that the character's could've developed a bit more throughout the movie because their personality was the same at the end as it was in the beginning.
The main character is Lupin, a skilled theif who is also very relaxed and tends to joke around. There's also Lupin's assistant gunman, Jigen, who often questions Lupin but always ends up doing what he says. There's also Clarice, the "damsel in distress", the GroundsKeeper of the castle and his dog Carl, and the Count, a twisted, evil, and double-crossing man.

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I really enjoyed this movie because of it's characters and storyline. The music was a nice touch as well. But if you're looking for a movie based on the art, you should probably pick another Miyazaki movie as this movie is not his best.

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Star Rating (out of four): ***

The Castle of Cagliostro has a peculiar opening. A master thief named Lupin III and his partner-in-crime, Daisuke Jigen, have successfully stolen millions of dollars from a grand casino. Or so it seems. It turns that the money was actually counterfeit, the work of a high-class crime lord name Cagliostro. Yet Lupin isn’t angry; quite the opposite. It’s fascinating how quickly he forgets the loss and gets pumped up for his next big steal. This is the ideal thief, a man not so much interested in robbing to get rich than in the act of robbing itself. And judging by his exuberant methods, it’s not hard to see why.

Lupin is one of the most memorable characters in anime history. He’s like a loony James Bond, always cool and cheerful even when things go wrong, which is always. He may seem prepared for anything, but then unexpected events occur, most caused by his own clumsiness, and things take a turn, not always for the worst though. But he’s not one to be underestimated. A master of deception, Lupin can convince security guards that the police detective that he is impersonating is the real Lupin in disguise. He’s so devilishly unpredictable that he can lead his enemies (and the audience) to believe one thing, but then suddenly reveal his true intentions to everyone’s astonishment.

What keeps us oriented and on our toes is Lupin with his high energy, something we need in a plot that doesn’t have its own. After a very surrealistic chase scene that uses cars and bombs in very unique ways, Lupin saves a girl in a wedding dress named Clarisse from her death. (Lupin immediately likes this girl, of course, and will spend the rest of the film trying to save her.) She runs away to avoid captivity from more bad guys, but accidentally leaves behind a special ring. What purpose does this ring have?

Well, it may help Lupin understand the legacy of the castle of Calgiostro. It is the base of a counterfeiting business carried down over centuries, but is there something more below its ruins? A treasure, perhaps?

But we don’t care much about all this. Part of that may be because we don’t particularly care much for the villain and the damsel-in-distress. They fill their roles, but with no personality or style. Clarisse, the princess, is especially boring, not getting much of her own say until the end of the movie. She is the fiance of Count Cagliostro, although he seems to care more about that ring she possesses than her.

Maybe the director, Hayao Miyazaki, realized that all this plot material was secondary anyway, because the majority of the film (thankfully) is spent watching Lupin wiggle his way out of every hole he makes for himself. The best scenes show him either getting into trouble or surprising us by appearing to be in trouble, but really having the upper hand. The detective impersonation and car chase are such sequences, but there is also an episode in the waterways, an interesting but spoiled attempt to reach the princess’ imprisonment tower, and a gloriously hilarious wedding disruption that will leave many flabbergasted.

But things aren’t all cartoon lunacy. There are a few scenes of grave seriousness that keep us informed of the great danger Lupin gets himself into. People can actually die in this film. But these scenes don’t make us scorn Lupin's silliness; we're just more amazed that he manages to escape alive and still have that stupid smile on his face.

The Castle of Cagliostro is always entertaining when Lupin is on-screen. It lags when it comes time for exposition and villain/damsel interactions, but I for one would sit through all the exposition in the world to see Lupin III struggle through another mission, and have great fun while he’s at it. read more