Ranked #271

Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro

The Castle of Cagliostro is a masterpiece.

Lupin and Jigen are following the trail of some counterfeit money to a castle in a small independent country in Europe. This leads them to a girl from Lupin's past in need of a hero.

Miyazaki's first feature film is a great one. He takes the already lovable Lupin cast and makes them just a bit more innocent, which gives this a very pleasant fairy tale feel. The characters are charming, and it's a joy watching the story unfold.

In this great adventure, our heroes set out to save the damsel in a tower from an evil count. The always great Fujiko is there looking for some loot, samurai Goemon shows up to lend his blade, and Inspector Zenigata is on Lupin's tail as always.

The movie has a laid back, cool feel at first. It also gets pretty fast paced, and the action heats up. Pretty much, it's great to see all the Lupin characters in top form, their interactions always entertaining.

There are some nice nods for fans of the series too. For example, a montage of a younger Lupin's exploits features some of the situations from the intro of the original series.

It's beautifully animated, with a very moving score by Yuji Ohno. And of course, great voice work from the Lupin cast. Plus this movie has one of the coolest car chases ever.

Pretty much, this movie is two masters at the top of their game, Hayao Miyazaki and Lupin III. A true classic, check it out. read more

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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