Castle of Cagliostro

Master thief Arsene Lupin III, a character who first appeared in the original manga by Monkey Punch, is one of the most popular Japanese animation characters of all time, having starred in three TV series, five feature films, and numerous tele-movies. During his many adventures, Lupin and his friends the chain-smoking sharpshooter Jigen and the master swordsman Goemon have travelled the world seeking adventure and fortune. Often their paths cross that of the beautiful and mysterious female spy Fujiko (sometimes Lupin's ally and lover but most often his unwanted competition), and they are continually pursued by the dogged yet inept Interpol Inspector, Zenigata. Produced in 1979 by the influential anime writer/director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service), The Castle of Cagliostro was the second Lupin feature film and remains its most popular - even 20 years on.

When their latest swag of ill-gotten gains turns out to be counterfeit, Lupin and Jigen decide that the target for their next job should be the legendary source of these perfect forgeries or 'goat-bills' as they are known in the underworld. Closing in on the source of the bills, they soon find themselves in the small European duchy of Cagliostro where the local monarch, the evil Count Cagliostro, has imprisoned the young princess and rightful heiress Clarisse, and is planning to forcibly marry her. Lupin’s duty is clear - to rescue the fair Clarisse and make off with the famous Cagliostro fortune. But before he can do this, he needs to get inside the almost impenetrable Cagliostro castle! With the help of Jigen and Goemon, and shielded by the bumbling interference of Zenigata, he slips inside only to find Fujiko already hard at work. Can Lupin save the princess and destroy the Count without being caught by Zenegata? Will Fujiko let him steal the fortune from under her nose? Why does Lupin seem to know his way around so well? To tell you any more would ruin the surprises that this tale of high-adventure has in store...

"Undoubtedly one of the greatest adventure movies of all time." -- Steven Speilberg

How can I say it better than one of today’s most respected filmmakers? The Castle of Cagliostro is a rare piece of filmmaking - exciting, funny, even touching. Basically, it's just plain wonderful! Starting with a frenetic car chase – one of the best openings to an animated film ever, and ending with a frantic melee in a working clock tower, Lupin’s adventures in Cagliostro are packed with fantastic action sequences and is, quite frankly, a work of comic genius. Beautifully written, this twisting and turning action-adventure is a perfect example of classical cinema storytelling, providing something for everyone – with princesses in towers, evil villains, gentlemen thieves, as well as a rescue, heist and buddy film all rolled into one. The consummate hero, Lupin runs the gamut from gleefully silly through classically romantic to stern-faced man of action. Filled with many obvious nods to the Bond franchise and a wry self-deprecating humour, this sharp and clever anime, free of the sex and violence that is usually associated with anime, is a piece of cinema that transcends its genre, and will delight all ages. In short, Cagliostro is the perfect family film. Forget Disney, and experience Miyazaki!

Despite being produced more than 20 years ago, the animation on display in The Castle of Cagliostro looks amazingly contemporary, thanks mainly to Miyazaki's trademark flair and attention to detail. The film really does looks great, with simple yet effective character designs laid over beautifully detailed backgrounds. And with Manga producing a digital remaster of the original source material for its release on DVD, the resulting digital image certainly looks the part.

Presented at the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1, on a single-sided, single-layer disc, Madman’s transfer does justice to this fresh new remaster. With vibrant, well-balanced colours, deep blacks and clean, bright whites, the sharp image showcases the film’s wealth of detail without bleeding or introducing notable aliasing. Although the image is not perfectly clean, littered as it is with sparse film artefacts, the odd scratch, and end-of-reel-markers, the source material looks remarkable given its age. The film-to-video process has added some telecine wobble, instances of which are distracting at times, and the MPEG compression process has also introduced several artefacts. Slight pixelation can be seen in some backgrounds whilst several instances of posterisation also crop up from time to time. All in all, however, The Castle of Cagliostro looks fantastic – better, I suspect, than it has since its original theatrical release. The only real improvement Madman could have made is to go one step further and produced an anamorphic transfer.

After suffering without the original Japanese soundtrack on my old VHS copy of Cagliostro for several years now, I was excited to finally hear the film with its original dialogue, and for me it sure made all the difference. Although Manga’s English dub is certainly serviceable, there’s no doubt that it lost some of the charm of the original performances. Whether it’s your preference or not, with Madman’s DVD release providing both the Japanese and English dub, you are free to make up your own mind!

Given the age of the film, the original Japanese soundtrack is a no-frills Dolby Digital two-channel affair. Similarly, when producing the English dub Manga has gone for equivalent quality, resisting the temptation to remix it as part of the digital remaster. Although Cagliostro would have made a great 5.1 soundtrack, these two-channel mixes are serviceable enough, and certainly don’t hinder your enjoyment of the film. Dialogue is clear and distinct on both tracks, and whilst there’s a small amount of front channel separation, nothing is routed to the rear by your trusty Prologic decoder. In contrast, the subwoofer is called upon to supply some body to the score (whose late-seventies stylings now compliment nicely the film’s comic tone) and also with the odd bump and crash, but not nearly as much, and at nowhere near the levels that you would expect from even a television series these days. All in all, Cagliostro offers a serviceable audio transfer but nothing to get excited about.

Subtly animated, non-anamorphic menus provide access to a small group of extras that offer little more than promotional material for other anime releases.

• Theatrical Trailer: Manga’s original full frame trailer, whilst reasonably clean, is nowhere near as sharp as the feature transfer, and shows just what a difference the digital remastering has made. The audio suffers terribly from hiss.

• Trailer – Princess Mononoke: Full frame, sharp and clean.

• Image Gallery: Five stills taken from the movie itself.

• Manga Trailers: Three trailers for other Manga releases - The Wings of Honneamise (widescreen non-anamorphic), Macross Plus and Street Fighter Alpha (full frame). All are presented with crisp clean transfers.

One of the most popular anime titles of all time, The Castle of Cagliostro is a film that transcends its genre to become a wonderful movie experience for the whole family. Although we still await the release of Miyazaki’s latest opus (and most successful Japanese film of all time) Princess Mononoke in this region, Cagliostro is more than enough to keep us sated until it arrives. Looking better than it has since its original theatrical release, and finally supplying fans with the original Japanese soundtrack, Madman’s release of Cagliostro should be a part of every anime collection, and is a must-see for every movie lover.