Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro
Release: December 15, 1979

Lupin the 3rd movie. Castle of Cagliostro (ルパン三世 カリオストロの城, Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro?) is a 1979 anime film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is one of the master thief Lupin III films. The second animated Lupin III movie and arguably the most famous, Castle of Cagliostro was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki (who also co-directed the first Lupin III TV series and directed two episodes of the second) before he formed Studio Ghibli. Cagliostro features gentleman thief Lupin III, grandson to Maurice Leblanc's French literary master thief Arsène Lupin. Originally dubbed and released in 1991 by Streamline Pictures, a new dub was recorded by Manga Entertainment in 2000 and changed the tone of many characters. The title alludes to La Comtesse de Cagliostro (The Countess of Cagliostro), the title of an original Arséne Lupin adventure by Maurice Leblanc). Some fans of the original manga version of Lupin III dislike this movie as Lupin comes across as too good-natured where the original Lupin III was a cynical, playboy character. However, Monkey Punch mentioned he particularly liked the film, although he did not quite agree with Miyazaki's interpretation. In 1979, Toho released the original theatrical version. In 1991, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer created a subtitled version for American theatres. MGM/UA Home Video released the film on VHS in 1992 (dubbed by Carl Macek's Streamline Pictures), and Best Film and Video Corp. released it on VHS in 1993 (again using the Streamline dub). In 2000, Manga Entertainment created an all-new dub. Streamline's dub, while lauded for the overall acting talent of the voice cast, has been widely criticized for its picture cropping and retiming of the opening credits to remove all traces of Japanese writings, as well as for liberties taken with the translation of its dialogue. Manga's new dub of Cagliostro has been praised for its overall faithfulness to the original Japanese dialogue, but criticized for its addition of profanity in some scenes. In addition, Manga's original DVD release has been criticized for lacking an anamorphic transfer or any extras apart from previews for other Manga Video releases, and in the way its English titles are hard-matted onto the film's video image, obscuring parts of the screen behind them. Optimum Releasing re-released Cagliostro in the UK after Manga Entertainment lost its license in the UK. The new DVD features an anamorphic widescreen print with the original Japanese audio track as well as the Streamline dub, both in stereo. As noted in DVD Aficionado and The Right Stuf, Manga released a new special edition DVD of Cagliostro with a release date of August 29, 2006. The disc is double-sided with the movie on side A and the extras on side B. It includes a new digital transfer; Manga's English dub in 2.0 and 5.1 surround plus Japanese, Spanish, and French language tracks in mono; the complete movie in storyboard format, accompanied by Japanese audio with English subtitles; an original Japanese trailer; a sketch and still gallery; a 26-minute interview with animation director Yasuo Ōtsuka, and animated menus. The movie is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen; however, the opening credits, which feature Lupin and Jigen slowly making their way across Europe to the song "Fire Treasure", have been heavily re-edited to remove the Japanese credits, instead using selected still-frames of scenes that appear without Japanese writing. The English-translated names are superimposed over these stills. The DVD packaging of this special edition is strongly reminiscent of that of Disney's Studio Ghibli film releases. There is a long-standing rumor that Steven Spielberg saw Castle of Cagliostro at the Cannes film festival and called its car chase one of the greatest chase sequences ever filmed, and/or called Cagliostro "one of the greatest adventure movies of all time." While this rumor has not been specifically verified, Manga Video considered it credible enough to mention on the back cover of its 2000 DVD release and the front cover of its 2006 "Special Edition" DVD release. While the film was not shown at Cannes in an official capacity, it could have been screened as part of the Marché du Film Cannes Film Market which is attended by thousands of motion picture industry professionals every year. It is also possible that Spielberg saw it if he happened to attend its screening at the 1980 Noreascon. Scens from this film were used in the video game Cliffhanger.

Trailers
Posters
Quotes
Inspector Zenigata: "Lupin! I'll get you for sure this time!"
Clarisse: "Did he walk out on you?"
Fujiko Mine: "No, silly, I walked out on him."
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