Masterful yet flamboyant gentleman thief Arsene Lupin III and his accomplice Jigen rob a European casino. But when Lupin discovers that he's only gotten counterfeit bills, or "goat bills", he decides to go after the source in the tiny country of Cagliostro. When he discovers a mysterious ring and the forced marriage of Lady Clarisse and Count Cagliostro, the mastermind behind the counterfeiting operation, Lupin and his compadres manage to put a stop the to the evil count and his plans, and end up revealing a hidden treasure.

While it is not necessary to know the background to enjoy the film, it is helpful for some insight. The movie is based upon the television series Lupin III, and was made during the second of three series produced which ran in Japan. (Cartoon Network recently aired the first 26 episodes of the second series). The origin of the characters of Lupin was in the works of French novelist Maurice LeBlanc, who created the character of Arsene Lupin around the early 20th century. Using that material as inspiration, Monkey Punch created the character of Arsene Lupin the III, who was the great grandson of the master thief. Also part of the cast of characters is Daisuke Jigen, a master gunman and former gangster; Goeman Ishikawa, a master swordsman; Fujiko Mine, a sometimes friend, sometimes foe of Lupin; and Inspector Zenigata of Interpol, who always tries (and fails) to capture Lupin and company.

There were three Lupin III television series produced. The first series, which ran from 1971 through 1972, had Hayao Miyazaki involved in most of the production. The second series, which ran from 1977 until 1980, saw Miyazaki's involvement limited to two episodes near the end of the series. The third series was produced in 1984. During the production of the second series, the second of what would be several feature films based upon the series was produced: The Castle Of Cagliostro.

United States viewers got their exposure to Lupin in an unusual way: the laser video game Cliff Hanger uses a lot of footage from both The Castle Of Cagliosteo and The Mystery Of Mamo. Streamline Video later released a slightly edited version of the film on video, although the name of the character Lupin had to be changed due to copyright problems. Manga later picked up the rights to this film, and released it uncut and with a new dub in 2000 to coincide with the release of Princess Mononoke. In addition, if you watched the Robotech/Macross series, one of the episodes featured an arcade scene in which a video game features the chase scene from Castle Of Cagliostro (also featured near the beginning of the real-life Cliff Hanger game.

Even being a 1979 film, you can see the attention to detail that was put into some scenes, although in other scenes, some of the animation limitations are apparent. Manga choose to digitally restore the film, although one wonders why they didn't go in and remove the reel change marks from the print. Some of the scenes do require a little suspension of belief, but it doesn't distract from the film itself. It is even said that Steven Spielberg called Cagliostro "one of the greatest adventure movies of all time."

The DVD is a bare-bones release from Manga video. While the film is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, it isn't anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Both the new English dub as well as the original Japanese language, although the

English audio seems to have a finer fidelity. The subtitles are based upon the Japanese language, and it appears that Manga took some liberties with the English dub. You have to turn on the subtitles for the excellent opening theme song, Honoo No Takaramono / Treasure of the Flame.

As for extra features.... there aren't any beyond advertising for other Manga products. No theatrical trailer, no interviews, nothing.

Despite some shortcomings, The Castle Of Cagliostro is an excellent animè film. However, if you have young children in the home, you may want to preview the film before showing due to profanity.

Reviewed by Mark Holtz
theLogBook.com correspondent / Deep Space Franchise webmaster