Over twenty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki directed perhaps one of the most enjoyable, timeless adventure stories in the history of film, Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro (Castle of Cagliostro). It has taken over twenty years for the film to be given a treatment in the US worthy of a film of it's calibre. Manga Entertainment's release of 'The Castle of Cagliostro' on VHS and DVD finally gives rabid, picky, devoted anime & Lupin fans (like myself) something we honestly can't complain about.
This is most assuredly not like it was in the past. Outside of the hard-core C/FO types, the first 'mainstream' attention CoC got was in the goofy-but-fun-trying-to-cash-in-on-the-dragon's-lair-hype laserdisc-based game 'Cliff Hanger'. With the 'plot' basically intact, taken from CoC with an obligatory chase seen from Lupin III vs. the Clones (Mystery of Mamo) thrown in, Cliff Hanger introduced many kids to the world of Lupin, even if they didn't know it yet.
I know this because I was one of those kids. I remember playing the game (and really, really sucking at it btw), sitting around with friends in the junior high cafeteria talking about how cool the 'ninja' scene was, and trying to get all the move sequences down. I didn't know about 'anime' back then. It'd be another year or so before Robotech, and all I had been exposed to was Battle of the Planets (which inspired nothing but a separated shoulder from leaping from the loft at Tony Fontana's house). But I knew that game was cool and the stuff it was made from was very cool. Nearly five years later I first saw the actual movie. It instantly became and still remains my favorite movie of all time, bar none, animated or otherwise.
In 1993, I wrote an interesting piece for a short-lived publication, Manga Newswatch, in which I reviewed CoC's first legitimate home video release in the States, Streamline Pictures' version of Castle of Cagliostro. Summoning up all the sarcastic vitriol I possessed in my arsenal, I proceeded to grind down what I considererd to be one of the shoddier productions (even by fanboy Streamline-ire standards) I had seen from Streamline. While in an overall sense the job might have been considered just 'average' or merely 'below average', I was left with the impression that in terms of quality control, no extra expense was taken to ensure the film had any more quality put into the dubbing than say a crappy television episode of Zillion. Lazy writing, directing and casting choices, along with a smug attitude to arbitrarily change story elements or add 'jokes' (I use the term loosely) left a bad taste in my mouth. For all the talk Carl Macek had spewing for the past few years about not wanting to detract from the beauty of film by covering them up with subtitles, his english production sure as heck did enough to distract from this particular film.
When I begin my review of the Manga Entertainment DVD version, I'll also include snippets of my earlier Manga Newswatch review for comparison purposes. In my 'later years' as a fan, perhaps I have mellowed, perhaps that teeth-gnashing rage has settled into more of a seething resentment, we shall see soon enough. In preparation for this review I have rewatched a fan subtitle of the film, Streamline's dub of the flim, and just for the nostalgic heck of it, I rewatched a copy of the Cliff Hanger arcade game laserdisc.
The DVD itself comes in the now seemingly standard case for anime DVDs, with scarce printed materials and relatively few if any extras. Why would people consider commercials and previews for other 'hot, upcoming titles' as value-added extras, I'll never know. The video quality was good, especially after years of watching VHS. Perhaps not up to standards set nowadays, but for a 20+ year old film with problems with the master it came out well. A new English track is on the gee whizbang digital 5.1 whatever thingamajig while the japanese audio track has been left in it's glorious mono. (tho for me without a stereo system, it doesn't really matter). I'd also like to remind everyone before I look at the dub here, let it be said that the very good subtitle track on the DVD courtesy of Neil Nadelman & ZRO Limit Productions was an absolute joy to watch. If ever it was the end of the world and I could keep one thing, that dvd track might be it (until I break my glasses with some Burgess Meredith action, word.)
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