Earlier in the year we took a look at what is ostensibly the last film of legendary animation director Hayao Miyazaki—so, as this one nears its end, let’s go back 45 years to his first. Maybe it’s not quite as well known as some of the iconic pieces he made under the Studio Ghibli umbrella, but it still arguably reaches as far as any in its influence—let’s take a trip then to the Castle of Cagliostro.
Miyazaki had mostly worked on TV animated projects at that point, but even so still launched himself fully into this project with writing and storyboarding—not the easiest thing to do considering how much really goes into any film of this nature. In fact, it ended up being the most expensive animated flick at this point, though between backgrounds to motion, each penny certainly ends up all too visible on the screen at least.
But not to get too far ahead—let’s start with the premise. This one was essentially a spinoff of the Lupin 3rd series, encompassing both manga and shows that started off in the sixties and still chug on to this day in one form or another. Our hero here is the gentleman thief Lupin (though how much of a gentleman he actually tries to be varies considerably), a descendent of literary hero Arsene Lupin himself. Always overly eager to steal any high-flying valuable or break into anything vaguely shaped like a safe lock, this Lupin was usually accompanied by a motley supporting cast from gunslinger Jigen to femme fatale Fujiko—all of whom get referenced or imitated across Japanese media and beyond to this day.
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| It's amazing how many economic policies this picture sums up. |
Miyazaki took some flak at the time for softening up the characters a bit—we start off with his Lupin seemingly genuinely concerned for the welfare of a runaway bride he spots while going after a trail of counterfeit bills into a fictional duchy around the French Rivera. Apparently his original counterpart I guess would be seemingly more interested in just stealing her underwear. Even so, for the somewhat more serious tone this film goes for, it probably works for the best, and avoids similar pitfalls of datedness that every slap-happy protagonist from around this time ends up facing now.
Our story is straightforward enough, but the animation was what really let Miyazaki shine—with his appreciation of Italian architecture basically screaming in your face throughout (and that's before we get to the aircraft appreciation). Our vistas are beautiful, with straightforward painted backdrops that still sell a sense of scale and mood, and are gorgeously detailed when they need to be. The real kicker is the action—other shows and animated films from around this time might cheat with cutaways to jerkily repeated frames, but here everything is as smooth and rapid as it needs to be, defying the laws of physics whenever it has to just to make sure you contact vertigo. Ever seen a Fiat 500 drive straight up a cliff? No? Well it’ll damn well do so here anyway, and with the breezy tone of it all, just about get away with it!
Everything else is a blend of classic ‘save the princess’ story meets James Bond, once we start getting into global economy manipulating conspiracies from the titular castle—like I said, it’s not a super complicated plot, but it’s one that escalates well as much as the action does. Near the end we from crashed weddings to duels across massive clockwork mechanisms, and you won't question a thing. Taking along the viewer with enough of a sense of fun that you don’t really question anything is an art that is surprisingly difficult to nail down, but hey, Hayao managed to get it in one here.
So…yeah, Castle of Cagliostro holds up pretty darn well for what it is, and for an animated film from ’79, it really doesn’t show its age that much—compared to other contemporary anime, or even what sporadic efforts the west was making at the time (be it Bakshi’s experiments or Disney’s anemic period from around then). In fact, it was quite an influence westward, giving animators there new inspiration—and perhaps more, with good arguments to make that Spielberg himself was also inspired to transpose the energy of this one into Indiana Jones and more. One such animator was supposedly Brad Bird, who partook in the animation resurgence of the west about 20-odd years later, as we’ll get to…
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