Grenade proof... that figures!

My first exposure to Lupin the 3rd was back in middle school when the anime came on Adult Swim very late at night. As far as I remember I enjoyed the show and thought it was both witty and fun. The film The Castle of Cagliostro, a 1980's anime by Hayao Miyazaki, really did not disappoint. It was the right mixture of both humor and action.

After Lupin and his buddy Jigen steal a car full of counterfeit money they find themselves in a sticky situation. After saving a damsel in distress they are pulled into a crazy adventure where they uncover the secrets of a strange old European country and foil the plot of its sinister ruler. All the while fighting off spiky fingered ninjas... yeah this movies got ninjas. Along the way he meets up with old friends like Goemon, the swordsman, Zanigata, the unfortunate Interpol inspector and the femme fatale Fujiko who recites the brilliant line, "Grenade proof.... that figures!" (I did not say the English script was brilliant).


I was pretty surprised honesty. I am not familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's work (although I have heard good things) and seeing as how this movie is now thirty years old, I really did not believe it would stand up to the test of time. With so many high-caliber and all around great comedies
(take that with a grain of sarcasm) this movie proves old animes still have relevance.

From a technical perspective it was about as good as that time period offered. The film came out around the time of He-Man, and we all know how crappy that show's animation was. Audio wise I really didn't think the English dub was all that bad. Usually (especially with earlier movies) animes have horrible dubs, but this was not all that bad despite having different voice actors than what I was used to (when I watched the TV series back in the day).

All in all it was a pretty decent flick and probably even better if it were 30 years ago. I'll give it 4 grenade-proof windows out of 5.