is a 1979 Japanese animated action adventure comedy film directed and co-written by Hayao Miyazaki. It is the second animated feature film based on the 1967–69 manga series Lupin III by Monkey Punch. The film was Miyazaki's feature directorial debut after having previously worked as an animator for Toei Animation and Telecom Animation Film, and directing several animated television series, including Lupin III Part I.
The Castle of Cagliostro follows gentleman thief Lupin III, who successfully robs a casino—only to find the money to be counterfeit. He heads to the tiny country of Cagliostro, the rumoured source of the bills, and attempts to save the runaway Princess Clarisse from Count Cagliostro's men; the Count plans to marry Clarisse in order to cement his power and recover the fabled ancient treasure of Cagliostro, requiring Clarisse's ancestral ring. Lupin enlists his associates, Jigen and Goemon, and sends his calling card to the Count to get Inspector Zenigata, his longtime nemesis, to the castle. After becoming trapped in the dungeon under the castle, Lupin and Zenigata form a pact to escape and foil the Count's counterfeit operation and save Clarisse from her forced marriage to the Count.
The original theatrical release in Japan occurred on 15 December 1979, distributed by Toho. In North America, it was screened at various festivals in the early 1980s, while a heavily edited and shortened version became available in the form of an arcade LaserDisc video game, Cliff Hanger (1983), combined with footage from the previous Lupin III film, The Mystery of Mamo (1978). The Castle of Cagliostro eventually made its American theatrical debut on 3 April 1991, with the home release following in October 1992. This first theatrical dub was produced by Streamline Pictures and released on home video the following year. A new dubbed version was produced by Manga Entertainment in 2000 and has had several releases.
Despite initially underperforming at the box office, The Castle of Cagliostro has garnered high praise, with critics and historians noting the film's influence on Miyazaki's later works, becoming the most popular and well-regarded entry in the entire Lupin III franchise, and has since been recognised as a cult film. However, some have disapproved of its depiction of Lupin as a gallant hero instead of his original persona as a ruthless criminal. The film has served as a major influence on animators and directors worldwide, such as filmmaker John Lasseter and several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including titles of the Disney Renaissance. The Japanese computer animated film Lupin III: The First (2019) also has a plot structure loosely modelled after The Castle of Cagliostro.
Lupin III: The Castle Of Cagliostro is the first anime with stereo sound. Later on 1980 all the anime series changed to mono to stereo
Plot
Master thief Lupin III and his colleague, Daisuke Jigen, flee the Monte Carlo Casino with huge quantities of stolen money, but as they celebrate their latest heist, Lupin recognizes the bills as distinctively high-quality counterfeits. Deciding to seek out the source, they head to the Grand Duchy of Cagliostro, the alleged wellspring of the counterfeits.
Shortly after arriving, the two are passed by a young woman in a wedding gown driving a red car being chased by a group of armed thugs. They attempt to rescue the young woman, but in the ensuing mayhem Lupin is knocked unconscious and the woman gets captured. However, she leaves him a signet ring. After seeing the ring, Lupin recognizes the woman as Clarisse, the princess of Cagliostro, who will soon be married to Count Cagliostro, the country's regent against her will. The Count's arranged marriage will cement his power and recover the fabled ancient treasure of Cagliostro, for which he needs both his and Clarisse's ancestral rings.
The next night, a squad of assassins attack Lupin and Jigen at their inn, but they escape. Lupin leaves his calling card on the back of Jodot, the Count's butler and chief assassin, announcing he is going to steal Clarisse. Lupin summons Goemon Ishikawa XIII and tips off his longtime pursuer, Inspector Koichi Zenigata, to his whereabouts to provide a distraction. Lupin disguises himself as Zenigata and makes his way into the castle, while the real Zenigata ends up trapped in the castle's catacombs. After meeting his on-off lover Fujiko Mine posing as Clarisse's lady-in-waiting, Lupin makes his way to Clarisse and returns her ring, vowing to help her to escape. Before he can act, the Count drops Lupin down a trapdoor into the catacombs. Lupin mocks the Count through the ring he gave to Clarisse—a fake containing a transmitter—and the Count sends three assassins to retrieve the real ring.
Lupin encounters Zenigata, and they form a pact to help each other escape. After overpowering the assassins, they escape into a room full of printing presses, the source of the counterfeits which Cagliostro has used throughout history to form a global shadow empire. Zenigata wants to collect evidence, but Lupin points out they must escape the castle first. They start a fire as a distraction and steal the Count's autogyro, but as they attempt to rescue Clarisse, Lupin is seriously wounded. Clarisse offers the ring to the Count in exchange for Lupin's life, but after securing the ring, the Count's attempt at betrayal is foiled when Fujiko's actions allow her, Lupin, and Zenigata to flee. As Lupin recovers from his injuries, Zenigata tries convincing his superiors at Interpol to prosecute the Count for counterfeiting, but fearing political repercussions, they halt the investigation and remove him from the case. Lupin intends to stop the wedding and rescue the princess, revealing to his companions that ten years earlier she had saved his life during his unsuccessful first attempt to find the treasure of Cagliostro. Fujiko tips off Lupin regarding how to sneak into the castle, and forms a plan with Zenigata to publicly reveal the counterfeiting operation under the cover of pursuing Lupin.
The wedding with a drugged Clarisse appears to go as planned, until Lupin disrupts the ceremony and, despite the Count's precautions, makes off with Clarisse and the Count's rings. To expose the Count's operations, Zenigata leads Fujiko, posing as a television reporter, to the Count's counterfeiting facility. After the Count corners Lupin and Clarisse on the clock tower's face, Lupin attempts to trade the rings for Clarisse's life, but the Count betrays him, and Lupin and Clarisse fall into the castle's lake. After using the rings on a secret mechanism built into the tower, the Count is crushed to death by the converging clock arms. Lupin and Clarisse watch as the mechanism drains the lake to reveal exquisite Roman ruins—the true treasure of Cagliostro. Clarisse explains that she doesn't want Lupin to go, even expressing her readiness to become a thief like him, but Lupin gently rejects her, and he and his friends bid farewell to Clarisse, now the rightful heir of Cagliostro. With Zenigata pursuing them again (for the crime of "stealing Clarisse's heart") and Fujiko fleeing with the plates from the printing presses, Lupin and the gang leave Cagliostro.
Voice cast
Character nameVoice actor Japanese English Arsène Lupin IIIYasuo YamadaDavid HayterTony Oliver Bob BergenLady Clarisse de Cagliostro Sumi Shimamoto Joan-Carol O'ConnellBarbara Goodson (young) Bridget Hoffman Cherami LeighCount Lazare de Cagliostro Tarō Ishida Michael McConnohie Kirk Thornton Jamieson PriceChief Inspector Koichi ZenigataGorō NayaKevin SeymourDoug Erholtz David PovallDaisuke Jigen Kiyoshi Kobayashi Steve Bulen John Snyder Richard EpcarFujiko Mine Eiko Masuyama Edie Mirman Dorothy Elias-Fahn Michelle RuffJodotIchirō NagaiSteve Kramer Jeff WinklessMilton JamesGoemon Ishikawa XIII Makio Inoue Steve Kramer Michael Gregory Lex LangGardenerKōhei MiyauchiPaul St. Peter Mike Reynolds Barry StiglerGendarme Captain Gustav Kirk Thornton Joe Romersa Jason Charles MillerInterpol Chairman Jeff Winkless Peter Spellos Paul St. PeterRiot Squad CaptainJamieson PriceBill Rogers Kerrigan MahanArchbishop Kinpei Azusa Kirk Thornton Michael Forest Paul St. PeterHostess Julie Donald Dyanne DiRosario Kayli Mills
Production
Lupin III began as a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. The title character, Lupin III, was inspired by (and is claimed in the series to be the grandson of) Maurice Leblanc's fictional character Arsène Lupin, a gallant and famous outlaw able to outsmart even Sherlock Holmes. Lupin III is a gentleman thief and announces his intentions to steal valuable objects by sending a calling card to the owners of the desired items. The manga's popularity led to two anime series, titled Lupin III and Lupin III Part II. The first film, The Mystery of Mamo, was released on 16 December 1978. The Castle of Cagliostro released a year later following the financial success of that film. This is marked as the first feature-length film to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who had previously co-directed episodes of the first Lupin anime series with Isao Takahata. The two directors along with Toshio Suzuki would give birth to Studio Ghibli in 1985. He was also a writer and director of two episodes in the second series under the pseudonym "Telecom", both produced a year after Cagliostro. In works other than Castle of Cagliostro and the series episodes directed by Miyazaki and Takahata, Lupin III is portrayed as a scheming and lecherous thief, sometimes supported by his former enemies Jigen and Goemon. Miyazaki's film conflicts with the typical behaviour and personality of the characters, a change that has been described as Lupin "growing up".
Castle of Cagliostro marked Miyazaki's debut as a theatrical movie director, but he also was a writer, a designer, and a storyboardist on the movie. The production for the film began in May 1979 with the writing of the story and storyboarding for the film. Miyazaki began by drawing a bird's eye view of the setting before creating the story to completion. After the first draft scenario was returned to Miyazaki without change, he began the storyboards. The story was divided into four parts, but after reaching the third part changes had to be made at the storyboard phase in order to not exceed the decided running time. Animation work began in July while the storyboards were only a quarter complete; Miyazaki had to complete them during the animation production. Production wrapped up at the end of November and the film's premiere on 15 December 1979 was a short seven and a half months from the project's undertaking, with only five months of production time.