Rating: Summary: A Classic Review: If you want to see a runaway bride carrying an extremely important ring, an evil Duke, a good crook, and a gullible detective, then this anime is for you. I found the plot somewhat slow moving, but the ending was great! However, with all of the screaming and yelling you definitely know it's anime!
Rating: Summary: It's just good Review: With so much anime making its way over to the US with nothing more to offer than 30 minute fight scenes, I find myself more and more drawn to Miyazaki's films. I wouldn't call this one Miyazaki's best, but it is a great deal of fun. I wouldn't reccomend it to young children; there are instances of violence and death, though nothing too gratuitous. But if car chases, adventure, comedy, and romance are up your alley, you'll probably dig the movie.
Rating: Summary: Great fun Review: The smooth, easy tempo of this off-beat adventure animation is really enjoyable. I learned Japanese by watching this and other Miyazaki films. It is certainly a great improvement over mindless repetition of unrelated syllables. Miyasaki's honorable thief weaves mystery, romance, intrigue in a simple and funny romp through anime. I watched it with a friend, but afterward just had to buy a copy of my own. Great fun.
Rating: Summary: Fun! Review: Castle of Cagliostro has everything a retro 70's action/adventure film should have: a fearless hero with faithful sidekicks and slick gadgets, an evil villain, a damsel in distress, a castle, plenty of humor, daring escapes and chases and of course, music from the 70's. This is probably because it was made during the 70's ;-). Seriously speaking, Lupin is a successful merger between James Bond and Indiana Jones, with a personality and sense of timing which surpass both. The movie is a lot of fun to watch. Jigens (his partner in crime) is also a great character. This movie is a lot of fun. Everything is stereotyped (Lupin is the typical charming rogue which gets away with all his thefts). I don't think you'd regret watching it and even buying it (if you collect anime). On the technical side, the animation shows its age (both in detail, frame rate and quality of picture). The soundtrack is good; however, in my copy the Japanese track is simply _horrible_ (technically speaking; the voicing is wonderful). I don't know if it's because of my system (an old amplifier) or because that's the way they recorded it, but compared to the English track it sounds like it was passed through a telephone speaker!
Rating: Summary: Lupin III is one of the best anime ever... Review: Lupin III is one of the best animes ever, but this isn't one of the best of Lupin III. Although directed by Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Nausica), his direction took too much out of the Lupin III characters. Cagliostro keeps the zany action of Lupin III, but it has little of the 'Lupin' charm compared to the other Lupin III movies and TV shows. Overall, this is still a good movie, but is more of a 'bangaihen' or side story type of anime. Overall, this is a good buy and it features an enjoyable story. Manga also pulls of a pretty good dub, although the original dialogue is far better.
Rating: Summary: The Castle of Cagliostro Review: I have been looking forward to the DVD release of this movie for some time. The original dubbed version on VHS was a treat and had a charm all of its own. However while the DVD release has the same animation, a redone script has been included. While the new script may be more faithful the the original Japanese version, I find the original dubbed script to be more entertaining. I would only buy this if you MUST have this on DVD as the new script changes the feel and atmosphere of the characters. A disapointment.
Rating: Summary: Neither as good, nor as bad as other reviewers contend Review: I would not have bothered to write a review, except that other opinions were mostly extremely negative or extremely positive, which does not represent the movie fairly, in my opinion. This movie has a cute, fairy-tale plot which neither repulses nor excites. A lot of action. It might be fun to see this film remade in live action. A lot of fantastic Indiana-Jones type of chases and escapes. The dubbing is adequate, but certainly far from the top-notch job Disney did on Kiki's Delivery Service, for example. Miyazaki's films are always beautiful to look at. Oh, I did find the music a little on the schmaltzy/cheesy side. It is fun to watch once or twice, but I honestly can't see what anyone would find to strongly love or strongly hate about this product. The greatest animated movie ever? Nah. Just a sweet, watchable, passable Miyazaki effort that doesn't take itself too seriously (which Princess Mononoke possibly does do). If this sort of thing is your cup of tea, don't be deterred by the nit-pickers who only gave it one star. If you are hoping to be blown away, you'll probably be disappointed. Before seeing this, I had seen Totoro, Kiki, and Mononoke, and I considered this a lesser film, a slight let-down. Still not bad, though.
Rating: Summary: NOT SUITABLE for Children Review: Although the plot is fine for children, there is such an abundance of 3- 4- and 5-letter bad words that I do not want my 7-yr-olds watching it. All unneccesary, because it was dubbed and could have avoided those vulgarities.
Rating: Summary: Boring, Boring, Boring... Review: I bought this DVD because I liked Princess Mononoke so much. However, I found this one to be absolutely boring. There just wasn't enough action in this feature. It felt like I was always waiting for *something* to happen, but it never did.
Rating: Summary: A great film let down by shoddy workmanship Review: I've had a copy of this film in my video collection for a number of years now. It's one of the entries on my all-time ten-best-ever-made animated features list. I've been eagerly awaiting it's release on DVD, ever since it was withdrawn from the market, pending the new release. Unfortunately this new DVD release is a severe let-down. Cheap workmanship, zero features, a lousy cover, and to make things even worse, they've redubbed it - and the new dub is crap. I can understand how someone who's never seen the better version of this film might see this new dub and find it worthwhile - after all, the original film which this redub is based on is of such high quality, that it's hard to totally water it down. But to anyone who's owned one of the original version videos, and who like myself considers this one of the all-time greats, there's no comparrisson. Unlike some of the previous reviewers who've been incensed at the lackluster quality of this release, I won't be automatically returning it. The original japanese version is here, and so are the cleaned and restored letterbox visuals. But I won't be listening to the english dub again, and I'm severely let down and embarrassed for the company responsible for putting this product out. I wouldn't want my company's name on this shiny, plastic tragedy. I only hope that if they ever decide to provide a more features-packed release, worthy of the title, that they have the understanding to provide the 79' dub as one of the audio selections. But until then, don't waste your money on it. You'd be better off hunting up the Streamline release with the 79' dub on it, thru someplace like ebay, or any local comic/anime shop that handles used videos.
|