El Cosmico here, I've just had the enormous pleasure of watching one of Manga Entertainment's new DVD releases for today, Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro. It's a wonderful time to be a Miyazaki film, with the upcoming DVD release of Princess Mononoke by Miramax this summer, and with the recent news that Miyazaki is in pre-production on another work, yet to be titled, probably called either "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" or "Sen no Kamikakushi" for release some time in 2001. For more information on this, check out the excellent nausicaa.net
Okay, all I really needed to say was "Miyazaki", and that would have been enough to get most of you running to the stores. Just for kicks, though, I thought I'd post a review to go with the glorious news that one of Miyazaki's films came to a US DVD today.
First off, the folks at Manga have turned out some high-profile DVDs in the past few years, including two well-known Anime DVD titles, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll. EVERY anime fan knows and loves these flicks, and Manga did a fair job on both of them. So now, they've touched their hands to one of the sacred works of one of the divine gods of anime, Miyazaki. I am enormously pleased with the result. I couldn't help but smile and laugh through this entire DVD. Thoroughly satisfying. The transfer to letterboxed DVD-Video is BEAUTIFUL. This from a film that was originally released in...1979 I believe? AWESOME. Beautiful video transfers like this are the very reason I love DVD.
Even more surprising is the audio, which has been remastered into Dolby Digital Stereo (on the main track, which contains the English dub). I'm as surprised as anyone, but this English dub is one I can actually live with. In fact, I really enjoyed it at times. The digitally remastered sound is really well done, sounds just like new, and somehow or another, the dub is decent...now, for me to say that about an anime movie, means that the dub is really damn good, because I typically HATE dubs. With a passion. Oddly enough, the only dubs I've ever liked were of Miyazaki films. Maybe they're just stylistically better-suited to dubbing. Who knows.
Anyway, the original Japanese audio track (which I watched first) is included as well. This is the glorious thing about anime on DVD, you get to watch it however you like. The only unfortunate thing about this disc's audio, though, is that while the English track has been remastered, and sounds wonderful, it appears that the original Japanese track has not been redone. It sounds...old. By no means does this ruin it, I still liked it a lot, but it would have been nice if they'd remastered it too. Then again, I don't know what kind of source material they had to deal with. Maybe it just wasn't possible.
As for appropriateness for children, the language in the English track is more "mature" than that of the English subtitles with the Japanese track, and the film has a moderate degree of violence. I don't think there's anything in this disc that a child needs to be guarded from, but then, I'm not a parent. The description on Manga's site says "parental guidance suggested".
The disc's menu features could have been a LITTLE bit fancier, but they're fine. Not really inadequate in any way. They include a good scene index, two very well-done trailers for Manga Entertainment's entire video line which rock pretty hard, the obligatory language setup menu, a set of menus describing Manga's DVD catalogue (which includes Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, a film I am afraid to watch because I once saw Tetsuo: Iron Man in the theatre, and it so terrified me that my fight or flight instinct kicked in, I wanted to run away screaming, but having endured just a few minutes of great terror and pain, I forced myself to endure the rest, lest my suffering be in vain). Anyway, the menus are fine, and include a web link as well.
Okay, finally, the film itself. Here's the description from Manga's website:
"Fast and furious...a hilarious mix of Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers" --Jeff Mennell, Hollywood Reporter
The anime classic from acclaimed Director Hayao Miyazaki
Master thief Lupin III, a.k.a. "The Wolf," and his right-handed gunman Jigen are hot on the trail of a counterfeiter who swindled them. But when their search leads them to the secluded European country of Cagliostro, they find far more than they bargained for. Lupin unwittingly attracts the attention of the nation's mysterious monarch when he tries to help a damsel in distress escape the Count's henchmen and in the process stumbles upon the key to finding the lost fortune of the Cagliostro clan.
Written and directed by anime pioneer and visionary Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service). Fans of all ages will enjoy this light-hearted romp which Steven Spielberg once called on of the greatest adventure movies of all time."
Sounds pretty good, huh? Well, it is. Miyazaki is one of those filmmakers who is going to be remembered and cherished as long as humans have hearts and minds. This particular work was the second "Lupin III" film, focusing on a character who was the basis for five movies and three different TV series, which Miyazaki did a couple of episodes for as well as the series finale.
My impression of the film? Well, it was great. Really wonderful. Essential Miyazaki. The characters, animation style, setting, story, it's all what you'd expect from him. A delightful story, lovable, memorable characters, and a beautiful, familiar, yet otherworldly setting. The animation doesn't have as many frames per second as it would today, but keep in mind that this is VERY old, and it still looks outstanding. Having the chance to have one of Miyazaki's earliest works on DVD something no sane person should pass up. What Manga has done in bringing this to DVD isn't your ordinary DVD undertaking, it is an act of preserving and promoting a film treasure, and they've done an excellent job of it. If you love anime, or even if you just like it a little bit, you need to get your ass in gear and buy this.
-El Cosmico
mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com
