The Castle of Cagliostro

The Castle of Cagliostro is a 1979 animated film from Hayao Miyazaki, the anime maestro who would later direct such Studio Ghibli classics as Spirited Away and Ponyo. Opening with a frantic escape by the master thief Arsene Lupin III and his sidekick Daisuke Jigen from a Monaco casino they have just robbed, we soon find our heroes heading into the Alps on the trail of legendary forgers and a princess locked in the tower of a half-submerged castle.

Coming on like a bizarre hybrid of The Count of Monte Cristo, Tintin, vintage Bond, and The Pink Panther, the film presents us with such conundrums as a French hero who eats with chopsticks and a semi-ruined castle with exterior, glass elevators. But there is much to be enjoyed in this playful, frenetic adventure which lurches from cliffhanger to cliffhanger. If the animation is a little crude, the backgrounds are beautifully realised, a delightful mix of the fantastic and the retro. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]