What A Cartoon Movie! - Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

Late to listening to this one, so I don’t know if anyone will even read this comment, but I had something to chime in on. Bob and Henry mentioned the references to a castle sequence Puss in Boots - I never saw the original Puss I’m Boots, but its sequel, Puss In Boots Travels Around the World was a frequently watched movie in my childhood. That movie ends with a clock tower battle, and several shots and character poses are borrowed for the clock tower fight in Castle of Cagliostro! I just thought it was cool.

Here’s a weird yet FunFact: Yasuo Yamada was also the first Japanese voice of Kermit the Frog and if you watch the Japanese version of rainbow connection it’s like Lupin singing it, just thought that was really cool. https://youtu.be/hcSYzLGSUpM

Mario

Regarding the translation of Fujiko-chan to Fuji-cakes, that is how it was localized in the 2000s dub that was on Adult Swim. When I watched this on Netflix I was surprised they kept that localization (but I'm glad they did because I'm fond of that choice). The same is true for calling Zenigata "Pops" as the localization of "oyaji" or "old man".

One of my all-time favs. The "Wolf" dub often made an appearance on UK TV during the 1am "we can get away with airing anything" slot during the late 90's/early 00's and therefore introduced lots of British teenagers to anime

Adam Elmahdi

A great episode, fully worth upgrading my pledge just to hear it (I'd have bugged you guys just to send me the mp3 but you guys do so much good work I had to support it for just this month). While it is insane that this was an 8 month production (let's face it, there probably was more than some animation done before the film was completely boarded), when you really analyze it, a lot of the film is limited animation... Lots of static shots/dialogue/backgrounds. I think that's what I resented about a lot of Japanese animation when I was younger - so much of the country's roots *are* in limited animation, compared to America's that had a longer history of evolution and devolution. Of course, it's all about HOW you do it, and where you make the animation count, which is how you get a classic like "Cagliostro" or as riveting a series as the original Lupin III. (FWIW, I like most all of the Lupin series, but I was never as thrilled watching an animated series as I was watching the first one. It's a mess in the first half, but still an intriguing one, but when it was on, there was nothing like it.)

Thad Komorowski

Great and incredibly helpful podcast guys! But the story of how Castle of Cagliostro got to the States in the early 80s is almost a podcast in and of itself. In 1980, TMS was wanting to distribute their productions in America and they though Castle of Caglisotro was a good start. So they had their American agent, June Hirabayashi, contact Fred Patten and Mike Merlino of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (the first anime club) and see if they could organize a screening of a 35mm subbed version of Cagliostro at 1980 Worldcon and gauge audience interest. At the time, Patten had been meeting with Japanese manga-kas and production companies to get anime and manga to America in some official capacity (he was even able to get Osamu Tezuka and Monkey Punch to come some American conventions), so he definitely leapt at the chance. Unfortunately, the WorldCon screening was a failure. Barely anyone attended because sci-fi nerds didn’t wanna waste their time with an animated film nobody had heard of when they could be talking about serious live-action films like Star Wars. And while the few that did attend loved the film, hardly anyone filled out their audience participation forms that TMS would use to gauge interest. TMS did try to promote it at other conventions and film festivals with similar results, but Stephen Spielberg probably saw it at one of those film festivals. As a sidenote, Patten and Merlino would end up meeting comicbook artist Steve Gallacci at that Worldcon screening, who would introduce the C/FO to the new, burgeoning world of furry comics, thus laying the groundwork for the furry fandom. So a failed Castle of Caglisotro screening was instrumental in helping start the furry fandom as we know it today.

KaiserBeamz

This movie was fucking awesome. Even without any real context for Lupin III going into the movie, I immediately picked up on how they must have been interested in the Bond movies on some level, and taken some inspiration from the same kind of crazy pulp adventures that Indiana Jones did, and as a result of those kind of influences (as well as the rest of the stuff you guys highlight) I absolutely loved it. I'd be curious to go watch the series having started with this movie, but I liked how Lupin really was a kind of criminal-with-a-heart-of-gold type here, so if he's a bit more bashful & violent (and sexist) there, it might not do the same things for me.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

Oh hey I was at that panel. But i also work prge

Kris

The Moomin anime of the late 60's is not the one that people talk about. That's the show from the early 90's which is excellent. I haven't watched any of the 60's show but from what I've seen from screenshots it's quite ugly looking. Tove Jansson approved of the 90's show and would even make edits to the scripts.

Easily one of my favourite comfort food films. During the lockdown this was the first film my partner and I chose to watch as a “date” remotely. This tone of Lupin is perfect as he still has a mischievous charm but a strong warmth that I find a little lacking, at least in animated media. I love that all of his gadgets are elaborate and impossible but they pass the smell test of plausible like early Bond. I’m guessing it’s a micro state like San Marino or Monaco. These tiny countries often find their way out of turbulent history by their wealthy influence, so it’s nice to see one of them get their comeuppance. Great episode guys.

Cody C.

The KKK look of the wedding procession is highly likely supposed to be a capirote and sanbenito, traditional clothing worn by some Catholic brotherhoods which is understandable because it's being officiated by a Bishop in a very Spanish sounding country (Cagliostro is very visually similar to Asturias). When the Klan came back in the 1910s they adopted Catholic regalia as a symbol for their anti-Catholic message. America associates the regalia with the Klan for obvious reasons but more commonly known in countries where Catholicism had a larger impact like those colonized by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. The first boss of Kid Dracula is a capirote wearing priest with a manji on his hood which resulted in a lot of "gasp a swastika in a Nintendo game" articles in the early internet days.

Justen Brown

we're reaching critical Portmanteau levels in this podcast

mavrick