In short: Lupin the Third - The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

Some time before Hayao Miyazaki was HAYAO MIYAZAKI, he spent his time making films like this.

"This" being an adventure of the grandson of Arsene Lupin who has more or less gone into the family business as thief of the charming (and decidedly non-evil) persuasion. When a casino heist leaves Lupin and his partner Jigen with nothing more than a bunch of counterfeit bank notes, Lupin travels to the small European country of Cagliostro (stop laughing, or I'll deport you to Casanova), known as the secret center of international counterfeiting.

Once there, he finds something more interesting to do with his time than searching for fake money - there's a local princess to save from the clutches of an evil count and an ancient hidden treasure to find, while fighting against steel-clawed private armies, dealing with copious amounts of death traps and avoiding Interpol Inspector Zenigata. The counterfeits will also have a role to play, of course

First and foremost, The Castle of Cagliostro is just a whole bunch of fun, throwing together bits and pieces of caper movies, 60s spy films, bad melodrama Europeana, gothic kitsch and just about everything else Miyazaki could get his hands on with wild abandon and an undeniable sense of glee, mixed with charm and the sure pacing of the old pro Miyazaki already was at the time until everything coagulates into a ball of concentrated awesome. Just imagine an anime version of the ideal Eurospy/caper movie nobody ever made, multiply it with ten and you have this very fine movie.

 

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