Sightlines · reception
How The Castle of Cagliostro was received
1979 · Hayao Miyazaki · The Castle of Cagliostro on Sightlines
The arc
A modest box-office performer for a Lupin III entry in 1979, it was slowly rehabilitated through Japanese TV airings and Miyazaki's later fame into a perennial favorite — now routinely called the best Lupin film and an essential piece of pre-Ghibli history.
What’s debated
The eternal fan fight: it's the best Lupin the Third *movie* but arguably the least Lupin the Third *Lupin* — even creator Monkey Punch said Miyazaki's gallant gentleman-thief wasn't really his character.
Its footprint
The opening Fiat 500 car chase is animation-nerd scripture, endlessly clipped and studied, and a Spielberg quote praising it — never actually sourced — has circulated for decades as part of the film's legend. Its clock-tower climax echoes through later animation, most famously Disney's The Great Mouse Detective.
Where it stands
The 'Ghibli film before Ghibli' — a rite-of-passage watch for anyone working backwards through Miyazaki, and a fixture of Letterboxd completionist marathons.
Did you know? The animators of Disney's The Great Mouse Detective (1986) acknowledged Cagliostro's clock-tower finale as an inspiration for their own Big Ben climax — American animation borrowing from Miyazaki years before most of the West knew his name.
Named by the director
- The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (1952) — Miyazaki cited Paul Grimault's vertical castle fantasy as a formative influence, an inspiration long acknowledged in Cagliostro's tower-topped castle.
- Paul Grimault — Miyazaki has repeatedly named the French animator as a key early influence on his idea of what animated features could be.