Product Description

The world's most wanted master thief, Lupin the Third is dead! Despite a coroner's report, Inspector Zenigata is skeptical and discovers that Lupin is actually alive and well and stealing! But who had set up Lupin's death and why? Meanwhile, Fujiko is lured by the promise of eternal youth and beauty by the mad scientist know as Mamo. Pursuing Fujiko leads Lupin and his gang to Mamo's hideaway, where they discover the madman's dark secret and a fiendish scheme that threatens the entire planet! Now, it’s up to Lupin to stop the insane Mamo - before he can complete his 10,000 year-old plans of world domination.

KEY SALES POINTS: Lupin is one of Japan's biggest pop culture icons, spawning 6 theatrical films, 10 television films and 228 TV episodes. This is the first THEATRICAL FEATURE of Lupin series (theatrically released in 1978) Digitally High Definition Remastered for DVD release.

DVD FEATURES: Bilingual format (new English dialog 5.1 and original Japanese audio with optional English subtitles), interactive animated menus, scene access. Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation DVD extras include Conceptual Art Gallery, Excerpts from the original movie program and promo poster

BONUS - FREE INSIDE: Lupin Magic keychain (while supplies last), Collectible reversible cover, Booklet of Interviews, movie information, character information and more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89029 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-29
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
Created by manga artist Monkey Punch in 1967, Lupin III is a master thief, the direct descendant of Arsène Lupin. His off-the-wall escapades spoof the adventures of James Bond and similar rakish heroes. The typically baroque plot of "Mamo" requires Lupin and his sidekicks, the super-samurai Goemon and the beatnik Jigan, to steal the ingredients needed for a compound that produces eternal youth. The mastermind behind this scheme is the mad billionaire-industrialist Hayward Lockwood, a.k.a. Mamo. Lupin's clumsy attempts to seduce Mamo's voluptuous red-haired agent, Fujiko, and his successful evasions of the obsessed Inspector Zenigata provide additional comedy. The features and TV programs in the Lupin III series are much cartoonier and slower paced than more recent anime comedy-adventures, although their influence on Ranma 1/2 and other Japanese tongue-in-cheek heroes is clear. The animation is sloppy, Lupin's features change from scene to scene, and his hands frequently look like scribbles. The Mystery of Mamo is too silly to work as an adventure, but not silly enough to work as a farce, at least in this English version. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Not Miyazaki's Lupin, but an energetic action anime ...
'Mamo' may be known to some American fans already as the secondary footage in the Laser Disk arcade game 'Cliff Hanger' from 1983. While this film doesn't match the personalities or situations in Miyazaki's Lupin masterpieces, it does stand on its own as a decent anime effort from the late seventies. The first half of 'Mamo' is an incredible globe hopping action adventure going through the Giza pyramids, Transylvanian castles, Paris streets and sewers, Spanish desert and cities and onto an American aircraft carrier. All the sequences are well thought out with a variety of ingenious villains until the middle of the film where Lupin and gang end up on Mamo's headquarter island in the Carribean sea. Suddenly, the plot stagnates and wanders almost aimlessly for the next fourty minutes before the bizarre wrap up. The uninteresting latter half is probably due to the director trying to follow the Lupin manga without proper editing. The DVD version is a little lack luster, but it is still a good film and the english dub is very good. Get it; it's decent.

Not the best *Lupin* movie, but a pretty good movie itself.
Well, the DVD is pathetically equipped, with a menu that totals to a scene select. There is no Japanese language version with or without subtitles (probably because the company who dubbed it, Streamline Pictures, never made a subtitled version to begin with). The movie itself, however, is very interesting, even if it lacks the animation and spit-and-polish of "Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro." Supposedly, a little blue-fleshed fellow named Mamo has been hanging around Earth for the past several thousand years by self-cloning. Mamo, a psychopath, also claims that he has controlled all of human history and even cloned Lupin III himself (who may very well be dead, hung in Transylvania). Character tensions are detailed, and everyone watching can see how the director felt the players in the film should interact with each other (and it's in a very different way than in the "Lupin III" works of Hayao Miyazaki). All-in-all, it's a pretty good movie, but it takes quite a while to get past the toothpick-like character design and the far-less-than-teriffic animation. Once you get through the slug, it's a fun little ride with some good jokes thrown in, too. But, it's still no "Cagliostro Castle".... Final plug: Visit my Lupin III Webpage!

No Japanese Language!
I love this movie, but it is a simply atrocious to release a Japanese movie on DVD without including the original Japanese language dialogue as an optional audio track.