Message from the Doctor

Yes, that Doctor, from Doctor Who now that it’s been announced that the show will be streaming on Disney+ starting next year outside of the UK.

Revenge of the Bride

Here is something that I need to address regarding Phantom Manor:

It’s been updated for the past three years.

I know. Shock of all shocks, all my work back then which distracted me from posting here prevented me from talking about the updates to the ride, which have quite frankly outdated my old post about the Manor. So I think it’s about time that I knuckle down and talk about it.

As guests enter the Foyer to the Manor, they are now greeted with a decaying room with a portrait in the corner where the mirror once rested. In this decayed state, it shows Mélanie and her father, Henry Ravenswood, standing in front of a rundown Manor with dead plants all around. Mélanie is also shown in her wedding dress while Henry scowls and grips her.

And then a familiar voice pops in: It’s Vincent Price! This time his narration is in a mix of English and French, provided by Price himself through archived audio of the recording sessions and by Bernarde Alane, doing a near-identical deep-fake of the late Master of Horror.

“When hinges creak in doorless chambers… lorsque des sons étranges et effrayants résonnent dans les couloirs (when strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls)… when candlelight flickers though the air is deathly still… c’est le moment où le Fantôme est present (that is the time when the Phantom is present)… Welcome curious friends, it is so nice to have guests. Nous vous accueillons, humbles mortels, dans ce mystérieux manoir. (We welcome you, humble mortals, to this mysterious manor.) You may not believe it but beauty once lived in this house.”

At this point the foyer transforms with new visual effects presenting the foyer in its pre-quake of 1860 days, as the wallpaper is in pristine condition. The portrait now shows a lush garden surrounding the pristine manor, as Mélanie and Henry are now shown smiling.

“Phantom Manor avait des jours plus heureux, mais les temps ont changé (Phantom Manor had happier days, but times have changed.) And now curious souls, come, I have more to show you. Entrez ensemble de braves mortels dans ce célèbre manoir (Enter brave mortals into this famous manor together).”

Here the guests are brought into the Secret Room, now with four new portraits of Mélanie’s past love lives: Barry Claude, Sawyer Bottom, Captain Rowan D. Falls, and Ignatius “Iggy” Knight. In its “corruptible, mortal state” the portraits have Mélanie alongside her men, but as soon as the Phantom says “Perhaps you sense a disquieting metamorphosis,” Mélanie vanishes from the portraits, as they begin to stretch alongside the fact that the room has no windows and no doors. Here the fates of the four men are shown: Barry was mauled by a grizzly bear, Sawyer was cut in twain by an industrial buzzsaw, Captain Falls went over a raging waterfall in his rowboat, and Iggy was blown up by several crates of lit TNT and a barrel of dynamite. The Phantom then offers his chilling challenge on finding a way out, offering “his way”, showing him hanging Jake just like in the original version.

In addition, the Phantom now is shown with red pinhole lights in his eye sockets.

“Oh I didn’t mean to frighten you. Come, let us continue our tour. The real beauty of this house awaits us, farther on, and she’s dying to meet you, but beware of the Phantom”

The “priceless works of art” are now showing the life and death of Henry Ravenswood. First is a portrait of himself, transforming into the Phantom, which replaced the painting of Medusa. Second is a portrait of him cheating in a duel, replacing the were-panther. Then we have a slightly altered version of the Flying Dutchman painting. And last is a painting of a desperado transforming into one of the Ghost Riders in the Sky.

At the very end of the hallway, the full-painting of Mélanie has been repainted to have the faint image of the Phantom behind her. As the guests move into the loading area, Mélanie can now be seen looking out the window at the top of the grand staircase. In her original stead from the version prior, she was present at the first turn. In her stead is a suit of moving armor. The Phantom is now present behind Mélanie in the Endless Hallway, all while still using Pepper’s Ghost. There have been no changes to the next three scenes, however a brief period of time had the Séance Circle use the original Haunted Mansion music rather than John Debney’s score. Leota also floats above the table like in the American versions.

In the Ballroom, there is now a pile a wedding gifts near the fireplace with the Phantom moved to behind Mélanie rather than menacing her in the window. This room also had a brief soundtrack change as it used Gaylord Carter’s organ playing from the original American versions.

The Boudoir now has Mélanie’s reflection show the Phantom right behind her. In addition, she is now shown to remain young all throughout. Once displaying a smile that brought out her dimples, she now looks sad, especially noticeable in the eyebrow position. No changes were made to the catacombs. Phantom Canyon, now has new dialogue for the Mayor where he adds “Welcome, foolish mortals, but beware of hitchhiking ghosts!”

In the next biggest change to the ride, the Phantom in the finale now is a skeleton to remain consistent with the rest of the ride instead of his form as a ghoul, symbolically showing that he has long since rejected his humanity.

As the guests escape this hell on earth into the crypt, a skeletal hand of one of Mélanie’s suitor’s is shown bursting out of the wall with a ring in his hand, replacing Mélanie’s pointing skeleton.

The last biggest change comes from the mirrors lining the walls of the crypt. Instead of the Phantom holding onto the Doombuggies, it is instead a stir-crazy Mélanie asking “Will you marry me?” in a sinister manner not unlike Constance.

With this last scare, guests are now greeted by Mélanie’s disembodied voice echoing through the wine cellar accompanied by the Phantom’s hideous laughter.

Haunting News from D23

So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, it was recently announced at the D23 Expo in Anaheim this past September that a new update will be coming to the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom next year:

That’s right. The Hatbox Ghost will finally be able to go “ghost-to-ghost” within the United States, as the originally intended plans to have Hattie in both American mansions will finally be realized. Much like the newly installed version in Anaheim that has been active for the past seven years, the Florida mansion will have the updated effects for the Hatbox Ghost in how he will be represented, in addition to the ReHaunting that took place 15 years ago, which added Constance, new audio effects, the Endless Stairs, the ReVamped Portrait Corridor, and the blinking Demon Eyes in the wall.

Interestingly enough, this is the second time that the Hatbox Ghost will be in the same building as the Endless Stairs. Seen above is a two-page spread from Marvel’s short-lived Disney Kingdoms comics, issue 3 of the Haunted Mansion to be exact. According to Hattie, the Stairs are a maze that only he knows how to properly navigate, acting as a nexus to other haunted locations. The comic uses this as a way to explain why he was gone for nearly 40 years after his initial appearance for the Mansion’s opening week.

This all culminates in Hattie leading main character Danny to a gallery of “Ghostly Materials”, showing the boy all sorts of other Haunted Mansions beyond the one in Louisiana. According to him, they are either meant to have been build as retirement homes for ghosts, places of pure magic, houses of fun and exploration, and abodes of the mystic and macabre. Even then, all of them are meant to be a reminder that all ghosts must celebrate life, even in death.

Many an eagle-eyed fan can recognize several of the Mansions on the wall. These include the original concept for the Florida Mansion, which was to resembles a colonial house from Maine or Massachusetts, sketch designs for the Anaheim Mansion, the exterior for the Florida Mansion, and Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris (set in the town of Thunder Mesa, Arizona)

At least now he can celebrate Halloween properly without Jack Skellington popping in to redecorate for Christmas.

Entering October

The Mystery of Mamo

After a long time since my post about Roger’s game, I have decided to make this post almost a follow up to my post regarding Cagliostro. In this case, it will be about the movie that preceeded it, Lupin III: Lupin vs. The Clones.

cover by Discotek

Now this movie has a bit of an interesting history following it, in regards to its releases.

“Damnit, Goemon! I told you to stop playing that enka music!”

The film was originally released on December 16th, 1978, five days following the original airing of the 62nd episode of the concurrent anime, “Church of the Poisoned Mind”. In the episode, Lupin learns that Jigen and Goemon have been kidnapped by an assassin named “Sister Labina,” a nun who has skills in hypnotism, creating an entire village of assassins, Jigen and Goemon included, who are trigged whenever the nearby church tolls its bell. The episode itself is based on the British TV series “The Prisoner,” due in part to a large bubble pursuing Lupin when he tries to escape, based on the show’s sentry device called “Rover”, which also appeared in “The Joy of Sect” on the Simpsons. At the time of the film’s release, it was originally titled “Lupin III”. TMS later retitled it to “Lupin vs. the Clone” in order to differentiate it from the ongoing anime and manga. According to the liner notes provided by Discotek, Japanese fans disliked how the subtitle gave away the film’s plot, thus necessitating them to create a nickname of their own “Mamo-hen”, meaning “Mamo chapter”.

One year after the original Japanese theatrical release, TMS partnered up with Toho, the creators of Godzilla and his universe of kaijuu, to produce a dub for trans-Pacific flights on JAL to and from Japan, usually from the US, as well as to shop for a possible screening in California through Toho’s US partners. This dub has been called the Toho Dub for the fact that Toho handled the theatrical release. It has also been called the “Frontier dub” due to how Frontier Enterprises did the ADR work. Despite its seemingly obscurity, at least one sequence from this dub apppeared in Cliff Hanger. Fred Patten would later talk about this dub with his colleagues during conventions which would lead to them creating their own subtitle for the film.

17 years after the theatrical release, it was finally time for the film to arrive on home media, courtesy of Streamline Pictures. Carl Macek once again directed the dub, using many of the same actors as in his previous dub for Cagliostro, in order to bank off of the success of the sequel. This dub also started a trend of updating the setting of the film, regardless of its intended 1978 setting, due in part to one scene in the film involving Jigen and Goemon meeting the Presidential Aide. This dub was originally released on VHS in 1995 and saw a DVD release three years later, in addition to a Japanese Laserdisc release. This dub was also the first to call it as “The Mystery of Mamo,” in order to add alliteration and to avoid spoiling the plot with its title. This dub also adds a new mix of sound effects to the film’s overall soundtrack, making some things pop-out more, in comparison to the other dubs.

image from eBay

On July 8th, 1996, Manga Entertainment’s UK division put out their own dub of the film as the European copyright on the name “Arsene Lupin” had yet to expire, thus mandating that Lupin be named “Wolf III” much like in the Streamline dub of Cagliostro. Here, the film was called “The Secret of Mamo,” and contains some of the saltiest language in any of the dubs thus far. This was due to a process in the UK for dubbing anime known as “Fifteening”. According to Urban Dictionary, to fifteen is to randomly add swear words to an anime-dub to get a higher rating and attract more buyers. This sort of process was also used by Animaze when they dubbed Street Fighter II The Animated Movie for its UK cut, having the saltiest language of the three English cuts, all using the same cast. The cast of this dub would collaborate one final time for the series altogether with the VHS release of Bye Bye Lady Liberty – Close Call on September 9th of that same year.

The fourth and final dub was released straight to DVD on July 29th, 2003. Here, the dub was handled by Geneon, using the same voice cast as the concurrently airing anime on Adult Swim, going for a tone similar to the original Japanese version as well as continuing the setting update that was prevalent in the anime at the time. This film was also part of a plan for Geneon regarding the franchise to dub all 228 total episodes of the three anime, plus the three theatrical films and the first four made for TV movies. Unfortunately, Geneon was hit with financial problems, leaving this film and the first 79 episodes of the second anime to be their only impact on the series. The cast from the second anime would later return in 2017 with the Toonami airing of the fourth anime, “The Italian Adventure”. Ten years after Geneon’s DVD was released, Discotek gathered all four dubs together and released them on their own DVD, later remastering it with a Blu-Ray release in March 2022. Here, the viewers can switch between dubs and the original Japanese audio to see the evolution of how the series was dubbed. In an interesting move, the Geneon dub is the one preferred by Japanese fans, praising Richard Epcar’s performance as Jigen for capturing the same energy and emotion as the late Kiyoshi Kobayashi.

And now for our casts, with a † to denote those who have passed away since release:

Character	Japanese	Toho	Streamline	Manga	Geneon
Lupin	Yasuo Yamada†	Tom Clark	Bob Bergen	Bill Duffy†	Tony Oliver
Jigen	Kiyoshi Kobayashi†	Cliff Harrington†	Steve Bulen	Eric Meyers	Richard Epcar
Goemon	Makio Inoue†	William Ross†	Ardwight Chamberlain	Garrick Hagon	Lex Lang
Fujiko	Eiko Masuyama	Patricia Kobayashi	Edie Mirman	Toni Barry	Michelle Ruff
Zenigata	Goro Naya†	Greg Starr	Dave Povall	Sean Barrett	Dan Lorge
Mamo	Kou Nishimura†	Mike Worman	Robert Axelrod†	Allan Wenger	Paul St. Peter
Flinch	Shouzou Iizuka†	Greg Starr	Jeff Winkless†	Jeff Harding	Bob Papenbrook†
Gordon	Hidekatsu Shibata	Don Knode†	Michael Forrest	William Roberts	Michael McConnohie
Presidential Aide	Toru Ohira†	Frank Rogers	Steve Kramer	John Baddeley	Joe D’Auria
US President	Fujio Akatsuka†	John Armstrong	Steve Kramer	Sean Barrett	Richard Cansino
Russian Premier	Ikki Kajiwara†	John Armstrong	Jeff Winkless†	William Roberts	Richard Cansino
Egyptian Police Chief	Haruo Minami†	Jeff Manning	Steve Kramer	John Baddeley	Richard Cansino
Police Commissioner	Kousei Tomita†	William Ross†	Jeff Winkless†	John Baddeley	Richard Cansino

And now on with the show.

Coroner's report:
An autopsy was performed on the
executed prisoner who was without question
the real Lupin III.

That’s right, Lupin III is dead; hung at the gallows somewhere in Wallachia. The footage of the body’s hanging would be reused in Cliff Hanger as part of a game over sequence. In all but Geneon’s dub and the original Japanese, the report is instead read aloud by Zenigata.

But...
there was a man who refused to believe that Lupin was dead...

Enter Zenigata, having heard about Lupin’s apparent death having occured in Wallachia, driving through a thunderstorm to Castlevania itself and heading down into the crypts where Jonathan Harker once stood. Continuing from the opening report in the dubs, Pops gives his two cents about the report being sent over Telex and that he would be the one to prove if Lupin truly was dead or not. Opening one of the caskets reveals Lupin dressed as a vampire and Resting in Peace.

“Who do you think you are, Lupin, Count Dracula? Well, I read the book, and Dracula gets his in the end, just like you’re gonna get yours. Here! Let me treat you a nice ‘stake’ dinner! Now let’s see just how far you’re willing to take this little ‘charade’, ALL THE WAY TO THE GRAVE!”

With this, Pops drives an oak stake through Lupin’s heart, triggering an explosion and covering Zenigata in rubble. To his surprise…

Lupin is alive! Even he doesn’t know what was up with the stiff that Pops came to stake, also hearing rumors of his death. With this, Zenigata gives a quick chase up the tower, to see Lupin take off in a Batglider and glide away. Zenigata fires a few shots at his rival, and cue the opening credits, set to Lupin Theme 1979, provided by the series’ current standby for music Yuji Ohno.

Time passes in-universe, as the hanging of Lupin’s copy is stated to have happened “last spring” (according to the Geneon dub). All the while, Lupin and Jigen have taken up a risky mission in Egypt to find an artifact in one of the Great Pyramids of Giza. They accidentally trip a sensor, notifying a squardron of Cairo police and Zenigata of their heist. The duo manage to slip into one of the burial chambers and find a small greenish-gray rock. The police and Zenigata swarm the corridors of the pyramid, but are unable to stop Lupin and Jigen, thanks to some help from Goemon.

Meanwhile, Fujiko has been aroused from a catnap by a mysterious employer, telling her to head to Paris to intercept Lupin’s package. This is just after the employer spies on her through a video camera while she takes a shower and puts on her biker suit. Fujiko takes her motorcycle and leaves the mysterious hideout.

Upon arrival in Paris, Fujiko meets up with Lupin, dressed like Sean Connery in the opening of Goldfinger, attempting to woo her before he can make the delivery.

Lupin: My love is like a red, red rose!
Fujiko: Lupin!
Lupin: Alas… only what’s left of him.
Fujiko: Hm. What exactly is that supposed to mean?
Lupin: A rose is a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!
Fujiko: What is this, English lit. 101?
Lupin: How like a rose thou art! Oh, your beauty dazzles my eyes! Your thorns pierce my heart! And that stuff didn’t come out of any book, by the way. I made that part up all by myself.
Fujiko: Don’t give up your day job, okay? Shouldn’t we get down to business?
Lupin: I long to undress thee Fujiko petal by petal…
Fujiko: Great. Now it’s getting obscene. Flattery will get you anything you want… not.
Lupin: “Flattery”? How can you be so unfair, when the soft breezes of Paris have melted my icy heart? I thought a little smooth dressing would set the tone for an evening of beauty that matches your own.

Fujiko decides that Lupin’s attempts at playing Casanova are starting to get irritating and tells him to cut to the chase. Lupin then reveals the stone that he found, revealing to the audience that this is the franchise’s version of the legendary Philosopher’s Stone (not Sorcerer’s Stone, you American Harry Potter fans). With the stone in her possession, Fujiko sprays some stun-gas in Lupin’s face and drives off.

As she drives off, Jigen and Goemon pick up Lupin and put him in a cold bath to wake him back up. However, Lupin knows that this is just a part of his plan to find out what Fujiko’s up to. A tracker hidden somewhere on her person points out on a radar that she is heading to Père Lachaise Cemetery, although not to find the Court of Miracles. It is here that Fujiko encounters her employer again, showing his body only in shadow as well as the employer introducing her to his top henchman, Flinch, a hulking brute of a man who hardly says a word. Flinch then takes the Stone from Fujiko to present it to the employer. However, he notices something’s wrong, and zaps it with a gun. The Stone was a fake, along with a tracker in it! Flinch breaks the tracker, causing a shock to run through Lupin’s head, but not before he managed to record most of the conversation on tape.

The next morning, the trio decide to hit the books about the connection that the Stone has with a mandragora root that Lupin had found in Wallachia and an ancient Chinese potion bottle. As they put two and two together, they realize that the root, the bottle, and the Stone are connected by way of obtaining the secrets of immortality.

Just then, an assault chopper attacks the bustling streets of Paris, prompting a car chase in the SSK.

This was that car chase I mentioned back in December of last year as appearing in Cliff Hanger. The SSK with Lupin and Jigen begin to Tokyo drift through the streets of Paris before falling into the sewers, but the chopper chases after them underground. Just then, Lupin spies Goemon, and tells him to give them hell.

SCHWING

Once more, I have cut a worthless object.

Goemon Ishikawa XIII

To any Lupin fans keeping score, this is in fact the very first time that Goemon has ever uttered his catchphrase. Each dub also goes ahead and changes the wording of the phrase:

Once again, I’ve cut a worthless object.

Toho

Once again… I defile my blade on an unworthy object.

Streamline

I demean myself with my attention to this worthless object.

Manga

An unworthy target defiles the weapon.

Geneon

In the ensuing explosion, the chopper is destroyed, but the SSK is also totalled, forcing the trio to emerge from the sewers. Fujiko arrives in a mini-cooper asking that she give them the Stone, the real one. Lupin doesn’t buy it and kicks her out of the cooper to escape from Zenigata’s oncoming squadron of cars.

More than meets the eye

After leaving the city limits and quickly approaching the boarder of Spain, a massive 16-wheeler lurches from behind the squadron, crushing several cars in the process and knocking Zenigata off the road. In the dubs, Zenigata’s dialogue varies about seeing the power of the convoy.

*Maniacal laugh* Did you see that driving power?

Toho

*Nervous laugh* What am I laughin about?!

Streamline

*Arrogant laugh* You don’t run me down as easy as that!

Manga

*Maniacal laugh* Watch out, Lupin!

Geneon

The trio manage to shake the convoy off of them as it crashes into a lake and explodes, now with them safe on the Spanish side of the border.

Their victory is short lived as Flinch arrives in a biplane and drops a bomb on them, causing them to flee in the style of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

The trio arrives at what was supposed to be their hideout, only to find that it has been destroyed. Jigen and Goemon begin to suspect that Fujiko ratted them out with Lupin jumping to her defense. The two chew him out on always jumping to her defense and tell him to cut her cold turkey. He aggrees to and they begin the long trek through the desert to a new hideout. Jigen points out that the desert is similar to Death Valley in the MangaUK dub, referring to it as “Valleé Morte”, although the location suggests that the desert is in fact the Tabernas Desert.

During the trek, they stumble across what looks like a pitcher of ice-cold water, only for it to erupt in a fountain of fire. From this, Lupin realizes that this fountain of fire is a warning from Mamo’s subordinates: any hope of eluding them is a mirage.

The trio finally arrive at a safehouse, loaded with canned goods and bottled water, just as Fujiko arrives, beaten and bruised. Apparently her employer, (named “Howard Lockwood” in the original Japanese, Streamline, and Geneon dubs, and “Foward Fughes” in the Toho and Manga dubs) did not take too kindly to being told of the Stone slipping from Fujiko’s grasp, ordering Flinch to whip her mercilessly.

Once again, Lupin jumps to her defense, this time out of genuine worry. Jigen and Goemon call out Lupin for going back on his word and threaten to kill him, an idea from the original manga where Jigen and Goemon believe that they are the only ones worthy enough to kill Lupin. As they head their separate ways, Lupin insults them, saying that they should just shave their heads off and join a monastery as monks

Lupin and Fujiko now alone share a meal together, with Lupin deciding to get frisky soon afterwards. He stops cold tired as he makes a leap towards Fujiko. As an aside, Fujiko notes how long it took her sedative to kick in.

Fealing guilty about what happend, Jigen returns to the safehouse in time to see Flinch carrying an unconcious Lupin over his shoulder into the plane and Fujiko begging him to stop. Flinch drags her into the plane and utters one of his few lines in the Geneon dub, “Shut up, bitch.”

“Is your name Flinchin, the dangling penis? Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve got this thing about being followed. You’re not my type, so just take off.”

Setting: Barcelona. 1400 hours local time. Jigen has a run-in with Agent Riff Gordon (based on the late Agent G. Gordon Liddy, one of the burglars in the Watergate scandal under Nixon) telling him to come along with him because of emergency international affairs regarding Lupin and his connection to a mysterious entity named “Mamo”.

Jigen is reunited with Goemon on a US aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean where Gordon introduces them to the Presidential Aide. In the original Japanese and Geneon dubs, he is known as Starkey, but in the other three dubs, he is known as Heinrich Gissinger, a reference to the late US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Gissinger then reveals that a two-way conversation between the President (Jimmy Carter in the Japanese and Toho dub, Bill Clinton in the Streamline and Manga dubs, and George W. Bush in the Geneon dub) and the Russian Premier (Leonid Brezhnev in the Japanese and Toho dub, Boris Yeltsin in the Streamline and Manga dubs, and Vladimir Putin in the Geneon dub) was intercepted by Mamo and proceeds to play the tape (super-cut of the dubs will be presented)

Premier: Mr. President, I must protest, in the strongest possible terms, the blackmailing of my administration by yours.
US President: Blackmail? Mr. Premier, I’m afraid I don’t…
Premier: Please, don’t insult us further. I want your assurance that the CIA is not responsible as we’ve been threatened with nuclear attack if we don’t hand over all classified research in biochemistry, sitology, biogenetics, cryogenics, and gene splicing.
US President: Hey, I’ve been threatened the same way. And to prove they’re serious, they’ve already destroyed several of our communication satellites.
Premier: You do not think that we…
US President: No, no. The Cold War’s over, after all, isn’t it, Boris?
Premier: Oh… why, yes it is. Of course! But who is this madman?
Mamo: Gentlemen, if I may interrupt…
US President: Who’s that?!
Mamo: My name is Mamo. I am the living embodiment of intelligence. Some have called me a prophet… a God to you.
Premier: A God? You’re a madman!
US President: He’s a terrorist! Whoever he is, what kind of a God threatens humanity with universal apocalypse if he doesn’t get his way?!
Mamo: I heard you weren’t much of a student in your school days, Mr. President… but apparently, even the Bible you thump so shamelessly is the Reader’s Digest edition.
Premier: That is lunacy!
US President: Eh, if you’re a God, I gotta tell you, your requests are pretty unoriginal, not to say, venial.
Mamo: Request? This is an order! And if you care about mainstream, cherry pie, and Dynasty as you always say, you’ll jump to it! You would both understand if you knew how the world was made.
US President: That’s an understatement. You can’t believe that we’ll go along with this.
Mamo: You have no choice! I know every move you make before you know it yourselves. Why, I even know about that little floozy you keep in the steno pool, Mr. President. How would you like the world to find out about her?
US President: Oh… how dare you!
Premier: Floozy? What is this floozy?

As you can tell, the Streamline dub made the joking suggestion that Clinton was having an affair behind Hillary’s back, something that was deemed true when it was discovered a few months after the dub was released that Bill was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky. The Streamline dub was also the first to update the setting to being after the Cold War, with Boris being the premier at the time. The Geneon dub updated it further by having it set during the second Gulf War by way of the President’s line about Mamo being a terrorist. Mamo’s threats back at the President also vary, such as how he has plans to destroy the American way of life in the Manga dub, the affair in Streamline’s, and his direct insult about Bush’s intelligence

KRAV MAGA!!

Once the four have finished discussing the tape, Gordon attmpts to threaten Jigen to spill the beans about what Lupin has to do with Mamo, during which a slip of paper that Jigen found at the safehouse falls onto Gordon’s face, saying “WATER”. After Jigen thanks “Captain Obvious,” Gordon flips out about his intelligence being called into question and directly threatens Jigen. “Mess with me and you’re messing with America!” To which Jigen asks him which America he’s working for: the beacon of freedom and democracy or the bastion of blind arrogance. In the Manga and Toho dubs, Jigen points out that he used to be a big fan of Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley, but Gordon just made him resign from those titles. In the Streamline dub, he instead says that he will no long invest in his former patriotic duty of savings bonds. Gissinger tells Gordon to cease his violence, since it’s clear that Jigen and Goemon know nothing of Mamo. The government agents leave the two to their own devices, with Goemon pointing out the paper touching a small splash of water on the floor, revealing the phrase “CARIB”. They then deduce that Mamo’s hideout is in the Carribean and proceed to take a sailboat to an island belonging to “Mega Amalgamated Multinational Operations,” as a company belonging to Howard Lockwood. They then deduce that Lockwood is an alias for Mamo, recognizing the voice of the hijacker from their feed of Fujiko in Paris. They are unaware that Gissinger and Gordon have a tracker on the ship and that Zenigata is a stowaway.

Lupin wakes up in a cage in an unfamiliar location and proceeds to escape twice from the same guard, with the second chase being through some classical artwork (the Acropolis, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, and the Persistence of Memory). After losing the guard, he comes across a man on a white horse, proceeding to ask him for directions, stopping once he sees the man’s face: Napoléon Bonaparte. He then bumps into a shorter man in a brown trenchcoat and red armband and responds to seeing him with a Roman salute. “Heil Schicklgruber!” It’s Adolf Hitler. Lupin comments on the strangeness going on when he hears the sound of a harp being played.

Following the sound of the harp, Lupin comes face to face with the owner of the island: Mamo. Mamo reveals that his island will act as a sort of Noah’s Ark of the greatestt beings in human history and that he has achieved part of the secrets of immortality. The only thing missing is the Philospher’s Stone.

While looking about the island for Fujiko and the mysterious Mamo, Lupin comes across the island’s laboratories, finding test-tubes filled with homunculi in Mamo’s image. Lupin realizes that Mamo has achieved a pseudo immortality by cloning and that the Stone will help him achieve true immortality. Through this same process, Mamo has also revived those same historical figures and revived an extinct species of butterfly for Fujiko, referring to them with a fake Latin-sounding name “Tacitus taecum annus”. Lupin further comments on Mamo’s mad science that he could have done something more productive with his research into genetics, cell division, and biochemistry, like finding a cure for the flu or the common cold. Mamo begins to question Fujiko’s taste in her loving a Kavorkian man such as Lupin, declaring him to be unworthy of immortality. The scientists in the lab are about to announce their findings to Mamo before Lupin knocks one out, announcing that he has the Stone in his possession. Mamo proceeds to sic his guards on Lupin and the fleeing Fujiko.

After a brief chase from the guards and Flinch, Lupin and Fujiko end up in an elevator for some alone time, not knowing that the elevator heads to Mamo’s private chambers, with walls displaying replicas of the Sistine Chapel’s cieling. Mamo then gives some exposition about the historical figures being clones of the real deal right down to their memories. All this so that he can achieve godhood. The monitor pulls up that there are intruders on the island, with images flashing of Jigen and Goemon bushwhacking and Pops interrogating a clone of Laozi.

Lupin then proceeds to mock Mamo for his appearance, as it means that even he is barred from his own goal for immortality. In a fit of anger and jealousy as Fujiko refuses to leave Lupin’s side, Mamo activates a scanner, forcibly hooked up to Lupin’s brain to show Fujiko the thief’s dirtiest secrets. Unsurprisingly, most of these secrets include naked women, Fujiko herself, Zenigata, and sex.

At a random point during the scanning, Lupin is shown eating some Telepach. This is a reference to how Yasuo Yamada, who voiced Lupin, was also the announcer for the candy in the 70’s. To describe what Telepach is, it is the Japanese equivalent to Pop Rocks, alongside the similarly named Don Pach, which serves as the namesake for the character of Don Patch in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, which was airing on Toonami by the time Geneon released their dub of the film.

With Fujiko thoroughly disgusted, Mamo decides to dig deeper into Lupin’s mind to find… nothing. This lack of substance in Lupin’s subconcious causes Mamo to stammer, wondering if Lupin is either an absolute idiot… or perhaps God in mortal form. Mamo turns up the juice on the scanner in an attempt to kill Lupin, but he is interruped by the US Air Force carpet bombing the island.

Just as Mamo is about to kill Lupin and Fujiko himself, Jigen and Goemon arrive, with Jigen firing his M19 into the evil man’s forehead, killing him on the spot. But there’s no time to waste for them to catch up, they need to escape before the island is destroyed with them on it!

As the gang make their escape from Mamo’s island, they are blocked by Flinch within a short distance from the docks. Flinch is none too pleased about the death of his master and is ready to kill them all. Goemon issues a duel with the thug, with Flinch drawing a foil to combat with the ronin. He becomes much more talkative for the fight, most notably what happens after Goemon attempts his single-stroke technique…

The only thing that can stop me is a laser beam!

Zantetsuken hasn’t done anything to him! In fact the attempt at striking Flinch’s body has caused the blade to dull, with Flinch revealing that he has a Kevlar vest underneath. Goemon attempts one more time against Flinch with the tip of the sword breaking off and ending up in Lupin’s hand. Flinch at first seems confident that he has won until…

With this literal splitting headache, Flinch scrambles to keep his head together but dies from multiple sword strikes.

They finally get to the docks with Zenigata awaiting to arrest them all. The gang pays no heed to his threat and make off in the sailboat, where Jigen attempts to calm Goemon down about the breaking of his sword, telling him that he can always repair it. Zenigata attempts to row after them in a dingy, but is hit with a torpedo, which he clings onto for dear life as the USAF has finished bombing the now evacuated island, leaving behind only the bodies of Mamo, Flinch, and many of the clones.

After a long crazy ride on an American torpedo, Zenigata finally reaches land, ending up on a beach in Colombia. It is here that he meets up with the chief of ICPO, offering him to get him lunch at a local Japanese restaurant.

Pops and the Chief begin to discuss things over lunch. This is when the Chief tells Zenigata the zinger: he has been removed from the Lupin case, effective immediately. A stunned Zenigata looks at the Chief about why. The Chief tells Pops that Lupin has been so embroiled in political red tape thanks to Mamo that Zenigata can’t even arrest him without triggering World War III so as long as Mamo remains a threat to the world. He then gives him a bonus while telling him to think of it as an extended vacation as well as use it as a chance to catch up with his estranged family. To Zenigata, this is enough for him to resign from the Police Force, shred the bonus up, and take on Lupin as a private citizen.

“I’m absolutely positive he’s hiding here… somewhere in South America! They always end up somewhere in South America. Okay, Lupin… this is IT! You, me! Sun of Colombia, ¡mano a mano!”

Meanwhile, Goemon has taken to retraining himself out of the shame of having his sword broken, even with Jigen reassuring him that he can always get it repaired. This encounter with Mamo has left the gang on edge as they take to an old hotel and are now keeping themselves up with coffee. Lupin then theorizes that Mamo’s immortality is not as it appears: he too is a clone of the original.

Must have been some hard coffee.

Suddenly, Mamo appears before them all as the hotel room disappears and is replaced with a star field. Mamo then explains that he has been alive for more than ten thousand years, claiming to have been born around the time of the Tower of Babel’s construction. He also explains that every major event in human history was due to his meddling in affairs, starting a few wars here and there and claiming that history is instead all about his interference. Images flash by of an army of Crusaders, the execution of the French royal family by guillotine, Custer’s last stand, the Crucifixtion, Alexander’s conquest, a viking raid, the death of Jeanne d’Arc, DaVinci’s studies, Napoléon’s crossing of St. Bernard, the rise of Mao Zedong, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While giving his own exposition, Mamo takes Fujiko himself and tells Lupin that he is a clone and that he owes his very existence to him. Lupin doesn’t know what to say, but challenges him to perform a miracle. Mamo responds by setting off an earthquake.

All this in an ad for Clark Bars?

As the earthquake is set off, we have a brief gag of Lupin being included as a member of the Justice League alongside Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman,  and Aqua Man, a gag cut from the Geneon dub initially, but reinstated by Discotek. This is shown to be in a newspaper read by Gissinger triangulating the epicenter of the earthquake.

After the quake, Lupin and Jigen, alone in an empty hotel room, then figure out that Mamo pumped the room full of gas to make them see the vision and then realize that the earthquake was set off by a nuclear power generator. Lupin decides to head into the generator, disguised as a temple with naught but his skills, P38, Zantetsuken tip, and an IED. Jigen fires a warning shot at him about how it’s practically suicide, while drinking some Jack Daniels.

Jigen: Don’t be a friggin’ idiot!
Lupin: That’s just it… I’d be an idiot if I didn’t go!
Jigen: The world is full of women, Lupin.

Lupin: It’s lousy with women… but not with love.

After entering the temple, Lupin comes across hooded figures armed with scythes. After tackling one and pulling it aside, he is shocked to see Mamo, with visible wrinkles.

“The transfer of the chromosomal data is never accomplished with complete fidelity. There are… anomalies, infinitesimally small in each case, but the cumulative effect of such – chaotic – pollution… can be observed after only a dozen or so generations. When I reached the 130th generation, I preserved myself as the original by putting myself in the Ringer’s Solution. What you see before you is a 130th generation facsimile. I am but a faint, distorted echo of myself.”

With this, Lupin figures out that Mamo’s obsession has distorted his morals, and that the need for the Stone, the bottle, and the root were to ensure that he does not undergo a degradation for each body produced.

Meanwhile, the Mamo that kidnapped Fujiko has a sudden realization: Eternity is a long time, and even the cloning process has its limitations. With this, he sets fire to his private collection, watching as all the artwork and books burn with a sad look on his face, tears streaking from his eyes. He then tells Fujiko what she must do, leading her over to a button and telling her to press it.

Upon pressing it, he reveals that what she pressed is a button that launches several nukes that will destroy the human race and make the two of them into the new Adam and Eve. In his arrogant moment of triumph, Mamo calls the President to announce that America and the world is doomed. The President responds that the only one doomed is Mamo. Gissinger was able to point out the coordinates of the quake’s epicenter, making him a sitting duck!

On top of that, Lupin was able to hack the missile launch code so that the nukes blow up before they launch. Furious, Mamo drags Fujiko away to a launch pad and begins to fire lasers at Lupin, even as he attempts to get closer. Mamo then decides that now would be a good time to twist the knife a bit on Lupin.

“Feeling suicidal, are we? I don’t blame you. You are so brave. Very well. If that’s what you want, I’ll grant you a hero’s death. And since I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll even reveal to you, that it was your clone who died last spring in Wallachia! Now, REST! IN! PEACE!”

With a maniacal laugh, Mamo fires a final laser beam at Lupin, but the thief reflects it.

“Fu… ji… ko…!”

The laser sets Mamo on fire as he is slowly immolated, screaming all the way. After a final climb up the stairs to Fujiko’s level, he slowly trudges forward towards her, calling out to her, and then crumbling into a messy pile of ashes.

Lupin goes up to Fujiko to comfort her saying that it’s all over now and that Goemon inadvertently helped them out with this shard. But then, they notice something in the ashes: a microchip. That means that the real Mamo is still out there!

“I AM THE ORIGINAL MAMO.”

From behind, a huge rocket emerges, with a massive brain in a glass dome and fluids. The brain reveals itself to be Mamo’s original form, controlling his clone bodies remotely with the microchip. Mamo then announces that his psychic abilities have detected life in a distant part of the galaxy where he will settle, rebuild a new body, and return to Earth one day as its one true god. Lupin and Fujiko climb up the shaft to escape, with Lupin planting the IED onto the brain’s dome. As the rocket reaches orbit, the IED explodes, breaking the glass.

With Mamo destroyed once and for all, Lupin finds Fujiko amidst some rubble, but Zenigata pops out and cuffs their legs together. Lupin and Fujiko share a kiss, just as the US Military launch nukes towards the temple. Gordon maniacally laughs from the American base that all who know the secret of Mamo will die, not knowing that Gissinger has ordered his own death sentence as everyone in that base, save for him, will be executed.

Jigen flies by to pick up Fujiko, since he can’t grab both Lupin and Pops at the same time. The two rivals then partake in a pseudo three-legged race to dodge the missiles, with Lupin attempting to trick Pops into thinking that he is a clone of the real Lupin that was hung in Wallachia, while Goemon comments on them.

That is his destiny…

Subs

Ladies and Gentlemen, the end.

Toho

As you’ve guessed by now, this is the end.

Streamline

Ladies and Gentlemen, end of film.

Manga

Contradiction is… his destiny.

Geneon

Cue the credits set to the Lupin Ondo.

Legacy

While this film is not as well known outside of Japan, it has often been looked at as a milestone in the ADR scene by way of its multiple dubs, not just in English but in Italy and France as well. In fact, the Italian dub has as many dubs as the English version,  first by CINITALIA EDIZIONI in 1979, then by MITO Film in 1986, then by LOGICA 2000 in 1993, and a final one by Mediaset TV in 2007 for TV airings of the film, as the series is immensely popular in Italy. In France, it was dubbed first in 1981 by an unknown company, and then in 2005 by Midisync for IDP. The first of the two dubs is the only time in French that does not change Lupin’s name, while the second one changes his name because of the copyright reasons surrounding the works of Maurice Leblanc at the time. In this time frame, Lupin was renamed to “Edgar de la Cambriole/Edgar the Burglar”, Fujiko was renamed to “Magali Mine”, and Pops was renamed to “Inspecteur Gaston Lacogne”. But on the side of the English release, this is the second place holder for the record of most English dubs for a single Japanese anime installment. The current record holder is the Dragon Ball episode “Bulma and Son Goku,” which has been dubbed six times: First by Harmony Gold in 1989 in SoCal, then by Ocean in Canada in 1995, then by Creative Products Corporation in the Philippines, then Malaysia, then by Crunchyroll Dubbing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in 2001, then by AB Groupe in France in 2003. Of those dubs, the Filipino and Malay English dubs are considered lost, but more dubs could possibly exist. Taking that in consideration, the Mystery of Mamo is the current holder for the most extant English dubs for a single anime installment

As stated in my post about Cagliostro, the last three stages of the game “THE SHOOTING” were based on this film, with the third to last being “Helipanic Operation”. The game’s map relocates the action as being set in London rather than in Paris and Mamo’s secret headquarters in the Pacific Ocean rather than in the Caribbean. On top of this, the player(s) must now take out six choppers sent after Lupin and Jigen in the SSK using only the P38 (and the M19), with Flinch making an appearance in the last one, the target of Goemon’s Zantetsuken.

Perhaps the most notable appearance of anything from this film would appear on June 21, 2014 with the release of the OVA “Jigen’s Gravestone” directed by Takeshi Koike. This OVA along with two sequels, “Goemon’s Bloodspray” and “Fujiko’s Lie”, as well as two recently announced sequels, are set in a darker and grittier take on the series often called the “Koike-verse” or the “Lupin the IIIrd universe”. It’s at the end of “Jigen’s Gravestone” that a greater conspiracy that connects this film to its two to four sequels appears as part of the invisible threads of a mystery starting to come together.

They’ve had a taste of the forbidden fruit!

Yes, Mamo himself appears in Jigen’s Gravestone, suggesting that the Koike-verse is a prequel to the 2^nd anime series, as he is obviously alive. Given how the next two films have assassins coming after the gang, it’s not hard to think that Mamo is hiring them in order to eventually lead to Lupin finding the mandrake root and Philosopher’s Stone in the movie.

What Could Have Been

There were originally plans during the coroner’s report during the opening to have it instead relayed to Zenigata by the ICPO Chief about Lupin’s seemingly return from the dead, thus leading to Zenigata heading to Wallachia. The way it would have played out had Zenigata recollecting that Lupin had died on an exploding ship and thus, with his life’s goal forever gone, took up a life as a monk and woodcutter to make up for his loss. All this while not knowing that Lupin faked his death to throw his rival off his trail and lay low while he began his search for the mandragora root and potion bottle. This sequence was scrapped, although the woodcutter footage appeared in an early trailer for the film which can be found on the Discotek Blu-Ray. The overall idea of Lupin’s fake death by exploding ship would be repurposed in The Fuma Conspiracy. Instead of a higher up from Interpol telling Pops of Lupin’s return, it is instead one of the film’s antagonists, Kazami, acting as a fellow cop from Saitama telling him of his reappearance during what would have been Goemon’s wedding.

The Liner notes and promotional materials for the film also mention that among the clones on the island, Lupin was to have encountered a clone of Jeanne d’Arc. No such encounter occurs in the film, with the closest to this being Lupin following a girl playing a game of hoop-rolling. He never gets a chance to talk to her as she disappears entirely from the film after the guard begins his chase through the classical art. Had Jeanne been in the finished product, she could have acted as the film’s “Bond Girl” alongside Fujiko.

This post is dedicated in memory of Kiyoshi Kobayashi (January 11, 1933-July 30, 2022)

What can run Roger’s game?

So this is more of a thought experiment based around my own recent watching of the live action remake of 101 Dalmatians on Disney+.

this one, starring Glenn Close as Cruella

Throughout the film, Roger is shown working on a Dalmatian-themed video game, with the hope that it will be greenlit and make his first big foray into the Indie Dev scene.

Is he a hero for running from a government worker?

From what little footage we see of the game, it appears to use 2D animation cels for sprites as seen with Pongo and the Dog Catcher above, along with 3D computer generated graphics for the environments and with voice acting from what little dialogue we hear from the three builds (first a stock scream by Mel Blanc uttered by the Dog Catcher, then a gravely “Gotcha!” by the Plumber, and finally Cruella’s laugh and shout of “No!”). This got me thinking just as to what systems at the time of the film’s release could be able to handle such capabilities.

Now let us consider the market at the time, 1996. E3 had just had its second annual event in May of that year, and the N64 was released in June that same year, launching with Super Mario 64. Other active consoles at the time included the aging Sega MegaDrive/Genesis, the Super Nintendo, any IBM compatible PCs (Windows 95 included), Apple’s Macintosh line of computers, the recently discontinued 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and the then-current 32-bit powerhouses in the form of the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.

Now with this list out of the way, let’s take a look at each console’s best ways at handling games like this:

SNES:

Now with the SNES, one game comes to mind:

We’re going to get it on like Donkey Kong first and foremost as this was the first major game on the SNES to use pre-rendered graphics, all thanks to British developer Rare and their use of Silicon Graphics enabled workstations and the use of Maya to render the graphics that would be made into sprites. The use of these pre-rendered graphics was a huge “Take that!” against Sega with their “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” and “Blast Processing” ads. So theoretically the SNES could handle such a game with pre-rendered visuals, alongside the traditional 2D graphics. But there is a catch-22 with having actual 3D graphics on the SNES, as it would need an additional enhancement chip to display polygons, such as the Super FX chip used in StarFox or the CX4 used in Mega Man X, coupled with the use of Mode 7 already built into a number of cartridges that use the DSP-1 chip. All three carts would end up inflating the price of the game well beyond the intended price that Roger would be hoping to sell the game at. “But what about voices?” you might be saying. Well there is another game I can throw out there:

For the uninitiated, this was an RPG developed by Wolf Team and published by Namco, the first in their Tales series, including fan-favorite Symphonia and the recently released Arise. What makes this game stand out among other SNES titles is the use of the Flexible Voice Drive, which enabled full recording of both the dialogue and theme song, also meaning that the cartridge could hold 48 megabits of memory, just for voice acting alone. However, the voice acting was filtered, despite its impressive use.

So the SNES is off the charts.

Genesis:

Now we have the long lasting rival. As the Genesis had add-ons at the time, in the form of both the Sega CD and the 32X, it would be possible to pull off such a game right?

Nope.

Unfortunately, all games that made use of both add-ons at the same time were FMV games, limiting what sort of games could handle both the expanded memory of the 32X and the Redbook audio of the Sega CD. And even if there were, both add-ons were discontinued in 1996 in order to make room for…

Play until your fingers break!

Easy there, Segata! I’m getting to you!

Anyway, the Sega Saturn would be able to handle such a game now can it?

Well in some ways yes and no.

The yes: The Saturn was more of a 2D Arcade powerhouse, as seen with Capcom’s numerous ports of their games to the system, along with the definitive version of Street Fighter Alpha 2, denoted as “Alpha 2 Gold“. Likewise, it was able to handle 2D fairly well such as in Sonic Jam‘s collection of the first four Sonic titles, as well as Keio Flying Squadron 2. Voice acting is also possible for the Saturn as it is a disc-based console, but the sampling for the system would force the voices to play in a lower quality.

The no: While 3D is possible on the Saturn, it’s not in the same way as what’s in the footage shown in the film. The Saturn’s 3D makes use of rectangles rather than triangles for its polygons, which does not mesh well for handling complex rendering. As such, emulating the system can be rather difficult even on Windows 10 and with the MiSTer FPGA project. That’s even taking into account the fact that Sega put out a graphics card for Windows that allowed for special ports of their Saturn titles to run.

So if not the Saturn, then maybe the PS1?

Well this is also a yes and no thing.

The yes: The PS1 was a heavily supported system and could handle 2D in much the same way that would make animations look almost identical to what was on film. Similarly, any 2D sprite found on the system is actually a texture applied to a 1D polygon, which is a pair of triangles this time around. As such it would be able to show better transparency than on the Saturn and have a higher sound quality depending on the codec used.

The no: Again, this has to do with the 3D. The PS1’s 3D is more advanced than the Saturn’s 3D and can sometimes appear to have rounded edges, but it would still look blocky.

Now I am skipping out on the Jaguar and the 3DO as both are not really remembered for their contributions to the gaming scene as a whole, so next:

The mighty Nintendo 64, powered by Silicon Graphics. Surely this can handle Roger’s game, can it?

Actually it can! This is from Pokémon Puzzle League, showing off one of the few times that the system can show of FMVs in game, which are present for the characters of the Indigo League storyline of the anime. Also to take into account is Paper Mario, which has 2D graphics on a 3D playing field. What about the 3D?

Thanks to some clever programmers and modelers, it can be possible on the N64 for the game to use the same sort of 3D present in the footage seen. Now that leaves the voices.

As you can tell by the clip of Mario introducing himself, it’s very much possible for the N64 to have hi-fi voice acting. So much so that Rare did a “best worst rap ever” in the form of the DK Rap for Donkey Kong 64, and fit in a compelling story with plenty of dry and vulgar humor through Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and a dramatic tale through their unreleased Dinosaur Planet, even having one actor record his lines twice after a meeting with Shigeru Miyamoto.

So we have one possible candidate. That leaves us with PC/Mac.

Granted this one is almost no contest given that PCs these days can emulate systems of bygone days, even emulate other computers via Virtual Machines. However it is still possible for Roger’s game to run on PC. Look:

One port later and…

Tada! We have ourselves a near 1:1 match. And for good reason. After the film was released, Disney promoted a new game on the original VHS release, billing it as the very game that Roger was working on. This game would be:

Yes, in this game, you play not as Pongo, but rather Patch and Whizzer as they try to escape from Hell Hall themselves and find their parents, all while dealing with Horace and Jasper, and later have a mine cart ride to escape from Cruella herself. The only difference between how the game in the film looks and how the defictionalized game looks has to do with the lighting, input, and Cruella’s overall design.

Good luck trying to find this game in the wild, as Disney has yet to give this game a rerelease on either Steam or GOG. If you are able to find a Disc Image file (or even the original disc) and have DOSBox or a virtual machine handy, then you’re set to go.

With that I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022!

The Hidden Influence on Disney that Won Japan and the World Over

Alright, I apologize for the long break between my post regarding Disney and Sega and now, due to my shuffling around with jobs, a trip to Disney World, the Pandemic, and trying to regain access to the email attached to this blog. But I return with a post regarding one of the biggest influences on Disney that you probably might not have heard about, but has a sizeable fanbase:

That’s right, I speak of the late Kazuhiko “Monkey Punch” Katō’s famous manga and anime series Lupin III. For the uninitiated, Lupin III is a comedic action series starring the grandson of French author Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin, having taken up the family business of being a gentleman thief and criminal mastermind. While dear grandpa primarily worked on his own, Lupin has a group of friends and associates helping out on his capers:

as seen in Part 2

Leitmotif: Lupin Theme ’89

The main character himself. A sort of combination of his grandpa with James Bond. He is carefree, but enjoys his heists and mucking with the cops. He is a gentleman when necessary, but he also can act as a lecherous pervert, but he is overall a good-natured man, taking pity on those that need it and knowing when to back away from an opponent who has gone off the deep-end. Lupin is also a master of disguise and a good gunfighter and driver, using a Walther P38 and a Fiat 500 Topolino as his gun and car of choice, often using a Mercedes-Benz SSK in exchange for the Fiat. In addition, he prefers to smoke Gitanes Caporal brand cigarettes whenever he is shown smoking. Over the series, Lupin is shown wearing different colored jackets depending on which part is being shown. In Parts 1 and 6, Lupin wears a green jacket. In Part 2, Lupin wears his original red jacket. In Part 3 and the pilot film, he wears a pink jacket. Parts 4 and 5 have Lupin wear a blue one. He was initially voiced by the late Taichirō Hirokawa (dub voice for the late Roger Moore as James Bond) in the 1969 pilot film when it was handled by CinemaScope and the late Nachi Nozawa when it aired on TV (Japanese voice for Vexen in Kingdom Hearts, also voicing Crisis in the movie Dead or Alive, and later Pycal in the OVA Return of the Magician). Throughout the first half of the series’ life, Lupin was voiced by the late Yasuo Yamada (dub voice for Bernard in the Rescuers films, Foulfellow in Pinocchio, and Kermit the Frog on Japanese airings of the Muppet Show), who died of a brain hemorrhage on March 19^th, 1995, but not before naming his successor as impressionist Kan’ichi Kurita, who has inherited the role from that point onwards, the sole exceptions being the 1987 OVA The Fuma Conspiracy where Lupin was voiced by Toshio Furukawa (voice of Ataru Moroboshi from Rumiko Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura), the interactive movie on the Playstation where he was voiced by Keiichi Nanba (dub voice for Red Skull in Avengers Assemble), and his cameo in Kiki’s Delivery Service where he was voiced by Koichi Yamadera (the current Japanese voice for Donald Duck). In English, Lupin has had a rocky history in the first 30 years, as the dubs had to write around the then-still active copyright on his grandfather’s name, resulting in him being renamed as “Rupan” (a direct Romanization of the Japanese spelling) or “Wolf”, and even when the copyright expired, it would flip-flop between being pronounced as “Loo-pihn” much like one of Harry Potter’s teachers, or the traditional French “Loo-pahn”. Regardless of this, in the English dub of the first movie provided by Toho, he was voiced by Tom Clark, which also appeared in the arcade game Cliff Hanger (which is also seen in the Goonies), with the footage also using one of the employees from Stern voicing Lupin. Following this dub, the late Carl Macek began to produce the dub through his company Streamline using the “Wolf” name save for the second dub of the first movie where he went back to “Lupin”. Here, Lupin was voiced by Bob Bergen (the voice of Porky Pig), who would later reapply for the role when Geneon began dubbing Part 2, only to turn it down due to it being a non-union dub. Similarly, his cameo in Kiki’s Delivery Service was voiced by Steve Kramer in the Tokuma-Shoten Laserdisc release, with Disney’s 1998 dub recasting the role with Matt Kermit Miller (voice of Tenchi in the Tenchi Muyo series). Other than this, Lupin was voiced by the late American actor William Dufris (one of the voices of Bob the Builder) in the Manga UK dubs, Robin Robertson in the English dub of The Fuma Conspiracy, Sonny Strait (Krillin in Dragon Ball Z) in the dubs by Texan company Funimation, Keith Silverstein (voice of Simon Belmont from Castlevania) in the dub productions by Bang Zoom (also voicing his grandfather), David Hayter (Captain America in the 90’s Spider-Man series) in the Animaze dub of the second movie (more on that later), and Tony Oliver in almost everything from 2003 onwards.

(as seen in Part 5)

Leitmotif: Tornado

Daisuke Jigen is Lupin’s right-hand man and an expert marksman. Jigen’s skills are based on those by Britt, one of the Magnificent Seven, as played by the late James Coburn (who would later provide the voice of Henry J. Waternoose III in Monsters, Inc). According to the Part 2 anime and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Jigen was bon in the Bronx in New York City and worked with the Mafia at a young age, later falling for the wife of the Italian mob’s boss. Jigen is also a trained bodyguard, having done work for other people before meeting Lupin, including the late Queen Malta in the OVA Jigen’s Gravestone, who was tragically murdered during a peace concert that she was holding to reduce tensions between East and West Doroa. He enjoys smoking cigarettes (more than the others) preferring either Pall Mall or Marlboro (although he has smoked a pipe and a hookah on occasion), carries a Smith & Wesson model 19 (only swapping it out for a suitcase firearm in the Samurai Jack episode Jack and the Labyrinth, in order to adhere to Cartoon Network’s guidelines for an all-ages presentation), and wears a 58.2 x 8.6 cm fedora over his eyes showing his chin-curtain beard. Along with said fedora, Jigen seen wearing a dark-colored suit that matches the color of his fedora, as well as a complimentarily-colored shirt (usually blue or purple, sometimes orange, sometimes white), and a tie that contrasts with the color of the shirt. If the Geneon dub of the first movie is to be taken for granted, then Jigen considers himself to be a Conservative due to his use of firearms. Much like the stereotype of old folks knowing when a storm’s coming from the aches in their joints, Jigen can tell whenever trouble’s brewing from a toothache, something of a running gag in part 2, part 4, and the Tokyo Crisis – Memory of the Blaze special. In fact, his toothache is what allows him to deduce that the mastermind of Part 2’s first episode is on board the cruise liner, going so far as to call him an amateur. He is voiced in Japanese in almost all of his appearances by Kiyoshi Kobayashi (including a cameo in Samurai Jack, and having dubbed for Coburn in the past, Waternoose included), with only one appearance by Banjo Ginga (dub voice for Clayton in Tarzan, returning to voice General Headhunter in Dead or Alive), that being The Fuma Conspiracy, the late Daisuke Gouri (Baloo’s dub voice in the Japanese releases of the Jungle Book, its sequel, and TaleSpin, and as Little John in Robin Hood) in the PS1 game, and all appearances following the debut of the Part 6 anime by Akio Ohtsuka (voice of Ansem in the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as Batou in Ghost in the Shell), following Kobayashi’s retirement from the role. In English, he has been voiced by the late Cliff Harrington in the Toho dub of the first movie where he was referred to as “Dan Dunn”, an unknown Stern employee in Cliff Hanger where he was called “Jeff” and sounded like the Cookie Monster, Steve Bulen in the Streamline dubs, Sean O’Connell in that same production as Ginga, Eric Meyers in the dubs by Manga UK, Dan Woren in dubs by Bang Zoom, Chris Sabat (Vegeta and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z)  in the dubs by Funimation, John Snyder (E. Honda in Street Fighter) in the Animaze dub of the second movie, Rino Romano (Darth Revan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) in his Samurai Jack cameo, and Richard Epcar in almost everything from 2003 onwards (who has also dubbed for Ohtsuka on many occasions, Batou and Ansem included). It should be noted that much like his boss, Jigen has had a slight difference in pronunciation regarding his name. The Funimation dubs refer to him as “Jiggin'” while other dubs settle on “Gee-gehn” or “Zhee-gehn”.

(as seen in Part 6)

Leitmotif: Love Squall

Arguably the “Bond Girl” of the series and named after Mt. Fuji itself and Twin Peaks in San Francisco, Fujiko Mine is a bit more of the Catwoman to Lupin’s Batman. Like Lupin, she is a master thief who often takes advantage of her sex appeal towards Lupin and double-crosses him. Sometimes she works against him, sometimes not. She is a hard woman to understand, given her multiple backstories, especially with her own anime which misleads the audience to follow one backstory, only to double-back and reveal that they were shown the backstory of someone else who happens to be connected to Fujiko. Her preferred weapon of choice is a Browning M1910 with her preferred method of smoking of cigarettes via a quellazaire (think of that fancy pipe that Cruella uses in 101 Dalmatians), primarily of the More-branded menthol variety. She has no one single outfit, always switching up her wardrobe for whatever appearance she makes. Sometimes she appears as a brunette, sometimes she is a blonde, but most of the time she is a redhead. Throughout the series, she has been voiced by Yukiko Nikaido in the first anime, Eiko Masuyama throughout most of the series up to 2012, Mami Koyama (voice of Lunch in Dragon Ball Z) in The Fuma Conspiracy, Chisa Yokoyama (voice of Sasami in Tenchi Muyo) in the PS1 game, and fairly recently with Miyuki Sawashiro (voice of Black Widow in a few Marvel anime). In English, she was voiced by Patricia Kobayashi in the Toho dub of the first film where she was called “Margo” (which remained her name in the Italian dubs of the series until fairly recently), Edie Mirman in the Streamline dubs (also voicing Ursula in the Tokuma-Shoten Laserdisc of Kiki), Michele Seidman dubbing for Koyama, Toni Barry (voice of Asa in Project A-Ko) in the Manga UK dubs, Meredith McCoy (Android 18 in Dragon Ball Z) in Funimation’s dubs save for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Cristina Valenzuela (voice of Young Donald in DuckTales 2017) in the Bang Zoom dubs, Dorothy Fahn in the Animaze dub of the second movie, and Michelle Ruff from 2003 onwards including The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.

Leitmotif: Zantetsuken

Goemon Ishikawa XIII, a samurai descendant of the ninja thief of the same name and wielder of the Zantetsuken (iron-cleaving sword), also called the Ryuusei (Shooting Star) in the original manga. If he does not have his sword on him, then he will resort to his skills in karate, being a master in the Chitou-ryuu style. Compared to Jigen or Fujiko, Goemon is not often interested in whatever hijinks Lupin is involved in, unless only on a when-interested basis. Similarly, compared to the distinctly American flairs of Jigen and Fujiko, and the French influence on Lupin, Goemon is 100% traditional Japanese. When it comes to his method of smoking, he prefers to use a traditional kiseru pipe for hair-like tobacco shreds called “kizami”, which he does primarily in the manga. He originally appeared in chapter 28 of the manga where he becomes a sort of bounty-hunter of the thief, catching him in the act of an attempted robbery of his master’s alchemic formula for impervious sword blades (the English release changed this to a formula for making gold via alchemy). At first he attempts to kill Lupin outright, then via proxy, but then he decides that he could learn more working for Lupin than against him, and rather abruptly switches his allegiance, which he ultimately stays at when Lupin ruins the government’s case against the man who killed Goemon’s uncle (or master in the anime), allowing Goemon to take his revenge as brutally and publicly as he wants without having to break into prison to do so. In the anime, he is on a more professional relationship with Lupin and a loyal ally, even if he ends up getting annoyed with his boss’ antics, sometimes threatening to kill him. In The Fuma Conspiracy, Goemon was to be married into the Suminawa clan but changes his mind to keep his bride-to-be safe from harm. Much like Lupin, Goemon’s hakama changes colors depending on the part he shows up in. In Part 1, the hakama is pink. Throughout most of the series, his hakama is a light blue. In Part 4, his hakama is red. In Part 5, his hakama is yellow. In the a number of specials, Goemon wears a white-beige hakama. In Japanese, Goemon was voiced in the CinemaScope release of the pilot film by Gorō Naya (he’ll show up again), Osamu Kobayashi in the TV release, the late Chikao Ohtsuka (voice of Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and father to Jigen’s current voice actor) in the first anime, the late Kaneto Shiozawa (dub voice for Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands) in The Fuma Conspiracy, Shingo Horii in the PS1 game, the late Makio Inoue (voice of Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep) throughout most of the series up to 2012, and Daisuke Namikawa (dub voice for Elijh Wood, Frodo Baggins included) from 2012 onwards. In Japanese, his catchphrase is “Mata tsumaranu mono wo kitte shimatta”, meaning “Another boring thing has gone away”. In English, Goemon’s name has had a difficult time getting across. In the original Toho dub of the first movie, where he was voiced by William Ross, he was called “Samurai”, which also shows up in Cliff Hanger, at the same time cementing the translation of the catchphrase as “Once more, I have cut a worthless object” (or variations of it). In the Streamline dubs he was voiced by Steve Kramer (Lupin’s voice in the the Tokuma-Shoten Laserdisc release of Kiki’s Delivery Service) and Ardwright Chamberlain in the redub of the first movie, causing confusion over the latter’s portrayal in that he had been voiced by Kirk Thornton. Mark Franklin voiced Goemon in The Fuma Conspiracy, followed by Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope) in the Manga UK dubs, Mike McFarland (Master Roshi in Dragon Ball Z) in the Funimation dubs, Michael Gregory in the Animaze dub of the second movie (uncredited at first, with Richard Epcar receiving credit instead), and from 2003 onwards, the role was given to Lex Lang. Funimation has had a difficult time pronouncing his name, as they defaulted to “Go-EE-Mahn”, something that ends up as a gag in their dub of the Columbus Files. Manga UK’s dubs refer to him as “Go-mehn”, as exemplified by the Bye-Bye, Lady Liberty special. In The Fuma Conspiracy, the name is pronounced closer to “GWAY-mahn”, which is closer to how the other companies use the pronunciation of “Go-eh-mohn”, which is closer to the actual Japanese pronunciation. Richard Epcar is the exception to this, pronouncing the name as “Goy-Yah-Mahn,” itself a reference to Pedro de Morejon’s description of Goemon I, transcribing the name as “Ixicava Goyemon”, and describing him as a Japanese Robin Hood.

And then there’s the one thing that’s the closest to the main antagonist, despite being one of the main protagonists himself:

(as seen in Part 6)

Leitmotif: Zenigata March

Inspector Koichi Zenigata, also called Zenigata Heiji VII, descendant of the original Zenigata Heiji (Japanese detective hero from a series of books and films starting in 1931 and created by Kodou Nomura), former Tokyo Police Inspector turned ICPO (Interpol) agent. Created by Monkey Punch to act as the Tom to Lupin’s Jerry, Zenigata has been in a constant wild goose chase after Lupin, hoping to one day arrest the master thief and bring him to justice, carrying with him a pair of retractable handcuffs with which to throw at Lupin’s wrists as well as a Colt 1911. His method of smoking is the use of Shinsei brand cigarettes. Monkey Punch has stated that the story cannot truly end but that if he had to, both Zenigata and Lupin would have to end as equals; they would either both fail, both win, or both get very old. As such, Zenigata is the very definition of the trope “Sympathetic Antagonistic Inspector”, as he is a likeable character even if he doesn’t like our hero. In fact, whenever he’s not chasing Lupin he’s often contemplating what he would do after bringing Lupin to justice. The “Bye-Bye Lady Liberty” special states that he was once married before his wife dumped him due to his persistence in the Lupin case. The opening of “The Fuma Conspiracy” has him take up a life as a monk as he initially believed that Lupin died in an explosion before the start of the OVA. Whenever there is word that Lupin died, the first to know is usually Zenigata himself, often checking if it is indeed true, such as in the opening of the first movie, tracking down what appears to be Lupin’s corpse in the crypts beneath Castle Dracula. In Japanese, Zenigata is given the nickname of “Tottsan”, and has been voiced by Shinsuke Chikaishi in the CinemaScope release of the pilot film, Chikao Ohtsuka in the TV release, Seizou Katou (original dub voice for Shere Khan) in The Fuma Conspiracy, Yukimasa Kishino (voice of Butta in Dragon Ball Z) in the PS1 game, throughout most of the series by Gorō Naya (there’s that name again, having dubbed for Sam the Eagle in Japanese airings of the Muppet Show) until his passing in 2012, and Koichi Yamadera from that point onwards, even sharing his same first name and as mentioned before, even voicing Lupin in Kiki’s Delivery Service. In English, he has been nicknamed as “Old Man,” “Gramps,” but commonly nicknamed as “Pops”. He has been dubbed by Greg Starr in the Toho dub of the first movie where he was referred to as “Ed Cott”, Dave Povall in the Streamline dubs, Sean Barrett (TikTok from Return to Oz) in the Manga UK dubs, Marc Matney in the The Fuma Conspiracy, Phil Wilburn (Android 19 in DBZ) in the dubs by Funimation, Dan Lorge in the Geneon dubs of the second anime (alongside the other 2003 cast members) giving him a slight Southern twang much like Boss Hog in Dukes of Hazard, Richard Epcar in the Bang Zoom dubs and the dub of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, the late Animaze founder Kevin Seymour in his company’s dub of the second movie, and Doug Erholtz (voice of Squall Leonhart in Kingdom Hearts 2 and the Final Fantasy series) from 2017 onwards alongside the current cast from 2003 onwards.

Now I keep bringing up this second movie. Here’s the fun part: it was the directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki.

Yes, I speak of the Castle of Cagliostro, arguably the most well-known installment in the series, influencing games, films, TV shows, and Disney. Now let’s get into the story, shall we?

The film opens with Lupin and Jigen successfully pulling off a heist at a government casino in Monte Carlo, making off with millions of dollars. The cops attempt to catch up with them, but their cars had been sliced in half, thanks to some unseen work by Goemon. As the duo drive away in Lupin’s Fiat, Lupin notices something strange about the money: it’s all counterfeit. While it may seem that this too good to be true heist would make Lupin and Jigen crestfallen, this only intrigues our hero into wondering who would be able to make these super-bills look so convincing that even he would be fooled. Cue the opening credits set to “Fire Treasure“, performed by Toshie Kihara.

While the two begin to change a flat tire, they notice a car chase taking place with the pursued car being a Citroën 2CV (same model as Melina Havelock’s in the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only”) driven by a woman in a wedding dress with the pursuing car having what appears to be members of the Mafia. Lupin quickly changes the tire and speeds off with Jigen scrambling to climb in, with the ensuing chase set to “Lupin III Theme ’80“. After sending the gangsters running, Lupin manages to get into the woman’s car to find her knocked out, foot on the gas, and heading for a cliff. Before they go over the side into a watery grave, Lupin manages to use a grappling hook to get him and the woman to safety. When she comes to upon reaching terra firma, she knocks Lupin out by accident and sees a small yacht coming after her. Leaving behind her ring in Lupin’s hand, she runs off to try to escape, but is subsequently captured. When Lupin comes to, he recognizes the ring and realizes the name of the woman: Clarisse di Cagliostro (voiced in Japanese by future Ghibli alumnus Sumi Shimamoto (voice of Nausicaä), the Streamline dub by Joan-Carol O’Connell, and the Animaze dub by Bridget Hoffman, the woman seen on the poster for the first Evil Dead film). Lupin then decides that he and Jigen should enter the Grand Duchy of Cagliostro, as there they will get answers regarding Clarisse’s being on the lam and the counterfeit bills.

Lupin channels his inner Richter Belmont

Lupin pulls the car up to the burnt out stone frame of a mansion, pointing out the crest on the front door. They are notified by an old man, the manor’s gardener (voiced by Kouhei Miyauchi in Japanese) known as Walter in the Streamline Dub (voiced by Mike Reynolds) and Chris in the Animaze dub (voiced by Barry Stigler), who tells Lupin that Princess Clarisse is still in charge of the nation, but the Count (voiced by the late Taro Ishida in Japanese (dub voice of King Triton), Michael McConnohie in the Streamline dub, and Kirk Thornton in the Animaze dub) is the one calling the shots behind its political power. Sure enough, as Lupin and Jigen get a good look at the eponymous Castle, the Count arrives in a gyrocopter and lets his butler Jodot (voiced by Ichiro Nagai in Japanese, the late Jeff Winkless in the Streamline dub, and the late Milton James in the Animaze dub) know that he will be checking up on his bride to be Clarisse, now that she has been recaptured. Upon checking Clarisse, he notices that the ring she had on is missing and has his captain of the guards Gustav (voiced by Tadamichi Tsuneizumi in Japanese, Thornton in the Streamline dub, and Joe Romersa in the Animaze dub) send out some ninja-like assassins to find the ring. Meanwhile, Lupin has deciphered the symbols on the side of the ring, recognizing them as being written in a script called “Capran” (or calling them Gothic runes in the Streamline dub). The message mentions the union of light and shadow to uncover a treasure. That night, Lupin and Jigen are attacked by the assassins, leading to a second car chase and a relocation to a more remote area of the Grand Duchy, meeting up with Goemon at the spot.

The assassins return to the Count with Jodot finding that Lupin had taped his calling card to the back of his armor. The Count recognizes Lupin as a worthy adversary and ups his castle’s security as well as the hiring of Zenigata (introducing himself with the redundant name of “Inspector Keibu* Zenigata” in the Streamline dub; *keibu means “inspector” in Japanese) thanks to an anonymous call, later revealed to be Lupin. Zenigata is given a tour of the castle defense systems by Gustav, with the intention of making sure that Lupin is unable to break in. But break in, Lupin does, using an underground sewage system to sneak into a fountain in the courtyard.  It is then that Gustav makes an anonymous call himself to have Zenigata removed from the case, with the ICPO agent storming off with a huff, knowing that the Count is hiding something. As soon as Gustav sees Zenigata leave, a second one appears telling him that he just let Lupin escape. Gustav and the guards chase after the first one and his police before realizing the trick that was played upon him: the second Zenigata was Lupin in disguise! Lupin manages to spring a trapdoor in one of the castle’s halls, which leads to Zenigata and later Jodot and Gustav falling into the catacombs.

While sneaking around the castle, Lupin sees the Count overlooking foreign currency, saying that the prints aren’t good enough. While in the armory, he finds Fujiko sneaking about herself, disguised as a castle maid. Lupin then sneaks into Clarisse’s room and makes a promise to get her safe from the Count as well as returning what looks like her ring. Just then, the Count enters the room, threatening to kill Lupin if he doesn’t comply. He gives in for Clarisse’s safety, giving the Count her ring and allowing himself to fall down a trap door into the catacombs. As the Count continues his threats towards Clarisse with the revelation of how he murdered her family, as well as mentioning the fact that he wants the treasure as well, Lupin announces that the ring he gave was a fake with a communicator built into it. It soon self-destructs with the Count sending his assassins into the catacombs to get the ring off of Lupin. As soon as Lupin ends up in the catacombs, he finds the skeleton of one Gennosuke Kawakami, an imperial Japanese spy, with a scrawling found next to it telling to avenge him, dated on Pi Day in 1904.

Lupin meets up with Zenigata soon afterwards. Zenigata is about to arrest Lupin but realizes that this victory would be hollow if they never get out. They then form a truce to get to the bottom of the Count’s nefarious plan, having seen all the corpses scattered about, as well as sharing a cigarette while devising a plan to eliminate any opposition from Jodot and Gustav. While in the deeper parts of the catacombs, Lupin and Zenigata find a room full of printing presses, the source of the counterfeits which the nation of Cagliostro has used throughout history to form a global shadow empire. In the original Japanese, Lupin refers to counterfeit money as a whole as lurking in the shadows since the times of the Late Medieval Crisis, referring to the funny money as “the Black Hole” and the star of history’s backstage, and that all those that tried to eliminate the heart of the problem were never heard from again. In the Streamline dub, Lupin refers to these counterfeits as being used since the times of Napoléon and the Bourbon Republic, leading up to both World Wars, and leading to the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the Animaze dub instead has Lupin say that the nation was acting more of a mercenary counterfeiter, making its top-quality forgeries available to anyone willing to pay it enough real money – thus staying too useful to everyone for anyone to want to invade and shut it down. The gentleman thief begins to set fire to the fake money with Zenigata wanting to collect proof of the counterfeit operation, in order to show his bosses what’s going on. The fire acts as a signal for Jigen and Goemon to make their move on the castle, as well as Fujiko to ditch her disguise and reveal the army gear she had underneath, telling Clarisse that she needs to escape. This bit of Fujiko in her army gear is the only instance of her appearing in the cut up footage used in Cliff Hanger.

Escape at first seems successful thanks to Lupin and Zenigata stealing the gyrocopter, until Lupin is critically wounded by machine gun fire by the Count. Clarisse offers herself to the count in exchange for Lupin’s life, but after securing the ring, the Count’s attempt at betrayal is foiled when Fujiko’s actions allow her, Lupin, and Zenigata to flee, also allowing Goemon to slash off the burning remains of Lupin’s jacket off of him, snarkily telling him in the Streamline dub to wear an asbestos suit (which replaces his catchphrase here). Zenigata heads to the ICPO HQ in Paris to inform the higher ups about the counterfeiting, only to find them all bribed by the Count, putting his investigation to a halt and removing him from the case, at the same time embroiled in all the red tape from the then still concurrent Cold War politics between the East and Western sides of the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall. As Lupin heals from his injuries, he finds himself with Goemon, Jigen, and the Gardener in his house, with the Gardener’s old dog Carl recognizing him as well. The fact that Lupin knew the old dog leads to him telling the group about his last time in the country, ten years ago. He originally intended to find the treasure, but was unsuccessful, only being rescued by a then 10-year old Clarisse and Carl.

Fujiko tips off Lupin on a way to sneak into the castle, and forms a plan with Zenigata to publicly reveal the counterfeiting operation under the cover of pursuing Lupin. And just in time as the Count’s marriage to a now-drugged Clarisse is about to commence, set to Bach’s Aria de la Pastorale. Fujiko, disguised as a news anchor, and Zenigata acting as wedding security, watch as the princess walks down the aisle with her family’s murderer towards the bishop that the Count had hired for the occasion. Just as the bishop is about to pronounce the marriage as legal, Jigen and Goemon appear with Lupin on a sedan, head wrapped up in bandages like a mummy. Lupin begins to object to the wedding, listing many crimes played out by the Count and his men with the Count skewering Lupin. But as he remains skewered, Lupin still has a few last words to say as his body explodes into a flurry of counterfeit bills. The bishop then removes his miter to reveal himself to be Lupin in disguise and the one on the sedan to be a dummy. A melee commences with the crowd of people and Zenigata’s police force fighting against the Count’s men, Lupin escaping with Clarisse through a window. Fujiko follows Zenigata down a tunnel, all still reporting, with Zenigata acting “surprised” that he found the counterfeit printing presses, claiming that he stumbled upon them while looking for Lupin.

Jigen and Goemon fight against the Count’s men too, with the Count and a select few of his men chasing our hero and Clarisse into the castle clocktower, where Lupin and the Count have a swordfight among the gears. Making it to the clock face, Lupin reveals to the Count what’s really going on with the light and shadow mentioned on the rings. Rather than a marriage between the light (Clarisse) and shadow (The Count) branches of the Cagliostro dynasty, Lupin shows that the message refers to placing the two rings together, revealing the whole message:  the rings must be placed in the eyes of the goat facing the direction of the sunrise on the clock face. With a final attempt on Lupin’s and Clarisse’s life after being handed the rings, the Count greedily scrambles up the face of the clock to put the rings in, leaving Clarisse to fall to her doom. Thankfully, she is caught by Lupin before making an impact in the water.

Just as the Count puts in the rings in the goat’s eyes, a secret mechanism activates within the tower, forcing the hands of the clock to slowly converge at 12, crushing the Count between them with a sickening crunch.

With its 12 chimes, the clocktower collapses in on itself, unleashing a torrent of water from the aqueduct, draining the lake behind the castle. By morning, the drained lake reveals itself to be the home of exquisite ancient Roman ruins — the true treasure of Cagliostro.

As Lupin had saved her life again, Clarisse doesn’t want to see him leave, even expressing her readiness to become a thief like him. Lupin gently rejects her, and he and his friends bid farewell to Clarisse, now the rightful ruler of Cagliostro. As Lupin is picked up by Jigen in the Fiat with Goemon, they are caught up by Fujiko, making off with the plates from the printing presses, and Zenigata chasing after them, now for the crime of “stealing Clarisse’s heart”. With this, the film comes to an end with a reprise of “Fire Treasure.”

Cliff Hanger

As this was one of the most popular entries in the series, which is still true at least in the US, there was naturally a demand to see the success capitalized. Stern Electronics was one such company to do so by making a Laserdisc arcade game based on the film known as “Cliff Hanger”. The name was created by TMS, the company behind the Lupin anime, to skirt around the copyright of the Arsène Lupin name that was still active. This cut of the film was laid out as a series of quick time events where Lupin (or rather “Cliff Hanger”) and Jigen (or rather “Jeff”) need to get through the country of Cagliostro to rescue Clarisse from the Count. While the footage is from “Cagliostro”, one segment uses footage from the first movie “Lupin vs. the Clones” or “The Secret of Mamo”. According to the instruction manual, a setting on the game cabinet’s logic board would allow the individual owners/operators the option of not playing the sequence if they so choose.

In the segment in question, Mamo’s henchmen chase after Lupin and Jigen in the Mercedes-Benz SSK using an assault chopper through the streets of Paris. This leads to the car driving through the sewers while still being chased by the chopper, before running into Goemon, slicing through the chopper with Zantetsuken and saying his catchphrase. This scene was also recreated in the Sega NAOMI (arcade hardware based on the Sega Dreamcast) game “Lupin III: THE Shooting” and its rerelease as “THE Typing” (both based on Sega’s own House of the Dead series, which is where Cyril the Zombie hails from before he joined Bad Guys Anonymous), now taking place in the open-air streets with the helicopter slice occurring in the sky. Interestingly enough, this is the only scene in the game to use the cast from Toho’s English dub of the film. Even then, a few instances of dialogue are either of members of the Stern crew filling in for the film’s casts, or even instances of the original Japanese audio, including Yasuo Yanada. A recent episode of Critical Role covered the game in their “MAME Drop” series as part of “Laserdisc Classics” alongside Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair. Hilariously, Travis Willingham (himself married to Lupin alumnus Laura Bailey) and Liam O’Brien deduce that the main reason for the name change was due to the only animated “death” in the series: the clone at the beginning of “Mamo” being hung.

Legacy on the Series

At first, the many things done by Miyazaki for this film put it as a sort of “Redheaded Stepchild” within the series, due to how it is more family friendly than Lupin’s more raunchier and crazier actions in the manga and the concurrent anime, especially compared to the more sexual images shown in “Mamo”, resulting in the film flopping when it was first released in Japan. Even Miyazaki himself would show a dislike towards the film. However, as Miyazaki began to make a name for himself with the anime “Future Boy Conan” and later with “Nausicaä” as well as his founding of Studio Ghibli alongside his late partner Isao Takahata, more people began to look back upon the film and see it as something almost akin to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Within the franchise itself, the film gained a sequel in the form of a Nintendo Famicom title “Lupin III: The Legacy of Pandora”, with Clarisse and Fujiko working together to uncover Pandora’s treasure in Egypt as well as Lupin rescuing her from the Count’s remaining men. Two years prior to this Famicom title, the game was adapted as an action RPG for NEC’s PC-8801 home computer. The film was also referenced in the 1989 GameBoy title “SD Lupin III: Operation Safe Breaker”, where the Count appears as one of Lupin’s opponents. In January 1997, “Return to the Castle of Cagliostro” was released on the PS1, featuring the player as a tourist of the Grand Duchy, documenting information on Lupin’s adventure 10 years after the treasure had been found. The game acts as a quiz about information given in the film and tidbits about the Grand Duchy, with appearances from the six protagonists.

In the anime itself, the film was given an homage in the eighth episode of the Part IV anime, first, sixth, and 23^rd episodes of the Part V anime, and as a basis for the animation for “The Fuma Conspiracy” OVA. In Part IV Ep. 8, “Welcome to the Haunted Hotel!”, Lupin and Jigen help a young girl who resembles a younger Clarisse with recovering her family’s treasure, at the same time learning that the girl was a ghost the entire time and had been dead for centuries. In the first episode of Part V, “The Girl in the Twin Towers”, reanimated clips of Lupin’s past exploits are shown by the Dark Web group Marco Polo. Among the clips include scenes from “Mamo”, the first episode of Part 1, Part 3 ep. 49, Part 2 ep. 143, and the scene of Lupin jumping out of the chapel with Clarisse. In the sixth episode, “Lupin Vs. the Smart Safe,” itself an homage to Part 3, while Lupin is taken to the titular safe on his last attempt to crack it, he is all bandaged up from the numerous “Ashita no Joe”-style beatings to lower his IQ to 0. As he is both too stupid and too unconscious to move, the gang all bring him on a sedan to the safe, with the positioning mirroring the scene in the film, now with Fujiko added to the lineup and the men all wearing their outfits from Part 3. In the 23^rd episode “Just Then, an Old Buddy Said Something,” Lupin decides to lie low to hide from the PeopleLog service, with his hiding place being within the catacombs of the Castle. Establishing shots of the greater location confirm that this Part of the anime series is set after the movie, as the water level has receded and the clocktower has collapsed with its hands stuck at midnight.

This is just after he was forced by some Neo-Nazis to get through a Laser Tunnel

Finally, there is the most recent movie in the series, “The First”, which is also the first entry in the series to be 3D. The film’s director, Takashi Yamazaki, was influenced by a watching of the film on TV during the 80’s, with the experience entrenching the idea that Japan can make high-quality films. As such, Yamazaki decided to include a few homages to the movie, including Lupin’s mid-air swim, the use of a PTRS-41 to deal with armored soldiers, Jigen’s chokehold, the use of the gang working with a young woman and Zenigata to uncover a treasure, and the teamwork from all six to defeat the film’s antagonist.

The Influence on Disney

Well this is certainly a lot to take in, but Lupin III and Cagliostro have had an impact on Disney following its release in the late 70’s early 80’s. This was due to a number of anime fans at the time obtaining a copy of the film and adding subtitles to the footage, presenting it to a number of students in Cal Arts room A113, most notably John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, John Musker, Tim Burton, Chris Buck, and Andrew Stanton.

The first one I can bring up is this shot from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, just after Kida is released from the Heart of Atlantis, following the volcanic eruption. The way the shot is set up is similar to Lupin and Clarisse taking a look at the Roman ruins. In fact, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale have confirmed this to be the case.

In the Simpsons episode “Bart After Dark,” Bart ends up in a situation similar to Lupin where he nearly falls off the roof of Belle’s burlesque, after trying to get his airplane off of it. The audio commentary on the DVD makes mention of it.

And then there’s a reference to it in Tangled. Yeah, Eugene “Flynn Rider” Fitzherbert has a bit of a nod to Lupin from this film when it comes to him doing “the smolder”. This is based on the scene where Lupin plays coy to the young Clarisse during his flashback.

Luigi, from Pixar’s Cars films, is directly based on Lupin’s Fiat 500 Topolino (which is also named after Mickey Mouse), with his Italian background being a reference to Lupin as a whole being massively popular in Italy. This is especially prevalent with the Part 4 anime as not only was it set in Italy, but it aired there first as well.

Perhaps the most notable contribution that Lupin has had for Disney can be seen in The Great Mouse Detective. During the climax of the film, Basil and Rattigan fight among the gears of the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben after the tower’s Great Bell, with Basil fighting to rescue Olivia from Rattigan, after the latter’s attempt on Queen Mousetoria and attempted coup on the British Empire’s Mouse Royal Family. This leads to Basil jamming Rattigan’s cape in some gears, forcing our Moriarty-analogue to go feral and chase our Sherlock-analogue onto one of the dials on the tower, but not before he is able to deliver Olivia to her father and Dawson in the balloon craft parked nearby. The final battle between Basil and Rattigan plays out on the hands of the dial, although unlike what happened to the Count, Rattigan is instead flung off the hands of the dial and into the Thames by the vibrations of Big Ben’s chiming of 3:00 AM GST, with Basil surviving by holding onto the remains of Rattigan’s dirigible

Wait… Lupin influenced the Great Mouse Detective? This means that the Castle of Cagliostro is responsible for the start of the Disney Renaissance!

The connection of Mice and Hedgehogs

It’s no secret that a company like Disney has had many a connection with many a video game company. Perhaps one of their healthiest connections was that with Sega during the 3rd through 6th console generations.

This is where the Genesis comes in as many games by Disney were released on the 16-bit powerhouse that made a claim to do what Nintendon’t. I could sit here and gush about all the games that were based on Disney properties on the Genesis, but the main topic has to do with Mickey and the gang and their time on the system, as handled by Sega themselves.

Castle of Illusion (November 18, 1990)

This was the first game that was created in collaboration between Disney and Sega, with the project headed by Takashi “Thomas” Yuda, the eventual character designer of Knuckles the Echidna. In the game, Mickey must traverse through the eponymous Castle of Illusion to rescue Minnie from the evil witch Mizrabel. Mizrabel has captured Minnie because she wishes to steal Minnie’s beauty and make it her own, leaving Minnie as shriveled as a raisin. Mickey’s adventure takes him to five stages of various settings to collect the Seven Rainbow Gems (an early prototype of the Chaos Emeralds) to defeat the witch in her keep and rescue Minnie. These settings include the Enchanted Forest, Toyland, the Storm, the Library, and the Castle’s dungeon. At the end of each stage, Mickey must fight a boss: the Grumpy Oak Tree, the Jack-in-the-Box, the Fishmen, the Candy Dragon (one who looks a lot like Elliot), and the Oafish Clockmaker, before doing battle with Mizrabel herself. The game was a critical success with an overall average score on Sega Retro as a 90/100.

A few months later (February, 1991), Mickey would see a return to the Castle in a version released exclusively on the Sega Master System and the Game Gear. Unlike the pure platforming action of the Genesis version, this version puts more emphasis on grabbing and throwing blocks to act as stepping stones or to defend against enemies. The story is largely the same, but the stages are different, the order being the Enchanted Forest, Toyland, the Dessert Factory, the Library, the Clocktower, and the Castle. Mickey must also fight different bosses in order to make it to Mizrabel and save Minnie. These bosses this time around are an evil tree, a Jack-in-the-box, a chocolate bar, a giant book, and a giant clock. The first three stages can be done in any order, whereupon their completion unlocks the Library and Clocktower, which can also be completed in any order. Afterwards, getting all seven gems in the stages allows Mickey to access the final stage. At the end are two bosses. The first of which is a big black dragon that breathes fire, followed by a fight against Mizrabel on her broomstick. The Master System version managed to score better than the Genesis version by a 1 point average on Sega Retro, while the Game Gear version scored lower by a 4 point average.

Both versions of the game led to two different paths for Mickey and co to take for gameplay.

Fantasia: Mickey Mouse Magic (August 1991)

Continuing the gameplay of the Genesis Castle of Illusion by shooting projectiles and jumping on enemies, this was the previous Guiness World Record holder of “Longest gap between a video game based on a movie”, until the spot was taken by Snow White on the GameBoy Color almost ten years later. The game was made to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, with a plot involving Mickey oversleeping in Yen Sid’s workshop, not knowing that Chernabog has sent a “wicked wind” to cause the musical notes in the spellbook to fly away. Mickey must venture through four stages based around the elements (Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Rite of Spring/Nutcracker, Dance of Hours/Pastoral, Night on Bald Mountain) to recover the music before it’s too late…

If only the same could be said for the development of the game. The game was outsourced to Infogrames (a French company that holds the rights to Atari, being a part of the once proud company before it was split into multiple smaller companies) after Roy E. Disney had unknowingly given Sega the rights to Fantasia, against his late uncle’s wishes to give out the liscence for the film. After seeing the trainwreck that became the game, he called up Sega of America and ordered all copies of the game to be destroyed. All but 5000 copies in America are long gone. The game was torn apart by critics, with a 65 point average on Sega Retro.

The Lucky Dime Caper (October 1991)

Following in Mickey’s footsteps on Sega’s consoles was Donald, with a few adventures of his own, based on the works of both Carl Barks and Don Rosa. The first of these was the Lucky Dime Caper, made by the Master System team for Castle of Illusion. The plot involves Donald travelling across the globe to rescue Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Magica DeSpell, as well as their “Lucky Dimes” given to them by Scrooge. Gameplay involves Donald making use of kicking, hammers, and frisbees to fight his way across Canada, the Redwoods, the Andes, tropical islands, the Great Pyramids, the South Pole, and finally Magica’s lair at Mt. Vesuvius. While harder than Mickey’s adventure, it did fairly well with a Sega Retro average of 85. A British release for the Master System came in a “Special Edition” box including a T-shirt of the game’s box art, a poster for Land of Illusion, and a casette tape called “Donald Duck’s Disney Selection.”

Tracklist:

1. I Wanna Be Like You
2. When I See an Elephant Fly
3. Best of Friends
4. He’s a Tramp
5. The Bear Necessities
6. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
7. Everybody Wants to be a Cat
8. Cruelle DeVil

Quackshot (December 19, 1991)

After rescuing the Nephews from Magica, Donald headed off on another adventure, this time on the Genesis, headed by the same team as the original Genesis Castle of Illusion. In the story, Donald finds a map to the Great Duck Treasure Island while browsing some books in Scrooge’s library. Since Daisy’s birthday is coming up, he figures that such a treasure would be a wonderful gift for her. Unbeknownst to him, Pete has caught wind of Donald’s quest, and has organized a syndicate to get to the treasure first.

Gameplay involves Donald using a plunger gun made by Gyro, later upgraded to shoot gum bubbles and popcorn, to either stun enemies or defeat them. The plungers also allow Donald to use them as platforms or as grapples for flying objects. The adventure takes Donald globe-trotting, Indiana Jones-style, to Duckburg, Mexican ruins, Transylvania (not Dracula Duck Manor this time), a Norwegian Viking ship, a Maharajah’s palace, the Pyramids, and Antarctica. Throughout the adventure, Donald can meet many of his friends and other friendly characters, including Goofy, Gyro, fellow archaeologists, the Maharajah, and a Viking captain. Many of the enemies are also lifted from various Disney properties, including Toby Tortoise, Kaa, Shere Khan, Count Drakeula, and of course Pete. After Donald finds the treasure map under the ice of Antarctica, Pete arrives with the nephews held for ransom, unless he gives him the map. However, Donald gives chase to Pete’s hideout where he defeats him, rescuing the nephews and optaining the map once more. This soon leads to the final stage, the Island, where the Great Duck Treasure of King Georgia is held. This stage is set up as an homage to the Temple of the Holy Grail from “The Last Crusade”, even including a room based on the Leap of Faith. The final boss is King Georgia himself, appearing as a knight in chainmail guarding the treasure, almost similar to the Knight of the Grail seen in the film. After Donald attains the treasure, he returns home to Duckburg to reveal it to Daisy: it’s a porcelain statue. But then the statue breaks revealing a necklace within, with Daisy overjoyed that Donald would find something so beautiful inside something so worthless.

Compared to the previous Genesis game Quackshot did just as well as the original Castle of Illusion, scoring a Sega Retro average of 89 points.

Land of Illusion (March 26th, 1993)

As Sega was flushed with the success of Sonic for the past two years, Mickey was in a slight hiatus. He returned in 1993 with a sequel to Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, on the Game Gear and Master System. In this story, Mickey falls asleep while reading a storybook and soon finds himself in a strange and magical land. The elements have been thrown into chaos by the evil Phantom (the Horned King), who has stolen away the Princess Minnie and her magical crystal. Mickey ventures forth to restore the elements to balance and save the kingdom. Unlike the 8-bit Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion managed to score even better than the original Genesis version, with a Sega Retro average of 92 points.

World of Illusion (December 12th, 1992)

On the Genesis however, Mickey and Donald united for one final outing together in World of Illusion.  In this game, Mickey and Donald are pulled into the World of Illusion by the evil Sorcerer, Pete, as a test of their magical skills, all through a magical box of his design. The box in question was hidden backstage at a theater where Mickey and Donald were rehearsing for a magic show. The game puts emphasis on Mickey and Donald’s sizes and cooperation, requiring them to access different stages at certain points, but all paths lead to the same boss. These stages include a forest, a mountain range, an undersea adventure, a library, and a visit to Wonderland. On Mickey’s path, he can access a platforming area comprised of leaves, a storm, an undersea cave, take a ride on a cork much like in Mickey and the Beanstalk, and go Thru the Looking Glass. Donald’s path leads him into a jungle of wildflowers, a river-ride on a leaf, a beach, the innerworkings of a pop-up book where the words become what they are, and the Queen of Hearts’ hedgemaze. If both of them team up, then they will take a minecart ride, fend off cowboys who look like the Mad Hatter, escape from a collapsing undersea cave, enter a box of Christmas decorations, and enter an “All the Worlds are a Stage” area. These paths then converge into a stage before the boss, including mines, a cloudscape with piano keys, a sunken ship, Candyland, and the inner sanctum of the Magic Box. Boss battles include a giant spider (from the Worm Turns), a wheel that summons miniature copies of Elliot, Glut the Shark, Mad Madam Mim, and Pete himself, dressed as the Ghost of Christmas Future. Once again, this game did just as well as Quackshot, scoring an average of 89 on Sega Retro.

Deep Duck Trouble (December, 1993)

Donald’s final outing with Sega and released on the Game Gear and Master System. Uncle Scrooge found a magical necklace on a mysterious island, but the necklace put a curse on him! Now Uncle Scrooge is doomed to float around in the air forever! (Of course Donald always said Scrooge was full of hot air anyway.) To take the curse off Uncle Scrooge, Donald has to take the necklace back to the island. But there’s plenty of danger awaiting Donald there. How about lending him a hand?

Gameplay returns to that of the Lucky Dime Caper, but now, Donald has a choice for which of the four stages he can start in. This is for our favorite foul-tempered fowl can find artifacts that will open the shrine in the center of Amulet Island and lift the curse. These stages include the Jungle, the Inlet, the Volcano, and the Mountain. After this, the Shrine of the Golden Amulet opens up, allowing Donald to fight the ancient guardian of the island. The game received an average of 81 for the Master System version and an 87 for the Game Gear, outdoing the Lucky Dime Caper.

Legend of Illusion (January, 1995)

Mickey’s seemingly final outing with Sega and released on the Game Gear and exclusively on the Master System in Brazil 1998, published by TecToy. The plot for this game involves Mickey as a laundry boy to the cowardly King Pete. Pete is told by his advisor (the Bishop from the Prince and the Pauper) that a dark shadow has struck the land, and that only the Water of Life can restore the land. Pete, wanting nothing to do with risking his neck for a dangerous adventure, has Mickey take up the job, looking first for King Donald at Duckingham Palace. However, he is not present, so Mickey heads off on a lead to Castle Goofenstein, meeting a Sphynx in the middle of the forest. The Sphynx tells Mickey of his greater destiny showing him where Donald is hiding. Mickey and Donald eventually find King Goofy, captured by an evil shadow. Both kings offer their aid to Mickey to find the Water of Life. However, the bishop reveals to Pete that the one who finds the Water of Life will be revealed as the True King. Furious about Mickey’s “betrayal” Pete has the guards await for him when he returns from his quest. Mickey meets the Sphynx again on the edge of the forest, where she tells him of two keys that must open the gateway to the World of Illusion, one in a castle made of crystal, the other in a rainbow desert. Mickey finds the two keys and enters the World of Illusion, making his way across the Gardens of Illusion to meet the Tree of Life. According to the Tree, the Waters of Life are being dammed up-stream by the source of all this evil. Mickey is given a dragonfly to fly him to the source, where it is revealed that the evil one is none other than Merlock (from DuckTales the Movie). Mickey fights Merlock as both a sorcerer and a dragon, undamming the river and bringing life back to the kingdom and the World of Illusion. Once Mickey steps out of the Gardens of Illusion, he finds Pete waiting him to arrest him. However, Mickey fights back and proves that he is indeed the true king, sending Pete and his lackeys to prison. Pete’s last line in the game suggests a sequel, which never came to be. Unlike the other Master System and Game Gear titles, this game was the least successful, due in part to the GameBoy’s dominance in the handheld department and the Master System locking itself exclusively to Brazil, virtually killing it across the globe. This title was also the weakest of the three Mickey titles for the Game Gear and Master System, scoring an average of 83 on Sega Retro.

As I draw this post to a close, I only wish that Sega will give some more recognition for these titles, outside of Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion appearing on the Genesis Classic Edition (the one by M2, not ATgames’s pathetic attempt). Perhaps someday both companies involved will let modern audiences play these titles once again.

“Let’s Talk About Parallel Dimensions”

And I really wish I had a better title than the most click-baity line to spring up from a Super Mario 64 overanalysis. The Disney conglomerate has had its fair share of alternate and parallel dimensions through the years. This falls under the scientific hypothesis of the multi-verse. To give a good idea of a multiverse, let’s take a specific point of time, like say WWI. In our dimension, the war broke out over the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie when they were gunned down by Gavrillo Princip in the streets of Sarajevo, and the tides of war began to stir when former friends and close family were forced against each other (including Czar Nicolas II, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and King George V, all of whom were related to either Queen Victoria or Christian IX of Denmark) for political reasons. In a hypothetica alternate dimension, the war never happened as Princip never shot the Archduke, and thus Europe is still run by monarchies, the Third Reich never rises, and Russia never accepts Marxism (or rather its mutant spawn Communism). One little ripple in this alternate timeline can do so much that it leads to the creation of a parallel dimension.

As I had stated in October, the universal designation of the Marvel vs. Capcom games (and related products) is that of Earth-30847. In this universe, the works of such groups as the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the X-Men, and villainous organizations are known to the usual assortment of Capcom franchises such as Street Fighter, Bionic Commando, Devil May Cry, and Mega Man, but it’s explained that this universe is either a shared ‘verse or two separate dimensions (as shown when Sigma and Ultron use the Infinity Stones). In fact, Marvel knows when to play the “Alternate Universe” card as the Marvel Database has been keeping tabs on any and all officially designated universes. The main universe of Marvel is Earth-616, which has been going on since 1939. The MCU is designated as Earth-19999. The Ulimate universe is Earth-1610, although this universe has essentially merged with 616, with the inclusion of several characters such as Miles Morales. On the subject of Morales, he and Spider-Man are of Earth-1610 in the film Into the Spider-Verse. The alternate Spideys are from said ideas as well. “Brunette Peter” is essentially the Toby Maguire version (from Sony’s original trilogy) now as in a midlife crisis (Earth-96283). Gwen Stacy (Spider-Gwen) meanwhile is from Earth-65, one where she was bitten by the radioactive spider and not Peter, but she was unable to save his life from the Sinister Six. Peter Porker (aka Spider-Ham) is from Earth-8311, which is home to a universe of anthropomorphic animals in roles similar to their 616 counterparts, but in more ridiculous or sillier situations (Porker was a spider that morphed into a pig after being bitten by a radioactive pig). The Noir universe is designated as 90214, where it’s still the 30’s. Peni Parker and her mech SP//DR are from Earth-14512, where the year is 3145. The film also shows Miguel O’Hara from Earth-928 (set in the year 2099), and the Spider-Man from the 1967 cartoon (or rather the memes) with the designation of Earth-67.

Interestingly enough, because of its distribution by Hollywood Pictures (another branch of Disney), I can toss in Super Mario Bros. The Movie into this alternate dimension kettle, although only just the film; the games aren’t clear if Mario and Luigi always lived in the Mushroom World or if they came to the Mushroom World from NYC. According to the movie, an alternate universe was created when the asteroid hit the earth 65 mya (or, in the case of the Good Dinosaur, whizzed past it creating a new universe as well), one where the dinosaurs survived and became a highly advanced species, evolving into humanoids almost identical to H. sapiens. The problem in the film arrises when General (later President) Koopa dabbles with techonology and opens a door to our world through the Brooklyn sewer system. Through this, he is able to take in the sights and sounds of Brooklyn and transform the once dry oasis into a mockery of the Big Apple, Dinohattan. It is through this portal that the king of this dinosaur city, named Bowser in the novelization, sends his wife with her expecting egg (one that hatches into Daisy) and a shard of the asteroid to escape from Koopa and prevent his conquest of other worlds. By the time the main plot of the film picks up, Mario and Luigi are forced to chase after Koopa’s cousins, Iggy and Spike, to rescue Daisy and Mario’s fiancee Danielle (the film’s version of Pauline). Much of the film is set in Dinohattan and the surrounding Koopahari Desert, with a few scenes set in Brooklyn towards the end.

Oddly enough, Toontown is an alternate universe, at least according to Gary K. Wolf in the book “Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?”. According to him “back when the world was a ball of ferns, when a good front lawn was a half-acre of bubbling slime, a giant amoeba split in two. The front half, the end with the brains, called LA. The butt end became Toontown.” This is a universe where cartoon characters live and work in a bustling community that resembles an exaggerated version of Los Angeles. However, Walt Disney first explored such a town in “Alice’s Wonderland” the first Alice Comedy, where Virginia Davis (Alice) enters the storyboards drawn by Walt and Ub Iwerks and runs into zany antics. In fact, because so many companies were involved in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, there are technically multiple Toontowns in each company’s filmography. Warner Bros.’ Toontown mainly appears in both Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action with the Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tazmanian Devil, Tweety, etc) being able to cross over to the human world (especially when it came to getting help from former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan). Casper producer Paramount has their Toontown be more of a stylistic choice in SpongeBob SquarePants; as the show is animated and underwater, any shot of the surface is in live-action, including SpongeBob and Patrick getting a ride from David Hasselhoff. Disney’s Toontown is more of a direct successor to the one in the film as Touchstone (another Disney label) was the distributor. Their Toontown is instead more of a tri-city area of three districts: Spoonerville (home of Goofy, Pete, Max, PJ, Bobby, and Roxanne), Duckburg (home of Donald, the nephews, Launchpad, and Scrooge McDuck), and Mouseton (home of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and others).  This idea is backed up by the German, Brazilian, Sandinavian, and Dutch comics, which designate’s Mickey’s home as being part of Duckburg. Whatever the case may be, Toontown also serves as the location of the House of Mouse nightclub from the show of the same name.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

“Good evening and welcome to Channel 6 News. I’m your host, Kent Brockman with our headline story:

On Wednesday, March 20th, 2018 at 12:02 AM, Disney and Fox have finally sealed the deal in a $71.3 Billion deal for the acquisition of Fox’s assets. While this may be upsetting as they put out more adult content in contrast to the Mouse Factory’s all-ages content, I, for one, welcome our new rodent overlords.

Don’t worry Springfield, you can rest easy knowing that I will still be here to report for you, no matter the cost.

This is Kent Brockman, signing out.”