Lupin III: Le profezie di Nostradamus

"Lupin III farewell to Nostradamus" is the fifth movie dedicated to our beloved gentleman thief, successor of the movie "The Fuma conspiracy".

In this film, set in the late nineties, Lupin returns to wear his iconic red jacket, in an action-packed adventure.

Personally I found this film very enjoyable and compelling.

The drawings are of excellent quality, expressive and well made, they perfectly convey the emotions of the characters.

The plot is very linear, simple, but well told. Packed with eco-involving action scenes.

In this film we are presented with a classic Lupin, in search of money and riches, but always faithful to his principles. Maybe not as ruthless as in other situations, but the film maintains a rather adult tone.

I highly recommend this film to all fans and beyond. It doesn't have a very high rating and you don't expect much, but it personally surprised me positively.

Pleasant, action-packed and never predictable.

I conclude with a personal thought: I often read in the various reviews continuous comparisons to the film "Lupin III the Castle of Cagliostro", directed by the master of Japanese animation Hayao Miyazaki.

Personally I find it a wonderful movie and one of my absolute favorites, but it is not the right yardstick to judge the various Lupin III films and series.

Miyazaki is a great director, but it is well known that his Lupin is very different from that of Monkey Punch (creator of Lupin III). So I find it wrong to judge some films as bad, just because Lupin is not like in "the castle of Cagliostro"... which is beautiful, but 90% of the time Lupin is represented differently, as Miyazaki's is a personal interpretation of the director, approved by Monkey Punch, but not shared.

Thanks for your attention and enjoy your viewing.

This is one of my third favorite Lupin the 3rd Movie. While Castle of Cagliostro is #1 and Dead or Alive is #2.

There's so much happening in this movie. It has allot to do with this Religious Cult called the "Nostradamus Sect". Which is an actual religion founded by a man named Micheal Nostradamus who lived in the 16th century.

And there's also this Giant Skyscrapper called the "Douglas Media Skyscrapper" who is own by the Billionaire Douglas who is trying to win the Presidentical Election.

I won't give away too much on what happens in the movie. But this movie has allot of good parts, explosives, action, and danger.

It's worth buying on DVD. A must have for any die-hard Lupin fan.

TD;DR: Although not blessed with the voices of the great part 2 cast, this movie manages to incorporate everything that made early Lupin III great in a package that has some very 90's influences. A must-watch for any Lupin III fan.

I'd like to preface the long-form review once again with the statement that I have only watched the English dubbed version; even though it does indeed lack the great voice of Tony Oliver and his accomplices, this movie's dub is fairly acceptable. The voices sound a bit too silly at times, but I honestly did not mind this as the movie clearly also goes for this tone most of the time.

As for the writing; this has to be simultaneously one of the most grounded and most off-the-wall Lupin III films ever. It combines a frankly insane premise with some down-to-earth Lupin III character moments and action, making for an enjoyable watch with some incredibly funny recurring gags.

Side note: I do recommend any potential viewers of this movie to do at least a bit of surface level research into who Nostradamus was in real life; I sure didn't and even though it didn't make it unwatchable on my first viewing, it did confuse me a bit as to what the importance of the central McGuffin was.

The animation is done surprisingly well, with the animators keeping a classic Lupin look while upgrading the quality of the animation to what was a superb quality in 1995, which still holds up today. The settings are amazingly creative and surprising while its incorporation into events that happen in the movie are very well done.

Of course, with this movie being made in 1995, it has some traits which can be best described as symptoms of its time; some characters feel kind of inserted "just because we needed a character with (x) trait" and its message can come over a bit heavy-handed and preachy; this however does not sufficiently detract from the watching experience to bump the score down any more.

The soundtrack also doesn't really break any new ground, and you can definitely feel the slump of the soundtrack-work between part 2 (1977) and 4 (2015) in this movie; it is still alright as far as regular movies go, but when compared to the other entries in the Lupin III franchise it's in the lower ranks.

In conclusion; this movie is supreme in its looks and the execution of its themes. It manages to keep its insane premise on the ground with some 90's flair thrown in with it. It features an amusing cast which provides many funny moments throughout the film with a bit of the tomfoolery we have come to expect from this franchise. As far as Lupin III movies go, this is one of the classics.

OK, so the plot of this movie includes a plane hijacking and a tall New York building exploding. Also, there is this billionaire named Douglas who is running for U. S. President. For as much credit as "The Simpsons" gets for predicting the future, Lupin sure is surprisingly topical all these years later.

I am going to say that this is Lupin funniest adventure. I don't mean to say that it is his goofiest adventure, it is just had me laughing more often than any other movie or special. Most of that I credit to the dialogue writing and the voice actor's delivery.

The adventure goes all over the place, and some of the scenes transitioning from one plot point to the next seem to be missing. One second Lupin will be falling into a swimming pool, the next scene he is trying to break someone out of Execution Island.

The story goes from plane hijacking, breaking into a vault, presidential campaigns, mind control, cults, prison breaks and kidnapping. This scatter gun approach to the story makes the story seem disjointed, but it does help lead to a really exciting climax.

This time around Fujiko is tutoring a young girl named Julia. Yes, typically adding in a kid character can kill the momentum of any action movie. But truth be told, I thought this character was a lot of fun, and she had an amusing running joke with Lupin.

This is an exciting and funny Lupin adventure that ratchets up the action and throws a lot of good twists and turns throughout the adventure.

But here is a free tip to all diamond smugglers, stop using dolls as a way to hide your loot. They did it in "The Chipmunk Adventure", Miyazaki did it in "Sherlock Hound" and this one tires it as well. Just pick anything else instead.

'Farewell to Nostradamus' is the fifth Lupin film and to me it's one of the best. My second favourite in fact behind 'The Castle of Cagliostro' (a personal favourite animated film of mine, as a fan of animation and anime). Also the boldest Lupin film since his first film 'The Secret of Mamo' with its surprising sexual content and the most entertaining since 'The Castle of Cagliostro'.

There is very little to complain about with 'Farewell to Nostradamus'. Occasionally it's a little rushed, the slightly too short length plays a part in this somewhat, and the character designs occasionally lack finesse (though nowhere near as underwhelming as those in 'Gold of Babylon', the weakest of the Lupin films). Otherwise, 'Farewell to Nostradamus' is great and a must watch for fans of Lupin.

Visually, along with the previous film 'The Fuma Conspiracy', 'Farewell to Nostradamus' is one of the better looking and more polished Lupin films. It's great here, with the attention to detail in the chase sequences and backgrounds being particularly impressive. The action is truly exciting with a healthy dose of both suspense and humour.

Its tense climax is one of the better ones of the films, closer to the great ones of 'The Fuma Conspiracy' and 'The Castle of Cagliostro' than the weird, underwhelming ones of 'The Secret of Mamo' and especially 'Gold of Babylon'. The music is an improvement here, being more dynamic and fitting, not discordant.

Writing is humorous (the humour is especially good, a lot of it being hilarious), thought-provoking and taut (every bit as successful with the suspense), with a little pathos in the mix. The story is gripping and a lot happens that ensures that the film is never dull and the tension and fun never slipping, not feeling over-stuffed either despite the large amount going on, or overly convoluted despite it being suitably complicated at times.

Characterisation-wise, 'Farewell to Nostradamus' is one of the better Lupin films. Lupin is a fun, charismatic lead, while the villains are suitably sinister and the supporting characters are more than up to his level particularly Zenigata and Fujiko. The voice acting is quite good, the dub being much better than in the previous film.

All in all, terrific. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox