Heh, that's what made me go find the movie! I discovered the anime recently - seven episodes out of 24 have aired, only six have been translated. It's not quite the same story, they've got robot-enemies and a Dowser/Priestess person but it's very similar so far.
And Katsushiro is very pretty in the anime. Has lovely green hair and eyes... and they got a wonderful seiyuu to voice the role... and the fansubbers translate the honorifics right! Lots of "o-samurai-sama!" flying about.
That sounds like a pretty cool way of doing an adaptation.
What do you think of the actor playing Kikuchiyo? He was one of the most famous actors in Japanese cinema.