The Cat Returns Movie Review

Full Review

Pro: An all around a great Family film

Con: Not as epic or grand like many ghibli films

Final Thoughts: Basically after the Ghibli movie, Whisper of the Heart, came out in the late 90s (I think) the Baron character (a cat figurine) from the movie became pretty popular as did the movie itself. There is a scene in the movie that shows a visual representation of a story about the Baron. There is also another cat in Whisper of the Heart known as Muta. Muta is just a lazy fat cat that a girl sees in the movie. So after the popularity of these characters (particularly the Baron) Ghibli decided to make a short little animated advertisement of the Baron for an amusement park (I think). This short advertisement soon became longer and longer until it became a feature length movie (I guess they came up with a bunch of ideas). This process of course took several years to create due to it being pushed back more and more. It was known as the "Cat Project" and then premiered as this movie The Cat Returns. One thing I found to be enjoyable about this movie is that it is very kid friendly like My Neighbor Totoro only a bit faster paced. The English dub has Anne Hathaway as Haru, Tim Curry as the main villain (of course) and the other actors that make you feel like you are a kid again. Out of all of the Ghibli movies, this one feels the most like a Disney/American film. And that’s not a bad thing at all in my book. It is a short cute enjoyable movie that I am sure kids and tweens will enjoy. (Especially if you love cats). So is this this something worth watching? I would say so if you want a short cute movie to kill some time.

Story (may contain a few spoilers): So The Cat Returns is a pretty run of the mill story about believing in yourself. The story tells about a typical Japanese school girl named Haru, who is going through the typical teenage stage of mild depression and hopelessness (XD). She is under the mindset that bad things always seem to happen to her and all of her choices lead her to misery. This causes her to lose confidence in herself and her decisions. One day she saves a cat from being hit by truck, only to discover that it talks. She then discovers that the cat she saved is a prince of a "Cat Kingdom". Unfortunately, the cat kingdom forces Haru into a further unfortunate state of mind by presenting her with embarrassing "cat-like gifts" until finally she lets it slip that she may be willing to marry the cat prince just to get away from her current life. She immediately regrets this and goes seeking the cat Bureau aka: The Baron, for help. She finds her way to meet him thanks to a cat named Muta (and yes all these cats talk). From there Haru must find a way to believe in herself and her decisions if she is going to make it home safely. Along the way she meets some colorful characters and visits another world. I did not want to type anymore of the story because this movie is rather short. Even so it is an enjoyable short movie all the way through with no time felt wasted.

Art: The animation is superb and rather different looking than a typical ghibli film. This may be a bit jarring to some viewers if they go in expecting something grand. This movie was not trying to be grand though. As mentioned above it was going to originally be a short advertisement featuring the Baron, but the studio decided to make it a movie instead. Is it time wasted on their part? Not really.

Sound: The music is quite lovely and the ending song Kaze Ni Naru is really great!

Final Score: 5 stars

Recommendations:

Whisper of the Heart/Howls Moving Castle/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

#thecatreturns #movie #review #5stars #Ghibli #StudioGhibli