MartinHafer
I have seen just about every Studio Ghibi film released in the US and must say that "The Cat Returns" is unique among them. Sure, it's strange...but so are most of the rest of them (especially "Spirited Away"). But it manages to be very different and a bit different from the Miyazaki films when it comes to the animation but especially the story. The film begins with a young girl, Haru, racing into traffic to save a cat from being squashed. Have you ever heard the expression "No good deed goes unpunished"? Well, this is sort of what happens next. Late at night, a strange procession of cats walking on two legs is carrying a litter with their fat king. They stop to announce to Haru that she is going to receive many wonderful rewards for saving that cat, as it's their Prince!! When she awakens the next morning, she thinks it's all been a dream...until weird presents start arriving. But the weirdest part is yet to come...the cats are going to honor her by allowing her to MARRY the Prince!!! What!?! So, after hearing a voice telling her to find the Cat Bureau, she ends up meeting a cat Baron and going in search of the cat kingdom!!Mega-weird...but also mega-charming and fun. I loved this film because it dared to be so different and it really hooked me. I have no idea why this one was released here in the States with zero fanfare...just a direct to DVD release a few years ago. Well worth seeing.
ikrani
And, honestly, that's only my SECOND biggest complaint in the seething cauldron of rage and frustration that this movie caused me to vomit forth after I was done watching it.NOTE: I am reviewing the dub. I don't care what anyone says about dubs vs. subs, a movie should be able to stand or fall on its own regardless of what language it's in. And even then, the language of this movie probably wouldn't solve its many, MANY problems.What's the story? What story? Story implies characters, structure, build-up, pay-off, development, resolution, and this movie FAILS at all of that.There are characters. None of them work. None of them are appealing. The main character, Haru, is a cookie-cutter protagonist that for the life of me I couldn't describe beyond the word "girl", as from what I recollect she really only has one defining character moment throughout the entire film when she saves a cat from being run over. And it's not a moment that carries any impact throughout the rest of the story, as this selflessness is never brought up again nor is it made relevant.Structure. It's awful. After that initial plot point we settle in for a whole forty-five minutes of absolutely nothing as Haru wanders around, very, very, VERY occasionally visited by cats from the Cat Kingdom. She then goes to the Cat Baron for aid since these cats want to kidnap her, and they do, but only after another drawn-out ten-minute scene in which Haru has tea with the Baron and absolutely nothing happens.Build-up. There's almost no build up. If one uses the Wikipedia page as a sort of road map for this movie, then three-fifths of the plot is crammed into the last half-hour, because those first two paragraphs make up 60% of the run time. Suddenly, Haru's in the Cat Kingdom. Suddenly, she's taken away to the palace. Suddenly, she's turning into a Cat. Suddenly, there's a ball where the Baron rescues her. Suddenly, she's not turning into a cat. Suddenly, they're in the garden. Hey, hey, HEY, SLOW DOWN, MOVIE! Gimme a chance to breath and let all this stuff sink in. I'm all for a brisk pace but this is like riding a bullet train. On the roof.Terrible build-up means terrible pay-off. There's a bit where this fat cat reveals he was the one who ate all the fish in the Cat Kingdom some time ago, something that was never hinted at or even brought up before. Or maybe it was and I missed it amidst the machine-gun flurry of plot points hitting my face. Or maybe it was referenced in that tea party scene and I missed it because I was falling asleep from the downpour of tedium.Development. Nobody changes, because anyone that supposedly does change isn't established first. We see The Cat King forcing Haru into marriage was him acting on behalf of his son, who had someone else in mind to wed. Who was The Cat King before all of this started? What's he like when he's not jumping to conclusions and being an over-bearing father? Who knows? He's the only one who apparently gets any kind of arc and we don't even know if this change was just him reverting to his previous state of mind. Lame.Resolution. This entire movie hinged on a "failure to communicate" cliché so this whole thing could've been avoided by a short talk between The Cat King and his son. I'm pretty sure Studio Ghibli can do better than rip off the narrative premise of the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Brave Little Tailor". Then again, they ripped off 90% of Disney's The Little Mermaid to make Ponyo, so I'm not surprised.This movie had so much potential. The story may have been unoriginal, but the setting and elements of the world could've made for a wonderful trip to some Lewis Carroll-esque Wonderland. Instead, we spend the majority of the film in the boring human world and the only elements of the Cat Kingdom we explore are a village, a garden maze, and two rooms of the palace, three if you count the exploding tower (yet ANOTHER thing that was never built up or established).And just to empty a bucket of salty lemon juice onto the wound, they got Tim Curry, my favorite actor, the actor who inspired me to go into animation, the actor who I mimicked to learn acting for myself, the actor I love so much that I trained in impersonating him so that his wonderful voice doesn't have to die when he does, He-Who-Can-Do-No-Wrong, to play one of the most uninspired, unfunny, unappealing, uninteresting characters I have ever seen. I didn't even think he was capable of giving a terrible performance, but this movie showed me what a naive and fleeting notion that truly was.Thou hast truly taught me to hate, movie. I thought I knew what hate was, but that was no more than a child's daydream of loathing. Now, I hate. I hate this movie, I hate the director, I hate BOTH writing teams, and most of all I hate the ADR director, for they, in turn, made me hate my all-time favorite actor.Oh, who am I kidding? I still love ya, Tim. Get well soon.
CinemaClown
A spin-off of Whisper of the Heart & the only second Studio Ghibli feature film of its time to be not directed by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, The Cat Returns is 75 minutes of fun-filled, light-hearted adventure-fantasy from the legendary studio that's delightfully engaging, highly entertaining & largely satisfying for the most part.The Cat Returns tells the story of a young girl named Haru who one day saves a mysterious cat from getting run over by traffic only to later find herself being the recipient of many gifts from the King of Cats who also wants her to marry his son. To get herself out of this mess, she enlists the help of Baron but before he can help, she is forcibly taken to the Cat Realm.Directed by Hiroyuki Morita, The Cat Returns brings back two characters from Whisper of the Heart, first being Baron; the cat figurine & the other being Muta; the large white cat. Unlike the previous feature, however, The Cat Returns presents a highly imaginative world that's finely animated, briskly paced, nicely scored & benefits greatly from its short runtime.On an overall scale, The Cat Returns is an impressive spin-off that presents an interesting take on the two cats that didn't have much to do in the last picture but it's the character of Haru who keeps this narrative glued together. Brilliantly directed, solidly written & radiating charm n wonder, The Cat Returns is another quality addition to Studio Ghibli's filmography & is definitely worth a shot.
