Cat Returns, The Recommended

Director
Hiroyuki Morita
Production
Nippon TV, Studio Ghibli, Toho, Tokuma Shoten
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
75 mins
Year
2002

The Cat Returns

By Adam Cook
27th Apr 04

Considering cats are now the most popular pets in the world it makes sense for an anime to use our feline friends in an adventure story suitable for the whole family. The Cat Returns is a Studio Ghibli feature directed by Hiroyuki Morita who previously worked on Kiki's Delivery Service and as key animator on Takahata's My Neighbors the Yamadas.

The film tells the story of a young girl by the name of Haru that saves a cat from becoming inevitable road kill on a busy highway. The cat turns out to be a Prince among cats and results in Haru being engaged to be married and become heir to the throne of the Kingdom of the Cats. For obvious reasons (i.e. the fact Haru is not a cat) she tries to escape wedlock and is aided in her quest by three allies, Baron and Toto that are statues that come alive and are in the guises of a dapper cat and a large crow respectively, and Muta an obese and surly white cat. The story is strange but it is something you expect from a studio that continually strives to weave a magical and enchanting world for the audience to immerse themselves in.

The film is a succession of hits and misses. On the one hand the story is genuinely interesting and original, but the short film running time (75 minutes) results in there being very little character development and a rushed and unsatisfactory ending. The story is an ideal family adventure film that will have young children and the not so young interested until the closing credits. The majority of the characters appear to have a fair amount of hidden depth to them but this is rarely explored in the film. Whilst it works to create intrigue with some of the more mysterious characters such as the Baron, it does mean the film can appear a little shallow and one dimensional. It is a shame that they did not see fit to increase the film length by 20 minutes or so to explore some of the other characters in greater detail, and especially the motivation behind Haru's 'kidnapping' by the King. That said, the films main target audience is young children and they should be suitably impressed with the succession of imaginative set pieces that punctuate the story. Like wise the short running time will mean that there is less chance of children becoming restless that can happen so often during the longer Ghibli features.

The animation is not up to the standards set by the more experienced directors of Ghibli such as Miyazaki and Takahata. However it is still more impressive than the majority of family anime and there are a number of scenes that would certainly not look out of place in one of Miyazaki's more ambitious movies. Whilst the animation may be rough around the edges, the character design is excellent. Whilst Haru may be a little generic in her school girl attire, real care has been taken in portraying the Kingdom of Cats populace. The cats take on human like nuances and 'dress', for example the king has a number of cat bodyguards that have black fur, with a white fur collar that resembles the black suited guards that watch over celebrities and royalty. This sort of attention to detail is carried through to all the different variety of cats in the film. The location design is also impressive with some of the locales being reminiscent of Kiki's Delivery Service in which The Cat Returns director worked as an in-between animator.

The music and sound effects are average at best, and are not particularly memorable which is a real shame considering how the studio normally pays great attention to the musical score of its films. The Japanese voice acting appears to be spot on though.

The Cat Returns is a charming family film that will keep you amused for the length of the movie. It is just a shame that they did not see fit to explore the characters in greater detail and resolved the film in such a disappointing manner. It is below the standards of Ghibli, but is well worth a watch if you have a spare hour and a half and are trying to keep the children quiet.

-- Adam Cook 27th Apr 04

Cat Returns, The Images