The Cat Returns
Director: Hiroyuki
Morita
Year: 2002
Rating: 6.5
Japanese with English subs
Not rated at the top of the Ghibli films,
but it did very well at the box office and is a charmingly cute film more
for children than adults but can be enjoyed by all. It was directed by Hiroyuki
Morita from an idea of Hayao Miyazaki's and turned out to be the only film
he has directed. He has mainly been an animator on other projects. It is
connected to an earlier animated film, Whisper of the Heart, in the character
of Baron - the Cat. It is a fun fantasy coming of age film with a Lupin adventure
flavor. Lupin was of course in one of Miyazaki's early films, The Castle
of Cagliostro.
Haru is a bit of a clumsy high school girl
always falling over things and being late to school. An act of kindness sets
her off on a big adventure. Walking with her friend after school, she sees
a cat in the road that is about to be run over by a truck. She rushes to
save him with her hockey stick and when she gets up, the cat stands on his
feet and thanks her. In Japanese. She assumes she was imagining it till late
at night a caravan of cats marches down her street to officially thank her
and the King (voiced by Tatsuro Tanba) tells her that the cat she saved was
Prince Lune. Ok, she says - this is weird. But that isn't the end of it.
The next day she is invited to visit the Kingdom of Cats and marry The Prince.
Errr. I am not a cat - not yet you aren't.
A mysterious voice tells her to go the crossroad
of the town and look for a fat white cat and follow him. The fat cat grumbles
at being woken up, but Muta as he is called (Tetsu Watanabe) leads her over
roofs and fences to a little alley where The Baron in his top hat, tail and
cane lives. He promises to help her, but before he can Haru (Chizuru Ikewaki
- Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, Strawberry Shortcakes) is kidnapped by a
swarm of cats who carry her through magical portals to the Kingdom of Cats
- where she shrinks down to cat size and slowly turns into one. At one point,
she thinks being a cat isn't so bad after all and the Prince is kind of cool.
The King turns out to be a tyrant tossing people off of the castle who displease
him and has built a labyrinth maze to stop Haru from escaping - but in dapper
fashion the Baron and Muta come to save her. She learns some life lessons
along the way. 75 minutes and it speeds by. Sweet film that I think children
would love. There is an English dubbed version.
