More than that, it all build with an intelligent ebullience that’s wonderful, never betraying its characters for a shot of cheap sentiment or kid-friendly sensationalism a lesser motion picture would make a point of wallowing in. While events accelerate and spiral rather too quickly at times, there’s never a doubt as to what is going and why. The initial trip inside the Kingdom of Cats is a mesmerizing one, Haru’s attempts to navigate its intricacies sublime. She ends up in the Kingdom of Cats, making a bushel of new friends during her journey, having to find an inner strength and an unknown amount of confidence if she’s ever going to return to anything close to her normal life. The plot is decidedly on the surreal side, with Haru saving the life of a peculiar cat only to have The Cat King ( Tetsurō Tanba / Tim Curry) think he is giving her this amazing gift when he ordains she’ll marry his son Prince Lune ( Takayuki Yamada / Andrew Bevis). It’s lively and energetic in all the ways that matter while also presenting a heartfelt, emotionally complex central scenario around which everything revolves, building to a spellbinding bit of whimsical ingenuity that can’t help but bring a smile to my face just at the very thought of it. It wears its weirdness and creative silliness on its sleeve like a badge of honor, while the young schoolgirl, Haru (voiced by Chizuru Ikewaki for the Japanese language release, while Anne Hathaway gives it her endearing all in the English language version), at the center of the tale is an absolute pleasure to be around.
It’s frustratingly short, wrapping itself up so quickly some of the more engaging ideas and concepts aren’t given as much room to breathe and grow as is otherwise par for the course for Ghibli productions.Īll the same, the movie has amazing heart, and it’s filled with a whole series of engaging and captivating characters who are difficult, if not downright impossible, to become infatuated with to the point of adoration. It’s in many ways a pseudo sequel to Yoshifumi Kondô’s superb Whisper of the Heart, a very different motion picture in both look and feel that rarely – if ever – ends up in the realm of the fantastical as this one does. I get why The Cat Returns is considered in some corners as “lesser Studio Ghibli.” The animation isn’t quite up to the exceedingly high standards of the studio’s usual endeavors.
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