Film
The Cat Returns
- Director
- Hiroyuki Morita
- Certificate
- U
- Running Time
- 75 mins
One of the few early Studio Ghibli films not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, 2002’s The Cat Returns received a belated UK cinema release back in 2005 following the international success of Spirited Away. It’s a lovingly hand-drawn if relatively straightforward, kid-oriented fantasy that lacks the inventive edge of Spirited Away but remains a treat for those who’ve tired of shrill and annoying mainstream animation.
When clumsy schoolgirl Haru (Chizuru Ikewaki) snatches a cat from the path of an oncoming lorry, the feline stands up on his hind legs, bows politely, explains that he’s in a hurry, and dashes off. Suitably gobsmacked, Haru gets a bigger surprise when she’s awoken in the middle of the night by a huge procession of upright moggies. They stop outside her house, where the long-haired King of the Cats (Tetsuro Tamba) thanks her for saving his son, Prince Lune (Takayuki Yamada), and promises a reward. The next day, she finds her pockets full of catnip and her school locker bulging with gift-wrapped mice. As these are rather inappropriate gifts for a human, the King pledges to bestow his greatest honour by marrying her off to Lune, raising the alarming prospect of cartoon bestiality. A mysterious voice then guides suitably shocked Haru to a greedy, corpulent comedy cat named Muta (Tetsu Watanabe, veteran star of Takeshi Kitano and Akira Kurosawa flicks) and thence the suave swordsfeline Baron Humbert von Gikkingen (Yoshihiko Hakamada).
The film’s obvious influences range from Alice in Wonderland to Puss in Boots and Zorro, but it never comes off as pastiche and avoids both the simplistic good guy/bad guy delineation of traditional cartoons and the grotesque family values propaganda of Disney (Haru appears to be raised by a single mother). There’s also plenty of delightful incidental funny business. Watch out for the golf-playing King’s revolving eyes and his black-and-white secret service cats. Parents may wish to note that the Cube is screening the Japanese version of the film with English subtitles
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