One of the best films i have seen

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Better Late Then Never

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Having saved a stray cat from being run over, a teenager finds herself shrouded with gifts from the rulers of the cat world who wish to turn her into one of them as a reward in this delightfully offbeat animated fantasy film. 'The Cat Returns' is an unpredictable movie in the best possible way and plays out as a zany variation of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' with the heroine shrunken down to cat-size to enter their realm where she encounters wacky and eccentric characters left, right and centre. There are some well done surreal moments too, especially as she finds herself gradually turning into a cat, and it is an often laugh-out-loud funny experience with lots of humour to be had in the unusual feline supporting players. Clocking in at around 75 minutes, the movie occasionally feels a little rushed, particularly during its climax, and it is lack of appeal to some hardcore Ghibli fans is understandable since the film does not have the time to establish a magical universe as immersive as the likes of 'Spirited Away'. This is a highly charming film if taken on its own terms though, and as per norm for producer Hayao Miyazaki, there are nicely no antagonists here. The cats are pesky with their persistence in turning her into one of them, but it is up to both her and them to realise that they can still help each other out even if their own interests do not always align.

I like this movie very much.I like Balon. Balon is cool cat. Balon is very cool guy. Heroine is Haru. She is high school student. Haru tooked by a cat. Haru as taken in cats world. Then, Haru transformed cat. I was so surprised.Haru saw many cats. Cats and Haru were make friends. It is so good. I want to make friends cats. Story is good. It is youth story. Cat's heart is wonderful. Theme song is good. Singer is Ayano Tuji. She is good singer. Her voice is nice. I played xylophone the theme song when I was high school student. This movie is my favorite movie. I want to see the movie again. I like this movie. I went to movie theater to see the movie.

This is a quite good film. It is not nearly as good, however, as other Ghibli efforts. Just compare it to Spirited Away, released one year earlier, and it easily blows it away (though Spirited Away blows pretty much _anything_ away). Overall, one of those "filler" films by the Studio. However, even though it is worse than about 15 other films by the Studio, it is still quite excellent. It is a testament to the quality of Ghibli films that even their weakest efforts compare favorably with most Hollywood products.However, it was still a highly entertaining film and it had many funny moments. Overall, a very good film. I would not recommend this film, however, to adolescent males, they might think it is "too feminine" or too cheesy. It is indeed exceptionally cheesy. But sometimes huge volumes of cheese is good for you, if you are "capable" of handling it.

This movie is very difficult to accurately review. On one hand, it is horrifying how cheesy, poorly scripted and rushed the movie is, but on the other, we know from "Whisper of the Heart" that this story is supposed to be written by Shizuku (it is NOT however the same story she was working on also named "Whisper of the Heart", which from the few details given in the movie, was more akin to a sort of epilogue for the Baron), and presumably while she was still an amateur writer.Although the story is supposed to be lighthearted, I personally found it went wayyyyy to far in that respect. Sure, it was a good approximation of what you'd expect a story from a young girl to be, however that does not change the fact that the plot is so frequently filled with scenes that even young children would find cheesy, terribly infantile "jokes" (sooo many chicken jokes D:), and worst of all, feels incredibly rushed.I'd like to say that I have nothing against lighthearted movies (I loved Whisper of the Heart), however this movie is at best a kid's movie through and through. The storyline takes Ghibli-cuteness and blows it completely out of proportion. Even "My Neighbor Totoro" feels serious compared to "The Cat Returns". Unless you're the giggly type, you'll want to punch yourself in the face at times due to how sickeningly sugary it can be. The thing about Studio Ghibli's signature cuteness in some of their films is that there is always some depth, some contrast. "My Neighbor Totoro" had the sick mother trope to play with, "Whisper of the Heart" had the uncertainty and dramatic ups and downs of an adolescent girl falling in love and finding her place in life, etc, etc. This film has positively no depth. It's constantly silly, which would work if the lines were funny, but they're not. About the only time I laughed during the film was when Haru first saw Prince Loon ("Eh..... eh... you-... eh :O").Just as bad as the film's cheesiness is it's rapid pace. The actual movie is reasonably long, however it just flies by due to the fact that none of the scene's feel important. They all feel like they are leading up to the next, without ever coming to fruition. Haru spends most of the film getting shuttled from place to place by various characters, such as to the "Cat Bureau" at the behest of a mysterious feline voice, exits that scene being dragged away by "evil" cats, arrives in the Cat World and is immediately picked up by the Kingsguard and is escorted to the castle, where she is dressed in a wedding gown. She is then forced to attend a party, and from there is rushed off in an escape orchestrated by the "mysterious" *cough* obvious *cough* "stranger". Without exaggerating, I can tell you that really the only choice as to where to go Haru made in the entire movie was to listen to the strange voice and go to a "Cat Bereau". After that, all of the supporting characters just whisked her from setting to setting, with her doing nothing along the way other than making astute observations about each setting she's in. She has a minimal interaction with the characters (never once does she ask any questions regarding the psychedelic world she is suddenly dragged into, 10 minutes after having a cat talk to her the first time, her inquisitiveness is limited to asking the names of each character), and we learn very little about her, other than that she's a high school student who has a crush on a popular guy. Oh yeah, and her Mom makes quilts. That's about all of the character backstory in the movie. Which brings me to my next point.The characters remain extraordinarily shallow, even for a children's movie. We never learn anything about the regular duties of the "Cat Bureau", or where the statue/cat came from. Why is the King so obsessed with marrying Haru to somebody (it doesn't seem to matter who)? Where was Prince Loon in-between his first appearance (as the first talking cat carrying the present) and his final appearance at the end of the film? Why did it take him so much longer to return to his world, whereas Haru only took about 10 minutes? Why did Haru act at the end as if the entire bizarre experience had taught her some lesson of maturity (she spent the entire film being dragged around a magical kingdom by cats bent on marrying her)? The film makes no attempt to answer these questions (and many more).The quality of animation was also far below Ghibli standards, though for normal anime I'd say it was usually good, and had some moments where it was definitely well done. There were a lot of scenes with characters remaining static in the background, or worse, repeating the same animation over and over again while the "center" character was talking (i.e the King's neverending dizzy expression). A lot of the scenes were fairly drab too, having none of the excellent shading I've come to expect from Studio Ghibli.In short, this might be a good Ghibli movie for very young children, however don't expect anything even remotely meaningful from it. If you want a real "coming of age" tear jerker, watch "Whisper of the Heart" instead, which is excellent.