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Studio Ghibli: The Cat Returns
Apr. 2nd, 2020 09:34 pmStudio Ghibli films are on Netflix! I'd never heard of this one. It appealed to us because a) it was only 1 hr 15 and we wanted something that fit in before baby bedtime and b) cats. In the end we watched half one night and the rest the next.
Schoolgirl Haru is clumsy and distractable and always late for things. Oh, the poignancy of undiagnosed ADHD! She stops a cat from being run over one day by scooping it out from in front of a lorry with her lacrosse stick, in a hilarious satirical slow motion action sequence. The cat turns out to be the Prince of Cats, who thanks her graciously and promises rewards. Poor Haru is very confused. Her mum tells her she claimed to talk to cats as a little girl, and we get a flashback to a time Haru helped a stray kitten.
Strange, unhelpful, ridiculous gifts start appearing, like 100 lacrosse sticks and a locker full of live mice. Dozens of cats start following her around. That night a creepy cat parade shows up outside her house with great pomp and solemnity, and the Cat King - a sleazebag voiced by Tim Curry - thanks her personally.
The Cat King is determined to give her to his son is marriage as a reward for her good deed. She doesn't want to marry a cat! She finds her way to the Cat Bureau, where rogue non-Kingdom creatures become her allies. These include Muta, an enormous fat white bastard of a cat, Toto, the soul of a corvid statue, and the Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, the soul of a figurine of a dapper cat with a waistcoat, top hat and cane who is very recognisably voiced by Cary Elwes.
Haru is kidnapped and swept off to the cat kingdom, where her friends have to help her escape the clutches of the Mad Cat King before she turns into a cat and is forced to marry the prince. The stray kitten she helped as a child has grown up and become a significant character.
This is totally bonkers, funny from start to finish, and although the imperial cats are pretty creepy, the whole film is much lighter and fluffier than other Ghiblis. There's a bit of violence when the King throws his weight around, but it manages to be funny by poking fun at authoritarian rule.
The whole film is a delicious tension between innocent and knowing. It's u-rated, but Haru spending half the film with cat ears and a tail is a definite nod to cat girl fetish, and the threat posed by the sleazy, overbearing King is definitely scarier when you know what it represents. It's pleasantly ironic that the terrible fate Haru is trying to escape is that of becoming cat royalty and being pampered in luxury. She doesn't end up finding true love, but self-determination. This film is part Labyrinth, part Princess Bride and part CATS, silly and creepy in equal parts, and I enjoyed it tremendously.
Schoolgirl Haru is clumsy and distractable and always late for things. Oh, the poignancy of undiagnosed ADHD! She stops a cat from being run over one day by scooping it out from in front of a lorry with her lacrosse stick, in a hilarious satirical slow motion action sequence. The cat turns out to be the Prince of Cats, who thanks her graciously and promises rewards. Poor Haru is very confused. Her mum tells her she claimed to talk to cats as a little girl, and we get a flashback to a time Haru helped a stray kitten.
Strange, unhelpful, ridiculous gifts start appearing, like 100 lacrosse sticks and a locker full of live mice. Dozens of cats start following her around. That night a creepy cat parade shows up outside her house with great pomp and solemnity, and the Cat King - a sleazebag voiced by Tim Curry - thanks her personally.
The Cat King is determined to give her to his son is marriage as a reward for her good deed. She doesn't want to marry a cat! She finds her way to the Cat Bureau, where rogue non-Kingdom creatures become her allies. These include Muta, an enormous fat white bastard of a cat, Toto, the soul of a corvid statue, and the Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, the soul of a figurine of a dapper cat with a waistcoat, top hat and cane who is very recognisably voiced by Cary Elwes.
Haru is kidnapped and swept off to the cat kingdom, where her friends have to help her escape the clutches of the Mad Cat King before she turns into a cat and is forced to marry the prince. The stray kitten she helped as a child has grown up and become a significant character.
This is totally bonkers, funny from start to finish, and although the imperial cats are pretty creepy, the whole film is much lighter and fluffier than other Ghiblis. There's a bit of violence when the King throws his weight around, but it manages to be funny by poking fun at authoritarian rule.
The whole film is a delicious tension between innocent and knowing. It's u-rated, but Haru spending half the film with cat ears and a tail is a definite nod to cat girl fetish, and the threat posed by the sleazy, overbearing King is definitely scarier when you know what it represents. It's pleasantly ironic that the terrible fate Haru is trying to escape is that of becoming cat royalty and being pampered in luxury. She doesn't end up finding true love, but self-determination. This film is part Labyrinth, part Princess Bride and part CATS, silly and creepy in equal parts, and I enjoyed it tremendously.
