Anime: Neko no Ongaeshi

[br]There are a group of fans who believe that Ghibli can do no wrong. Yet even the studio who gave us classics such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and Spirited Away, are capable of turning out a second-class effort. The Cat Returns, a curious entry to the Ghibli library, is one such movie. Directed by newcomer Hiroyuki Morita, this film is a spin-off of Yoshifumi Kondo's magical Whisper of the Heart--almost unheard of for a studio that strives on original productions.
[br]The story, which involves Haru, an unlucky high school student, whisked away to the Cat Kingdom after saving a feline from being run over by a truck, is serviceable but uninspired and predictable in a Disney-ish sort of way--a trait that Miyazaki and Takahata's works never shared, and that is a detriment to this film.
[br]More problematic, however, is the "believe in yourself" message. Rather than allowing the viewer to watch the struggles of the protagonist and determine what she has to learn in order to return to her homeland, Haru is given this very message verbally about halfway through the movie. Not only does this undermine the theme, it makes the ultimate resolution less satisfactory than it should be.
[br]The Cat Returns is not a bad film by any means. It has its preciously delightful moments (an adorable scene where we see a young girl feeding a small, filthy kitten fish crackers and a very charming ballroom dance sequence), a healthy share of comedy (mostly in the form of a grouchy fat furball named Muta), and one truly memorable character, a suave, splendidly dressed "aristocat" antique by the name of Baron (his presence carries the movie as a whole). But while unquestionably fine for children and families, the film is ultimately a weaker effort, both narratively and artistically (the artwork, although colorful and imaginative for the most part lacks the polish that we have come to expect from Ghibli), and consequently, is not especially memorable.
[br]Aurally, The Cat Returns cannot be faulted. The musical score from Yuji Nomi (Whisper of the Heart) is pleasantly orchestral and charming, and the ending theme song which accompanies the closing credits is lovely and catching. And of course, Disney does yet another fabulous job of providing a top-notch cast to translate the movie into English. These include Tim Curry, Peter Boyle, and Elliot Gould. Special credit in particular goes to Cary Elwes (Donald Curtis in Porco Rosso), who is perfect as the suave, debonair Baron. On the other side of the spectrum, Anne Hathaway's Haru, although good, sometimes comes across as too whiney. Granted, this is how she is supposed to be, but it does detract from the likeability of the character.
[br]As mentioned, children will obviously enjoy The Cat Returns, but in contrast to the studio's more memorable features, it falls disappointingly short. Although better than the worst animated features out there, The Cat Returns, so far, ranks as the weakest of the Studio Ghibli films. Ghibli completists will pick it up just for the sake of "owning the entire collection", but chances are it will not be among their top ten lists.

SIMILAR TO: So many other Ghibli films it's hard to list them all.

Visuals:
The visuals of The Cat Returns are not up to scratch for a Ghibli movie. That's a bold statement in itself, since I was shocked to find a Ghibli film that didn't break the mould of the previous. The visuals are certainly not bad though - the background artwork is, as ever, exquisite, with lovely bits of small details, but the problem lies with the foreground detail (mainly characters) and the animation itself. The characters have a lack of detail, whilst the animation needs many, many more frames. It's simply just not very smooth for the most part. By far the most impressive visuals were seen during the sky sequence at the end. If the entire movie had the same sort of visual quality as that, it would have been awesome.

Sound:
The sound is nice enough, with an excellent children's score running throughout the movie, creating an always positive atmosphere. This can occasionally be a bad thing, as it remains positive when some of the more negative scenes are occuring. Ghibli knows expertly though about when to use and when NOT to use background music - when it's abscent you really seem to get engrossed with the little things that are occuring in the scene. The voice acting is great and the sound effects, (not that many stand out), are decent when noticed.

Story:
The story, unfortunately, is pretty dire in my opinion. I've always accepted the random and bizaare plot lines of Ghibli films, but this particular one was just TOO silly, even for me. Nothing ever really seemed consistent, and began to irritate me considerably. I found the whole cat kingdom idea to be kind of rubbish to be frank, and think it would have been a better film if it had chosen a more mythical kingdom (like in Spirited Away), or a different sort of Human kingdom (like Alice in Wonderland). There was so much emphasis on Cats that I felt it ridiculous to be so obsessed with them.

And due to being a fairytale, there was a lot of plot that didn't have a strong foundation, even for a Ghibli movie. If felt as though the writers made something up in a bit of a rush to tie two scenes together. However, it was by no means abismal - just not good.

Characters:
The characters in this movie are the worst aspect of it. I never got to like any of them, except the Baron, but even he seemed silly since he was a cat. The wonder of the film always lost itself when I kept realising "i'm watching a bunch of cats strut about". It just didn't work for me. The main girl in the movie, Haru, was pretty generic for a Ghibli movie, and I felt that for 2002's standards, this simply wasn't enough. Ghibli has some loveable recurring details in almost all of their movies, but this cliched character is getting old now. It's become predictable to determine the lead character's development, and how she will handle a given type of situation.

Value & Enjoyment:
This film has a low replay value for me, but I in now way hated it. I enjoyed it enough so that if it was on again at some point, I wouldn't mind sitting down to watch it if I had nothing else to do. But sufficed to say that it won't feature in my DVD collection. Similar films - Spirited Away being the obvious choice - have more to offer and feel better made, leaving The Cat Returns to never really warrant leaving the shelf.

I’m pretty sure Ghibli is one of the only studios on earth capable of taking a storyline like this one’s and making something worthwhile out of it. The plot has a kind of meandering, silly quality to it that could easily have turned to tedium, but no; from the seemingly boundless resources at Ghibli’s disposal, the studio makes the movie work as a creative, lighthearted, and ultimately endearing show.

Admittedly, the anime lacks some of the heartfelt poignancy found in some of the Ghibli’s better works (ie. Whisper of the Heart, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, etc.), but it’s difficult to fault a studio for occasionally making a movie that ISN'T incredibly ambitious. Like in Porco Rosso, another one of Ghibli’s somewhat overlooked films, the studio doesn’t try for a whole lot of deeper meaning, but manages to be fun anyway.

A primary, very simple joy of this anime can be found in the reappearance of the two characters from Whisper of the Heart. In WotH, The Baron was an immobile figurine, but played an important part in the main character’s spiritual growth. Here, he’s a fully fleshed out character, a lithe and haughty little creature who sparkles with originality. Along with his partner, Muta (also dramatically changed from WotH), they provide an excellent backbone to the show, and prevent the sometimes shaky storyline from ever becoming dull. The main character, in standard Ghibli fashion, is very likeable, albeit somewhat unmemorable.

The entire show is bright and colorful, with the standard attention to detail that Ghibli is so well known for. Character designs (excluding the traditionally normal protagonist) are memorable and quite excellent as a whole. However, compared to Spirited Away (which came directly afterwards) or Princess Mononoke (which preceded this), I was somewhat disappointed. The animation is still good, but just isn't quite as amazing as I've come to unfairly expect from the studio.

Sound as a whole is good; the background music is good at being exactly that, and the voice acting is noticeably above average (unlike Gambit at anidb, I absolutely loved The Baron's voice).

I’d definitely recommend that you watch Whisper of the Heart first; I got a lot of enjoyment out of the cameos, and WotH is quite simply a better film. However, even if you haven’t seen WotH, this movie is still well worth watching; there are plenty of laughs to be had, and The Baron is the coolest feline with a cane that you will ever see in your life, regardless of whether you know where he comes from or not.

Nice movie, bright and cheerful, joyful and entertaining, but unfortunately contains one annoying character which causes hollywood-comedy.

The animation was a bit disappointing due to some subtleties, but it's still good enough to be enjoyable. I did notice a couple of re-used frames in the way the cats moved in the parade, which annoyed me a bit, but overall the animation is good. Still, for a new anime like this, I expected a tad better.
The animation is very bright and cheerful, like most other Ghibli movies.

The voices are done great, but I didn't like Baron's voice that much. He was too harsh and spoke in very short sentences, which didn't appeal to me.
The ending music is lovely though and Muta's voiceactor is marvelous. Haru does a great job as well.

The story is very nice, but lacks a bit every now and then. The idea is nice and they build up the story in a nice way, but the stuff around the Cat King was not good at all. The King was designed as a madman and every time when he got involved, the story became a hollywood comedy with forced (visual or vocal) jokes, which made the latter parts of the movie a bit less enjoyable. Still, the beginning of the movie is very nicely done and very enjoyable.
Still, the story contains a lot of (subtle) vocal jokes which make this movie very entertaining.

Baron was a character who somehow never evolved. He was just the same character at the ending as he was at the start, although he could've gotten a much larger role. I didn't like the way he acted as a some sort of James Bond either, especially with his voice, which seems like he was permanently annoyed by other people's presence.
Muta on the other hand was a great character and even though he hardly develops, he doesn't need that. He's the kind of static character which can turn a boring anime into an interesting one, just because he appears in it.
The King was certainly annoying; he was designed as some sort of madman, which caused all kind of forced comedy around him. Not only does he look misplaced with his chaotic appearance, also his dialogues lack any interest and intelligence.

This movie is definitely worth rewatching, although the later parts aren't as interesting as the beginning. Still, the movie is definitely enjoying, Haru is a nice girl to look at and to have in the movie, and the appearance of Muta is a real boost to watch it again.
On the other hand is the appearance of the King very annoying, since he looks like a madman (his eyes even wander around in different directions) and he doesn't add anything to the movie except for a childish sort of fun. But this anime is very nice, if you can ignore that character a bit.

Neko no Ongashi is a small let down in Studio Ghiblis impressive history of titles. It is one of the weakest titles.

It tells the story of the school girl Haru, who one day saves a cat from being run over by a truck. And suddenly it starts talking...

This anime has everything you need to create a wonderful movie. The setting is nice and it has the budget of a movie. Sadly it does not use any of it.

Surprisingly enough the animation is very average, a huge step down after Mononoke Hime and Sen to Chihiro. The movement itself is mostly fluent, but you can actually see the different colors of moving things vs. static objects. The characters are ok but the whole thing, scenery and all lacks imagination. Everything is just run of the mill.

The sound is doing its job and never stands out. You almost never notice it, so it is ok at setting the mood but nothing else.

The story, as the whole anime, is totally aimed at a child audience. That is true for several Ghibli films, but Neko no Ongaeshi does not offer anything for the adults. Logic has no place here, the story jumps as it sees fit.

Overall I was really disappointed. Over the years Ghibli was like a trademark for outstanding anime. You could always get the latest one and have a ball. Not so with The Cat Returns. Very very childish without offering the imminent sense of wonder and enjoyment a Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbour Totoro offered.

It is really a pity that Baron, a character out of one of my favorite anime of all time, Whisper Of The Heart, was not put to better use. He had a much better story there.

Ok, that was a lot of bitching. The anime is ok, average and you can watch it, as it is quite short. But do NOT expect another Ghibli masterpiece. It is just average entertainment for kids.