Synopsis
Young Haru rescues a cat from being run over, but soon learns it's no ordinary feline; it happens to be the Prince of the Cats.
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Cast
- Chizuru IkewakiHaru Yoshioka (voice)
- Yoshihiko HakamadaBaron (voice)
- Aki MaedaYuki (voice)
- Takayuki YamadaLune (voice)
- Hitomi SatoHiromi (voice)
- Kenta SatoiNatori (voice)
- Mari HamadaNatoru (voice)
- Tetsu WatanabeMuta (voice)
- Yousuke SaitoToto (voice)
- Kumiko OkaeHaru's Mother (voice)
Recommendations
- 91
IndieWire
The Cat Returns is an excellent companion to Spirited Away, as they are both Alice-in-Wonderland-like excursions into bizarre worlds with their own rules and logic. Both have female leads who, unlike dear Alice, experience definite arcs of character and capability. The Cat Returns is a lighter film overall, delivering belly laughs. - 88
TV Guide Magazine
Director Morita does an exemplary job of bringing a Japanese graphic novel to the screen. - 88
Chicago Reader
It's a masterful succession of images, tickling the viewer's curiosity with the characters' curiosity. The fantasy emerges little by little—through hesitant, feline steps, if you will—until the floodgates open. - 80
CineVue
As with much of Miyazaki’s own output, the film offers a winning heroine and a joyful dip into Japanese folklore, even if it does not stand up against the studios most celebrated works. - 80
Variety
Animated by Hiroyuki Morita -- a protege of Hayao Miyazaki -- story draws more from fairy tales than the eerie transformative productions by Studio Ghibli. Result is catchy entertainment for kids and adults. - 80
IGN
This movie exhibits a craft that belies Morita's inexperience as a director. He hasn't made a poetic film in the manner of his Ghibli mentors, but it's actually more polished in some ways than much of their work, especially in terms of movement. - 75
The A.V. Club
The results are disappointingly conventional for a Ghibli film—the film is good-hearted, energetic, and full of Ghibli's characteristically beautiful hand-rendered animation, but it's also lightweight and hyper, with none of Miyazaki's more resonant themes. - 70
Time Out
Another enjoyable fantasy adventure from Studio Ghibli, the animation house that gave us the delightful Spirited Away. This is not in the same class, but lovers of Miyazaki’s masterpiece will recognise the same worldview – essentially that of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories refracted through a modern Japanese sensibility.
