Today we watched The Cat Returns, a shorter Ghibli film neither written nor directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata, a first for both of us. I guess I knew intellectually that there were other filmmakers at Ghibli Studios, but I was still surprised to see neither man attached to this film.
This is a fun adventure movie set mostly in a magical world. There are many shades of Alice in Wonderland here as Haru finds herself in the Cat Kingdom because she was a brave girl who saved a cat about to be run over. That cat turned out to be the Cat Prince Lune, and his father the Cat King wants to show his gratitude in a myriad of ways, whether Haru likes it or not.
I won't discuss the plot too much because, like I said, this is a short film and you should all watch it for yourselves. I didn't know this when I started watching, but apparently this film is a sequel of sorts (or maybe a spin-off is a better word) to an earlier Ghibli film called Whisper of the Heart (neither the girl nor I have seen that one either). The Cat Returns features at least two characters (maybe three) from that earlier film, but not in any way that requires a watching of Whisper of the Heart (though now having read a bit about its plot, this may be tomorrow's Ghibli).
But yeah, this is a good movie. It's fun, it's funny, and it's short. I think kids would enjoy it a lot. All of the characters in the film are either funny or brave or both. There are no real villains, and everything is well resolved by the end.
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