Ranking All Studio Ghibli Movies

13

THE CAT RETURNS

An extremely underrated, yet imaginative production that revolves around cats.

After your average Japanese school girl, Haru, prevents the death of a talking prince cat, she is forced to marry him. Not wanting this to be her final outcome, she befriends The Baron and Muta (from Whisper if the Heart) and ultimately help her make her great escape.

Another anime movie barley anyone talks about, but the characters and animation is adorable and strays from Ghibli's usual approach to character design. This is not at all a bad thing, but when I saw pictures of Haru before watching the actual film, I thought she looked kind of weird not gonna lie.

The Cat Returns has a shorter run time than most Studio Ghibli films, if not, the shortest. Thus, you are presented with a short, sweet story, which sometimes is all you really need. The plot may be simple but it was very well executed.

A very, very, VERY little issue I have with this movie is that The Baron and Muta are reintroduced. Hear me out here, I loved how they revisited two loveable characters from another amazing movie, but I don't understand why it had to be them.

The film could be considered the unofficial sequel to Whisper of the Heart, but if I really wanted a sequel for the film, which I obviously do, it would have to be about Seiji and Shizuku's life together after Seiji confessed that he loved her.

I just feel it would've made no difference if they simply created two new characters, but remember this all just my opinion. I guess if you haven't yet watched Whisper of the Heart it wouldn't be an issue at all but I did and it may have a reason or two as to why this film got pushed down the list a little.

Apart from this extremely minor problem, the film is fantastic.

I really wish I had more to say about this movie, however I cannot think of anything else to bring up apart from watch the movie. You'll enjoy it, believe me.