Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Jxbinha
I don't think this is Studio Ghibli's best movie, but it is one of those films that is simply impossible to dislike. The entire story has such a light and whimsical atmosphere that I found myself just enjoying the ride without overthinking anything. Haru is also a very fun protagonist because she gets thrown into increasingly absurd situations and somehow just has to accept that this is her life now.
And honestly, who wouldn't want a whole kingdom of cats to become obsessed with them after helping one random cat cross the street? Sounds flattering until they start trying to force you into marrying the prince and turning you into a cat permanently. Suddenly, maybe helping strangers isn't always worth it.
Baron completely steals the movie for me. He has that classic charming mysterious gentl…
Read at the sourceSpider-Mate_MSA
Pussy Make You Lose Control
My cat desperately wishes he was as cool as Baron. Yes, this is my actual rating of the movie, I don't care what anyone says.
After Whisper of the Heart, this was naturally the next Ghibli movie I had to see. This is the least Ghibli movie I've ever seen and the artstyle is a big factor in that. Something about it reminds me of FLCL, which isn't a bad thing cause I love that artstyle. The story is low stakes and very simple, and has some cute moments sprinkled in-between. Just nice Ghibli fun, nothing too deep. It even has a great message about arranged marriages, what's not to love? Some people won't like this and that's alright, some people just have really bad taste.
I like cats, so it's an obvious masterpiece in my eyes. Fight me. And honestly, can you re…
Read at the sourcejay_quelin
It's a basic children's story. Granted, 'My Neighborhood Totoro' is also for kids. However, that movie had a much more compelling story compared to this one. I might have liked this film when I was like 8 or 9? But revisiting this as an adult is a different story. The movie is quite is short, and the plot is relatively simple. It's like the writers took a Roald Dahl childrens book from the library and adapted it into a Ghibli film. In a way, the story reminds me of The Labyrinth (1986) where the MC gets isekai'd into another world and is forced to marry David Bowie (honestly not a bad deal). The only reason why I watched this is because I wanted to know more about the Baron from Whisper of the Heart. The story is neither good nor bad. It's just okay. Your kids might enjoy this.
Read at the sourcemaya_kotori
This is one of those films I practically grew up with. I watched it so many times as a kid that it became a part of my childhood in the same way other people have their favorite fairy tales. Even now, after seeing it several times, it still has that same magical charm that makes me smile every single time. The world of the Cat Kingdom is whimsical and fun, the characters are adorable, and the whole story has this light, adventurous feeling that never gets old. It’s the kind of movie you can rewatch endlessly and it still feels comforting, familiar, and full of heart. For me, it’s a film that carries pure nostalgia. Something I’ll always love no matter how many times I see it.
Read at the sourcecolelouch
This movie definitely had a lot of potential, and maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but I actually enjoyed it more than its predecessor, Whisper of the Heart. I especially loved the colors and atmosphere in the opening as the animation really brings the cat world to life, giving the cats personality, soul, and charm. They behave in such a “human” way that you can instantly match each of them to a real-life personality type, yet they still retain distinct cat-like traits.
The beginning is engaging, and the protagonist, someone with her head in the clouds, is a perfect fit for this kind of fantastical setup. But after the introduction, things start to move too quickly. I really liked the interactions with the Cat Bureau, and the dynamic between Baron, Renaldo, and Toto is great. I would happ…
Read at the sourceelumizu
The Cat Returns begins with a simple act of kindness that spirals into one of the most delightfully absurd adventures imaginable. A girl saves a cat on the street, which sounds like a normal good deed until that cat casually stands up, thanks her politely, and turns out to be royalty. Suddenly, ordinary life becomes a diplomatic incident involving an entire kingdom of cats. The story follows Haru Yoshioka, a somewhat clumsy and uncertain high school girl who often feels out of place in her own life. After rescuing a mysterious cat from traffic, Haru discovers that the feline in question is actually the prince of the Cat Kingdom. What seems like a harmless act quickly escalates when the cats decide to repay the favor in the most extreme way possible: by arranging for Haru to marry the princ…
Read at the sourcebboy_X
Knowing the magnitude and reputation of Ghibli's track record I was expecting something deep, nuanced, and filled with double meanings that’d make a second viewing experience necessary (I actually saw this film twice now and plan on a third at some point soon). But to my surprise this was a very light hearted and fun adventure romp. Think of an Alice in Wonderland, but where everyone is a cat and there’s no scary acid trip montage at the end. The film follows Haru, a highschool student, who one day saves a cat from a speeding car. It just so happens that this cat is a prince and feels indebted to pay her back. Through various mishaps thereafter, Haru finds herself stuck in the land of cats(and a few dogs) about to be wedded to the prince (and or his father) and it’s up to gentleman (fake)…
Read at the sourceNTruths
I should preface this review with the comment that I am generally not a fan of films produced by Studio Ghibli. I find the majority of them to quite lacking when it comes to quality themes, stories and characters. That being said, I somewhat enjoyed this particular movie of theirs.
The movie is about a school girl (Haru) who doesn't quite have her act together and feels a bit unsure of herself. She rescues a cat from being run over and that starts her on a short fantasy based adventure during which she learns to have confidence. Not the most original theme, but a good solid one; and the individual story elements (involving the cats and their kingdom) are reasonably creative.
Now, it is true that the story and characters here are still a bit on the underdeveloped side of things, and I wou…
Read at the sourceUnluckyCat13
Unironically one of the best films I've ever seen in my life. No anime has ever made me this happy. It's like a movie almost custom made for me. It's not perfect, and it's not particularly deep, but I've also never smiled for almost 2 hours straight before. There is nothing to be lost by watching this movie and everything to gain.
If you love cats, and love adventure, let nothing stop you.
This review needs to be longer, but there is nothing else to be said. Anime doesn't need to be a constant stream of sakuga, tits, and violence. This is like much of the joy one captures from Yotsubato, or Chii's Sweet Home, packaged with the adventure of a children's fantasy story. It is different from what you watch seasonally, it is different from what is in theaters, and it is excellent.
Read at the sourcelamaraptor
I had hoped this would be more of a direct follow up to Whispers of the Heart, but it's connection is tenuous at best. Ah, well. It's still a fun movie for what it is.
The story is very like Alice in Wonderland, or similar fairy tales of a young girl getting caught up in a world she doesn't understand. I guess you could even make comparisons to the other Studio Ghibli films with similar stories. It's the kind of story that doesn't need to be complex, doesn't require any deep introspection on the meaning of life or the consequences of humanity on nature or anything like that. It gets away with being simple because it's just so fun. The whimsical character designs and stellar animation this studio is known for can make anything interesting.
Is there a lesson to take away from this movie? I…
Read at the sourceElusiveEllie
I have not seen Whisper of the Heart yet (soon!), but I've seen multiple people say that this is a spin-off of that movie. That may give me a different perspective of this film than many viewers as I don't have the context that film provides.
The Cat Returns was a delightful movie, full of charm and whimsy. For the sadly short 74 minutes, I don't think I was having a bad time at any moment. This movie didn't try to be some deep introspective piece or a giant action-fest, and that was just fine for me! After having watched some disappointing Ghibli movies up to this point (I'm watching in order of MAL ratings), this was the first movie that truly gave me the sense of Ghibli charm that I've grown to love. It's a fantastical experience from start to finish with some truly interesting animat…
Read at the sourcexraaki
This review does *NOT* contain spoilers.
Watched in Sub/Dub: Dub
Story: 4/10
High schooler Haru Yoshioka makes the grave mistake of saving a cat from becoming roadkill. It turns out that this cat happens to be a prince in a magical cat kingdom. To reward her, the King essentially terrorizes Haru and demands that she marry his son (the prince she saved). As she panics, a voice speaks out to Haru and tells her to find the Cat Bureau. The Cat Bureau is made of exactly one suave cat figurine named Baron, a grumpy cat named Renaldo, and a snarky crow named Toto. During their first meeting Haru is kidnapped by the kingdom’s henchcats and the Cat Bureau rushes to her rescue. The story is extremely simple. While I wouldn’t describe the setup as bad, it’s also not particularly attention-getting ei…
Read at the sourceEDOSHINRATENSEI
There’s so many CATS. A student, whose life was not going so well, got stuck in cat’s world and had to get out.
This movie is a sequel to the Ghibli movie Whisper of the Heart because the imaginary cat character from Whisper is in this movie.
The first thing I noticed was the small change in animation. The human characters’ eyes had more attention and resembled more of the modern anime. This didn’t affect the movie really much, but it was a noticeable change.
The story was a lot more simple than other movies, and there wasn’t any strong themes or things like that. It was just a fairly pleasant adventure with some thrills.
Despite this, the main point of the story was about the main girl changing her outlook on life. I felt this aspect was pretty weak, partly because the movie focus…
Read at the sourceKishinEgg
While not the greatest Studio Ghibli film by any measure, I was thoroughly entertained by the creative and strange story of a young girl and her adventures in a world of cats.
Morita has a slightly cruder, more realistic sense of the world and its looniness than does Miyazaki, and you can see where The Cat Returns moves on a different track even as it pays homage to Japan's current animation master.
The story whisks gracefully along with little saunters and pitter-patters of humour. A Princess-and-the-Cat tale that also coolly reflects the arrogant aloofness, suave superciliousness and intriguing independence of man's best-when-convenient friend.
Read at the sourceBarelyink
One of studio Ghibli’s more underrated movies 4 sure!!!!
I really liked all the characters (king was a bit sus tho) and the movie made me so happy. This is definitely a movie to watch to get you into a good mood. also Haru is so kind hearted wtffffff. This is a good movie to watch if you like kiki’s delivery service
Now for the spoilers (only read onward if you’ve seen the movie):
I liked how everything in the movie linked, like with the kitten in the beginning to haru’s friends broken stick (sorry I don’t know what it’s actually called). i’m not even mad at haru for sampling over a cat lmao. Barron was so fine but he only got fine once he was “human sized” and dancing with haru. Before that he was just a cool cat. I live for moo-ta ;) and I really like how he warmed up to haru. I’m a c…
Read at the sourcemingyingli
I watch this movie right after Whispers of the Heart, and I can not express how disappointed I am.
The plotline is not very complex and is relatively easy to follow. Although it is not delivered very well, the message is very meaningful ("be yourself").
The art is distinctive compared to other Studio Ghibli movies, which can be quite refreshing if you're binge-watching the movies.
The worst is probably the characters, especially the protagonists. Some of my favourite characters are the crow and Muta which are only comic reliefs. There's no character development and the characters hardly ever struggle to reach their goal. Throughout the movie, the main fem.character proceeds to be a damsel in distress dreading to be save by her prince Charming. You can hardly feel any chemistry betwee…
Read at the sourceShift3r
Today, seeing some anime films on netflix, I remembered again a film I saw when I was a kid that I watched and re-watched so many times, and have a thought about finding it. But I don't really remebered so many things, the only things that were comming to my head was a cat (hella cool)and a girl, that I dont had even a vage mental image for, I just knew she existed and was the protagonist. After some minutes of dumb search on google, I saw the title "The cat returns", it wasn't familiar, but when I saw the cat, with a white cool swit and a staff, it clicked in my mind some scenes of this and maan, FINALLY after fucking 7 years don't watching it and don't knowing if this existed or was just fucking strange dream, I found the film.
Read at the sourceDoYouKnowDomino
This is my first review and I’m not sure how to properly write these so please keep that in mind. This may also come from my nostalgia as, being an early 2000s kid with anime easily being available to buy in my hometown, I grew up watching this and many of Studio Ghibli films.
Many people will say this is one of the weakest Ghibli features, which I quite frankly can’t argue against, but that may be due to the high expectations they have of this film. Trust me, if you forget the masterpieces this studio has made you might enjoy it more. You shouldn’t go into this film having high expectations. But you should still give it a chance as it is probably the most underrated Ghibli entry.
I personally like to say this is one of their cutest films. Just the whole idea of the cats having their own…
Read at the sourceAllyrian
This Studio Ghibli movie is very unlike the other movies Ghibli has produced, but this is not a bad thing! By the description, it may seem like a very strange movie (a girl being taken off to a cat kingdom to marry a cat prince?!), but if you give it a chance, The Cat Returns is a VERY cute film! I have not seen its counterpart, Whisper of the Heart, so I cannot make any judgements on this film according to its predecessor.
Story: (7/10)
The story stands out among the other Ghibli films as one of the weirder ones, but they pull it off very well! It is not overly complex; one could argue that the story is actually very simple, but unless you strictly prefer films with complicated settings and storylines I would say this does not stop it from being an enjoyable movie to watch. It has a mean…
Read at the source11chadwick
The Cat Returns is a mediocre and forgettable expansion of the fictional world created in Whisper of the Heart. The story told here feels similar to Alice in Wonderland without all the iconic distractions along the way, or Labyrinth but without David Bowie. The introduction of the movie was very cool how the cats lead the girl into the cat world and she meets the cat baron, but from there on it becomes boring. The style of this movie is different to the usual Ghibli style and the characters look strange. This is most similar to a Mamoru Hosoda movie, a director I hate, so I find it hard to appreciate anything from The Cat Returns.
Instead of a weak attempt at a spin-off, a creative new idea should have been animated. This is like a B-movie of Ghibli.
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