The Cat Returns: The Complete Riffs

Continuing our series of "Ghibli Riffs," let's take a short look at the 2002 animated feature The Cat Returns (Neko no Ongaeshi), which was directed by Hiroyuki Morita and based on an idea by Hayao Miyazaki to feature a movie about the Baron character from Mimi wo Sumaseba. There are not many riffs in this movie, only a few, but they're very easy to spot.

Let's take a look at the riffs in The Cat Returns:

1. The Baron's house, hidden away in a secret village in urban Tokyo, is actually the same house as used by Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Hound.

2. Haru chases the fat cat through an array of maze-like alleys, porches and rooftops in the city en route to The Baron. This sequence is an impressive urban spin on Mei's journey through the forest in My Neighbor Totoro (1988).

3. The image of the tunnel into another realm is a common Jungian archetype in fairy tales that symbolizes a journey into the unconscious. Hayao Miyazaki employed this image in Spirited Away and Ponyo.

4. I don't know for certain if this gag during the castle chase was intentionally riffing Animal Treasure Island (1971), but I was immediately reminded of a nearly identical scene from the Toei Doga classic. Hayao Miyazaki, as we all know, was a key animator and "idea man" for that movie. Again, I'm not sure if this fits the description of a "riff," but it looks close enough, so we'll add it to the total.

5. The entire chase sequence around a giant tower is another throwback to a Toei Doga classic, this time Puss in Boots (1969), which is basically one large Tom & Jerry comedy routine. This shot, in particular, is very close to a shot where the tower in Puss in Boots was knocked down. Hayao Miyazaki directly quoted a shot from that sequence in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.

6. Finally, this bit at the end made me groan a little when I saw it. It's a direct riff on the climax of Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, particularly the 1984 animated film (although the graphic novel also includes it). It's a cheap bit of deus ex machina that worked for Miyazaki because it was employed as a slight-of-hand trick, distracting you from the fact that none of the movie's major conflicts are ever resolved. In The Cat Returns, it just feels like a cheap gimmick. Oh, well.


Overall, The Cat Returns has its share of charms, and it's nice to see the production team pay homage to a few Miyazaki classics along the way.

Photos: The Cat Returns (the Favor)

Tomorrow is your last chance to see Studio Ghibli's 2002 feature film The Cat Returns in theaters as part of Studio Ghibli Fest 2018. Be sure to grab your tickets if you haven't already done so.

The Japanese title for this movie, Neko no Ongaeshi, translates as "The Cat Returns the Favor." I always enjoyed that title, it has a nice literary flair and it flows nicely. Most US movie titles are pre-packaged and sanitized for your protection by teams of lawyers and marketing weasels, resulting in something bland and boring and far too short. But Americans have notoriously short attention spans, which probably explains...something. What were we talking about?

Here are some photos from this movie. It's not one of my favorites, it feels very much like a made-for-TV or OVA production. I much preferred Ghiblies Episode 2, which played alongside The Cat Returns on a double bill during its Japanese theatrical release. That short film had all the experienced artists, while this main feature was staffed by the younger rookies. Joined together, they make a nice pair and a nice breather after the astonishing roller coaster ride that was Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away in 2001. Viewed on its own, however, this movie lacks something. It feels unfinished and needs either another script revision or another twenty minutes' running time.

But, hey, this movie has cats. That has to count for something.

GKIDS Ghibli Fest 2018 Schedule

US animation movie distributor GKIDS returns once again with Ghibli Fest 2018, a year-long retrospective of Studio Ghibli movies in theaters. Films will be shown in both English (dub) and Japanese (subtitled) soundtracks and will be screened at theaters nationwide, courtesy of Fathom Events.

To purchase tickets online, visit the Fathom Events website.

Here is the official schedule for Ghibli Fest 2018. Be sure to bookmark this post for future references:

Ponyo
March 25, 26 and 28

The Cat Returns
April 22, 23 and 25

Porco Rosso
May 20, 21 and 23

Pom Poko
June 17, 18 and 20

Princess Mononoke
July 22, 23 and 25

Grave of the Fireflies
August 12, 13 and 15

My Neighbor Totoro
September 30, October 1 and 3

Spirited Away
October 28, 29 and 30

Castle in the Sky
November 18, 19 and 20

New GKIDS Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray: Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Cat Returns, Tales From Earthsea

At long last, all of the Studio Ghibli feature films are now available on home video in North America. On January 16, GKIDS released My Neighbors the Yamadas and The Cat Returns; on February 6, they released Pom Poko and Tales From Earthsea. The collection is now finally, thankfully complete.

When I began writing about Studio Ghibli in 2003, only a handful of movie titles were available on home video, either on VHS or the new DVD format. Even with an Academy Award for Spirited Away and the support of Disney, new catalog releases remained elusive. For many die-hard fans, it seemed as though expensive importing would be the only option for building a complete Ghibli movie collection.

Now, under the direction of GKIDS, that journey has finally reached its end. We have everything! We have all the Ghibli features from Nausicaa to The Wind Rises. We have Omohide Poro Poro and Umi Ga Kikoeru. We even have Yoshiyuki Momose's excellent 2002 short film Ghiblies Episode 2, which I honestly never believed we would see on our shores.

Like the other catalog titles in their reissue campaign, GKIDS has provided proper English subtitles to all four movies (Pom Poko suffered from a "dubtitle" track on the Disney Blu-Ray). They have crafted new cover and slipcase designs, and offered new bonus features where possible.

Of these newest reissues, My Neighbors the Yamadas is my clear favorite. I absolutely loved this movie ever since I first saw the Japanese DVD over a decade ago. Its zen watercolor design is a revelation, and the loose episodic structure felt like a template for any future comic strip adaptation, and reminded me a lot of the classic Peanuts cartoons. Years later, I was fortunate enough to see the movie on the big screen, and it was a visual revelation, with colors and audio that absolutely stomped the limited DVD format.

Yamadas has never been a popular movie among Ghibli fans. I've never understood why this was so. Perhaps it's just too different, too quiet, too reflective, too dependent on comic strip humor, too dependent on its original Japanese soundtrack (Disney's dub cast tries hard, especially Jim Belushi, but it just doesn't work in English). Hopefully, the new Blu-Ray release will win over the fans. This movie looks and sounds fantastic.

I'm also looking forward to picking up the other three titles. Pom Poko is another Paku-san near-masterpiece that has been strangely overlooked by Western fans. It's a very dense and complex movie, one that feels like three or four smaller movies smashed together in a giant Katamari ball of happiness and gloom. I enjoy those kind of movies. They play out like classic rock double albums, where indulgence and sprawl are celebrated as virtues. There isn't a double album that couldn't have been made "better" by trimming the fat and creating the perfect single album. But that would be missing the point, and wouldn't be nearly as interesting. Pom Poko needs its weirdness, its cultural mythology, its comedy and tragedy and nods to documentary films.

The Cat Returns and Tales From Earthsea are considered minor works in the Studio Ghibli canon, but these are rare instances of new and inexperienced directors trying to find themselves and test their limits. Both of them are probably better than you remember, and will benefit greatly from the Blu-Ray format, with richer colors, cleaner textures and more involving audio. Besides, Cat Returns has cats, which will be a hit with social media addicts, and Earthsea involves Goro Miyazaki openly fantasizing about murdering his father and being cursed to live within his endless shadow. I'll take that over talking emoji poop and Poochie wannabes any day.

So that's the end of the long journey. You now have all the Studio Ghibli features. Grave of the Fireflies remains under Sentai Filmworks, and The Wind Rises remains under Disney. Eventually, GKIDS will get the rights to those titles as well, and put the entire catalog under one roof. Heck, maybe they'll really surprise us and announce they're importing Ghibli ga Ippai Special: Short Short, or turn their gaze to the vast pre-Ghibli eras of Miyazaki and Takahata. At this point, anything is possible.

Spirited Away, The Cat Returns Blu-Ray in USA June 16

Following up on our recent post announcing the arrival of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away and The Cat Returns on Blu-Ray, Disney has announced the release date is June 16, 2015. Pre-orders are now available at Amazon and most major retailers.

Be sure to get your orders in early, fans. While most so-called "fans" won't touch any of the recent Ghibli films (an unfortunate fact that irritates me to no end), they will turn out for this. Heck, for most Miyazaki fans, Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli, the only one that matters. It also helps that the film's only DVD was released a dozen years ago (no remastered reissues diluting the money pool).

I'm curious to see if The Cat Returns sells by virtue of hanging on Spirited Away's coat tails. It might be wise for retailers to stock up on their Ghibli DVDs and BDs, just so see what else can sell. You won't get such an opportunity again.

As for Isao Takahata's wonderfully funny, charming and inventive My Neighbors the Yamadas...I guess we'll have to import the Blu-Ray. It doesn't appear that Disney ever intends to release it. This is their final "contractural obligation" release for Studio Ghibli. After June 16, the Ghibli-Disney relationship in the US is finished. It will be left to GKids Films (and smaller publishers like Discotek Media and Sentai Filmworks) to carry the flame.

Disney Announces New Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray Titles

Disney has announced their final wave of Studio Ghibli titles on Blu-Ray Disc: Spirited Away and The Cat Returns. No release date has yet been announced, but we can rest assured that both titles will be available in the coming weeks.

With this announcemnet, Disney will complete their collection of Studio Ghibli feature films Blu-Ray. However, there is one glaring exception: My Neighbors the Yamadas, Isao Takahata's 1999 animated feature. Yamada-kun was one of the first Ghibli BDs released in Japan, and its endless delays on American shores puzzled fans. Today, with Disney's announcement, and given their history of grouping together several titles in a "release wave," it appears that Yamada-kun will not be released on BD at all.

As always, the relationship between Ghibli Freaks and Disney has been a challenging one, to say the least. Critics will point to endless foot-dragging, painfully slow release schedules, and an uneven track record in the quality of English language dub scripts. But there is much to celebrate: a decade ago, none of these movies were available in the US, apart from My Neighbor Totoro, which was held by Fox and available in a dub-only, pan-and-scan DVD. Today, nearly all of the Ghibli features are available at any major retailer.

Is it puzzling and a little frustrating that My Neighbors the Yamadas won't be released? Of course. But I don't believe Disney is doing so out of spite. Okay, maybe just a little. Their relationship with Hayao Miyazaki was also, shall we say, challenging. I don't think they ever got over the "Godfather"-esque incident with the samurai sword in Harvey Weinstein's mailbox. But I'm thankful for what we do have. And Miyazaki-san has two Academy Awards.

And, of course, it goes without saying that I would love to see Ghiblies Episode 2 included with The Cat Returns. The Yoshiyuki Momose-directed anthology short film played in Japan on a double bill with Neko no Ongaeshi ("The Cat Returns the Favor"), and the two make a fine pair. Left on its own, the main feature is a bit lacking. Oh, well, another reason to add the Japanese import to your library.

Apart from Disney, the following Studio Ghibli movies are available on Blu-Ray: Grave of the Fireflies, from Sentai Filmworks; From Up on Poppy Hill, The Story of the Princess Kaguya, and When Marnie Was There, from GKids Films. Omohide Poro Poro and Umi ga Kikoeru remain unlicensed, and unlikely to ever see a US release. Ghibli's many short films, and particularly the 2005 DVD Ghibli ga Ippai Special: Short Short, have never been released outside Japan.

Whatever Became of Hiroyuki Morita?

"Whatever became of Hiroyuki Morita?" I asked myself this question while skimming through the Ghibli Blog's archives in preparation for an upcoming book about Studio Ghibli. He had built a solid career as an animator on many of Japan's biggest anime classics of the 1980s and 1990s - Akira, Roujin Z, Junkers Come Here, Memories, Spriggan, Perfect Blue, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. He also worked as an animator on the Studio Ghibli features Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and Koro's Day Out. He was then given a chance to direct the 2002 feature film, The Cat Returns the Favor (Neko no Ongaeshi), was given a lukewarm welcome, and then all but disappeared, leaving Ghibli after working as an animator on Tales From Earthsea.

I checked the Wikipedia page to see what Morita has been doing this past decade. It's pretty slim. He was once considered a candidate for a post-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli. But it's like a promising draft pick, hot on the heels of a successful college career, who then becomes overwhelmed in the professional leagues.

I am reminded just how difficult this business of making movies and animation can be. One must marshall many talents and skills, determination and hard work is crucial, but oftentimes so is luck and good fortune. A skilled animator does not guarantee success as a director. There's no question that Morita has been extremely successful as an animator. But for whatever reasons, that career could not raise The Cat Returns above mediocrity. The movie has its charms, and it has moments that could have built to greatness. But it mostly languishes in cartoon cliches and dull plotting. I always find myself preferring Yoshiyuki's Momose's Ghiblies Episode 2, and for Studio Ghibli, Morita's production is a disappointment on the heels of the mega-blockbuster, Spirited Away.

I am also reminded just how difficult this transition was for Hayao Miyazaki in the late 1970s, as he struggled to establish himself as a "solo artist" after years as part of the vaunted Takahata/Miyazaki duo. He had the skill set, definitely. He had the talent, absolutely. It's astonishing that animated works like Future Boy Conan and The Castle of Cagliostro failed to find an audience in their day. And, yet, that's exactly what happened. I often feel that those struggles, and that difficult period, helped shape Miyazaki's 1984 animated film, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, into the career paradigm shift it was. He changed as an artist, and it gave his career its second wind.

There's a reason why Ghibli has struggled for twenty years to groom its next generation of directors and storytellers. Such talent is rare. And finding talent able to withstand the damands of a Hayao Miyazaki (an emperor who has chased out many suitors) is a tremendous challenge.  I can't imagine how difficult it has been for those trying to earn a turn in the director's chair.  But it has always been thus. Filmmaking is a very difficult business.

As for Hiroyuki Morita, his latest work as director is the 2007 anime TV series Bokurano: Ours, based on the manga comic. Discotek Media announced last fall that they have picked up the series, and a DVD release is scheduled for 2015. It will be interesting to see how Morita has grown, and just what has become of him.

Minneapolis Studio Ghibli Film Festival - Closing Days

The two-week Studio Ghibli Film Festival in Minneapolis closes out this Thursday, and we are playing the final four films: The Cat Returns and Mimi wo Sumaseba on Monday and Tuesday, Princess Mononoke and Omohide Poro Poro on Wednesday and Thursday.  It's a terrific lineup and we wish we could be there every day this week.  Sadly, we're down to our final two free passes, and we have to save our money for the move to a new apartment this weekend.

Marcee and I will be there on Thursday for the final showing of Omohide Poro Poro, Isao Takahata's 1991 masterpiece.  I thought it would be right for Ghibli Blog to be there at the very end.

Of the final four movies, The Cat Returns is the weakest of the bunch, and it's a good example of Ghibli's struggles to find new directors to follow Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.  It does have its charms, but when you can also watch Yoshifumi Kondo's Mimi, why bother?  One is a decent movie best served by home video (and best paired with the short film, Ghiblies Episode 2); the other is an animation masterpiece by a skilled veteran who built a long career with the Miya-san and Paku-san.  I really wish I had money hidden under my couch cushions!

Princess Mononoke was Miyazaki's blockbuster smash that toppled E.T. from the Japanese all-time box office and brought international acclaim to Studio Ghibli.  It also sparked a notorious battle between Miya-san and Disney, and especially the Weinsteins at Miramax.  Now Lionsgate owns the home video rights, and it's questionable that we'll see Mononoke on US home video again.  If you get a chance to see this movie in a theater...run.  Don't walk, run.  You may not get another chance for a long time.

Omohide Poro Poro is the perfect closer, a style and genre of filmmaking that literally does not exist in the West.  Feature animation in the service of a weepy character melodrama?  With a pop culture nostalgia that rivals Quentin Tarantino?  And one that addresses contemporary Japan (ca.1991) as its vaunted bubble economy burst?  Somewhere in the mix lies a popular Japanese manga about a woman's childhood in the 1960s, and a modern quasi-documentary about organic farming and cultivation of safflowers for dyes and cosmetics.  Yes, this is a very deep movie.  Yasujiro Ozu would have been amazed.

Much thanks to everyone who attended GKids' Studio Ghibli Film Festival here in Minneapolis.  It's been terrific, and I really do wish it could have lasted longer.  I needed more time to save up more money!  Please come back!

Movie Review: The Cat Returns (2002)

Haru is a typical high school student, good natured, a little clumsy, always sleeping past the snooze alarm and rushing to school late. One day, while walking home with her best friend, talking about boys, she spots a cat carrying a small package. The cat crosses the street and unwittingly into the path of a truck; Haru quickly charges into traffic and scoops the cat from danger. She crashes into a sidewalk bush, and as she recovers, the cat slowly rises on his hind legs, and begins to talk.

So starts an enjoyable little romp called The Cat Returns, Studio Ghibli’s 2002 release. The story is something of a very loose spin-off of the great Whisper of the Heart, featuring two reoccurring characters: Muta, a very smug and very fat cat, and The Baron, a cat statue that comes to life every evening. The script is based on a story by Aoi Hiiragi called Neko no Danshaku, Baron. Hiiragi is also the author of the original Whisper manga, but this is a very different story. Instead of a romantic coming-of-age tale, The Cat Returns is a more typical fantasy in a somewhat generic style.

The by-the-numbers feel of this film is understandable; this is director Hiroyuki Morita’s first feature film. He’s a young filmmaker, having worked as a key animator on My Neighbors the Yamadas and an in-between animator for Kiki’s Delivery Service. The Cat Returns is a project that was handed down by Hiyao Miyazaki to the studio’s younger artists, and was largely left alone by the old masters. That leaves Morita, and scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, free to test his wings on a lower-priority picture; goodness knows it would be cruel to expect him to fully follow-up Spirited Away, the highest-grossing Japanese film in history.

He does a fairly decent job. The story involves Haru, who is hounded by cats who wish to drag her off to the mythical Kingdom of Cats, and meet the King who wishes to marry her to his son (the cat she rescued). Haru entertains flights of fancy, but ultimately resists, and seeks the help of Muta and The Baron. Hilarity ensues. Haru is taken to the Kingdom of Cats and slowly becomes one herself. More hilarity ensues. There are some chases, some witty dialog, some cheap gags, and the typical believe-in-yourself moral lesson before the final escape back home.

The backgrounds and artwork are wonderfully bright and detailed, like every other Ghibli release; the movie is almost split down the middle, between the crowded city and the ancient, rural cat kingdom. I also really enjoy the design of the characters themselves. Haru isn’t drawn in the same style as Miyazaki or Takahata, but is a little different. There’s a sharper look that’s lighter on the details (much in the style of Japanese watercolors), but bright, sharp, urban. I’d like to see more animation in this style; everything’s just unique enough to stand out.

Still, after Spirited Away (just about the best-looking animated movie ever made), Cat Returns feels a little cheaper and lower-budget, almost direct-to-video. Animation is a touch choppier than you’d expect, especially later in the cat kingdom. There are touches of computer animation here and there, but it’s all a little disjointed.

The Cat Returns is clearly inferior to the classics in the Ghibli canon, and I've discovered that my enthusiasm for it has waned over the past year. This picture just isn't about anything, except talking cats and a load of cartoon gags that have been done before in a thousand Disney cartoons. The shots cut just a moment too soon, the story’s two halves seem stitched together, seemingly important plot points are just dropped, and there are a couple sequences practically ripped off of Whisper of the Heart and Nausicaa. You just imagine to yourself the possibilities, if only the script went through one more rewrite.

I don’t wish to be overtly critical, but offer advice. I’m eager to see how this young director progresses. He is, after all, working underneath two of cinema’s master filmmakers (and both Miyazaki and Takahata didn't unleash their genius until after many years in the business). You can almost imagine Morita working with a checklist on this movie. Stunning backgrounds? Check. Confident, strong-willed heroine? Check. Clever chase scenes? Check. Quiet moments? Check. Subtle character movements, stumbles, and double-takes littered about? Check. Insanely catchy song at the movie’s end that stays in your head for days? Check and check.

The Cat Returns proved a success at the Japanese box office (it was the top-grossing film of 2002), and I suspect it would be successful in America. It has cats, and the lightweight, straight-to-video feel should make it easily accessible in the States. Goodness knows parents will be more than happy with the DVD, since Totoro will seemingly never be released in this country.

But that's another schpiel entirely.

Photos - The Cat Returns

I haven't posted anything from Ghibli's 2002 movie The Cat Returns the Favor (Neko no Ongaeshi), so here are some terrific hi-resolution screenshots to admire.

Every time I see these hi-res photos from Studio Ghibli, I go on and on about how perfect this will all look on Blu-Ray. It's becoming a habit of mine, but the truth is that animation has suffered greatly on the DVD format. It just was never large enough to encode all the material without heavy artifacing, pixelation, and edge enhancement. Then I remember that DVD was a step above VHS. Good heavens, how did I ever tolerate movies on videotape?

The Cat Returns may be regarded as a minor film in the Studio Ghibli canon, but it's really great and entertaining. It just happens to fall through the cracks, that's all. I thought cat lovers would be all over this one.

The Cat Returns - House Foods Ad

Publicite House Shokuhin "Le Royaume des chats"
Uploaded by tetsukyoushin

I'm not entirely sure the reasons for the collaborations between Studio Ghibli and House Foods. We've seen the studio's commercials for House from Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Momose. Now here is an ad that ties in with Ghibli's 2002 film Neko no Ongasehi, The Cat Returns.

My affection for Ghibli leans towards their naturalist side, so it's always a thrill to see more work that follows in that vein. It's strange, isn't it, that in the year 2009, the idea of animation that captures everyday life seems so novel, so unusual?

Visually, this is one of the more ambitious Ghibli shorts, certainly matching the look and style of The Cat Returns, and is one of the highlights on the Short Short DVD. The art direction and animation is superb, as you'd expect, and we are also treated to that wonderfully catchy song from the movie. All in all, a great little showcase for the Ghibli artists.

Poster - The Cat Returns the Favor (Japan)

One of the great things I love about the Ghibli films are their terrific posters. These are created by the studio themselves, and not some faceless marketing team hired by the suits. The artists remain in complete control of everything - the production, the trailers, and the posters.

For the last few years, Ghibli's Japanese DVDs were also adorned with their movie posters, which just looks terrific. Here is a perfect example, from Ghibli's 2002 production Neko no Ongaeshi, which translates as, "The Cat Returns the Favor." We know it better by its shorter international title, The Cat Returns.

Even though Cat Returns remains one of the minor studio works, I think the poster is just superb. It's one of my favorite Studio Ghibli posters, in fact. Now compare this to the Disney DVD that's available here in North America. It's probably not a fair comparison, since one is a full-scale movie poster, and the other is a cover for a direct-to-video DVD. There are different markets and different concerns. But it's not secret that Hollywood has lost the knack of making classic movie posters. Now it's all so bland and lifeless. It all just screams, "Photoshop."

Ah, well. You can still find good movie posters here and there, usually for the indie films. I still wish I had my Waking Life poster. I scored that from the pre-release screening here in Minneapolis back in 2001, and it remains a favorite movie to this day.

Reconsidering The Cat Returns

One of my recent DVD purchases was the Japanese R2 DVD of Neko no Ongaeshi, "The Cat Returns the Favor," or simply The Cat Returns, as it's known here. I bought this largely to fill out my Studio Ghibli collection and not much else. This was a film that I enjoyed, but never really loved, and I've discovered that my enthusiasm for it waned over time. Last year's DVD release in the US did little to change my mind, and I assumed that would be the end of it.

So perhaps it's just being a little older and a little wiser, or having a greater understanding of cinema and Japanese animation; maybe it's the 21" widescreen monitor (my old monitor was 15" square). Whatever. Mere excuses. The point is that now I'm finally able to realize what many others already know: The Cat Returns is a really good movie.

The script by Reiko Yoshida was taken from Aoi Hiiragi's graphic novel (she also wrote the original Mimi wo Sumaseba comic), and it likewise has that loose, episodic feel that's common with a lot of Ghibli films. The misadventures of Haru, a 17-year-old student who rescues a cat from a runaway truck, dips and veers and changes gears several times before finishing. It begins in Tokyo as a realist teenage drama, in the vein of Mimi, aka Whisper of the Heart, focusing on Haru stumbling through her day. There's even a pretty boy she has eyes for, in the tradition of Japanese romance comics, though, oddly enough, nothing ever comes from it. Only a couple wistful glances.

It's well known that the idea for The Cat Returns came from Miyazaki, who wanted to spin off the two cat characters from Mimi into their own movie, and it's in the second act when they make their appearance. The picture itself shifts gears to meet them, visualizing a world where cats walk on hind legs, talk, and organize parades whenever people aren't looking. The rescued cat is revealed to be a prince of the Cat Kingdom (how un-American!), and the King, himself something of an oddball, makes it his business to shower his favors upon poor Haru.

It's these scenes, when the magical world of the cats meet the everyday world, that I like the best. I enjoyed them on my first viewing, too, and felt slighted when the story wouldn't stay put, just where it was. The endless series of surprises - those tall cattails, the locker room full of lacrosse sticks, the endless assault of catnip-crazed cats, and the live mice that bring everything crashing down at once - is the highpoint of the movie.

Finally, Haru is introduced to Muta and The Baron, who seems decked out like a pocket-sized Sherlock Hound in his tiny Victorian home. End of part two. An army of cats from the kingdom wisk away with Haru, and sets off one of those speedy, well-paced chase scenes that's practically required in Ghibli films. It's the kind of crowd-pleaser that audiences still clamoring for Spirited Away would enjoy, and even if it's a sop to the masses, so what? It works, and goodness knows how many movie directors can't construct a decent action scene.

Parts three and four take place in the Kingdom of Cats, which, if nothing else, is a beautiful place to visit. The endless green meadows, the clay-and-rock huts, and the tall patches of cattails (always with the cat puns, oy!), all drawn with that fresh, painterly look that Ghibli's artists do so well. It's only one scene set outside, and that's a shame, because it's much better to look at than the king's dreary, run-down castle. Surely, a Kingdom of Cats would rather play in the grass than sit in some boring throne room, or bumble through that Rube Goldberg maze en route to the tower leading back home.

Of course, if that happened, then we wouldn't be able to go through all the goofy fight and chase scenes, a very thinly-veiled homage to the greatest of all anime comedy bits, the castle seige from Puss in Boots. Small surprise that Miyazaki (along with Yasuo Otsuka) was responsible for that; small wonder that he and everybody else have been robbing it blind for the last 40 years.

Again, I appreciate this second half much more now that I know what's being quoted, even I still have to heckle the screen for some of the more shameless theft. Cough, ripoff! At least Haru doesn't get dropped into the middle of a cattle stampede. I'm also not much of a fan for the you-should-just-be-yourself moral preaching; it's just the sort of dewey schmaltz I expect from Disney. You'd think a movie loosely spun off of Mimi, which thouroughly demolished such dishonest cliches, would do better to avoid this.

So The Cat Retuns isn't a perfect movie, or even a modern classic. Big deal. It's an impressive work for a first-time director, Hiroyuki Morita, who was still in his early '30s. He clearly has room to growto better understand editing and rhythm, and he needs to master comic timing. That only comes from experience, and endless watching of the Marx Brothers and Bugs Bunny cartoons. There's a lot of talent at Ghibli, including a number of people who have experience directing short films, so I honestly don't know where Morita fits in 2006. I hope he has the chance to direct another feature, although I cannot expect him to carry the studio on his shoulders. He's not an A-list director yet, but he someday could be.

Here's what I like best about this movie: the artwork is terrific, the character designs are sharp, the pop song at the end is irresistably catchy, and the length, 75 minutes, is just about right. Its patchwork quality would come undone if forced to stretch to a full two hours. It's perfectly suited for its double bill with Ghiblies Episode 2; they really compliment each other, and it's a damn shame that Disney would seperate them for the US DVD. But I'll have plenty of time to rant about that another time.