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The Cat Returns

Neko no ongaeshi

2002

Hiroyuki Morita

Animation

6.3

5,677

Animation. Fantasy. Adventure. Kids. Comedy Haru is a young girl who rescues a mysterious cat from traffic and soon finds herself the unwelcome recipient of gifts and favors from the King of the Cats, who also wants her to marry his son, Prince Lune.

	Media	Author	Review
		Lisa Nesselson Variety	"[It] is full of narrative surprises, danger and humor (...) Result is catchy entertainment for kids and adults"
		Tasha Robinson AV Club	"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"
		Ben Sachs Chicago Reader	"Though it may seem minor compared to Miyazaki's 'Princess Mononoke' (1997) or 'Spirited Away' (2001), its fictional world is fully and imaginatively realized"
		Anna Smith Empire	"There's little tension or opportunity for emotional involvement in the brief story, and despite competent animation the cats are rarely anthropomorphised to good comic effect (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Sergio Non IGN	"'The Cat Returns' feels more contemporary than other Ghibli productions without losing the fundamentally high quality that sets the studio's work apart from other anime."
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"The story has a moderate charm, but is less baroque and ambitious than many Japanese animations (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Time Out	"Morita has gratifyingly retained Ghibli’s defining characteristics: the superb graphic design (...) the imaginative wonder and flourishes, the rigorous but unpreachy moral perspective and the embedding of an enriching spiritual dimension"

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