![]() ![]() A more modern sensibility inhabits The Cat Returns when compared to other Ghibli works. Though Elwes provides the English voice, a few decades ago it could easily have been David Niven. Desperate to avoid a life of catnip and mice, Haru enlists help from the almost-Lilliputian Cat Bureau, led by the Baron and including the raven Toto (Elliott Gould) and a fat feline, Muta (Peter Boyle), also a returning character from Whisper.Ĭan+I+take+your+order.+sir? With his top hat, cane, coattails and dashingly aristocratic demeanor, the Baron comes off like a 19th-century League of Extraordinary Gentleman adventurer. Haru eventually finds herself "invited" to the Cat Kingdom for the rest of her existence. Turns out that the cat she saved is the royal heir, Prince Lune. While Haru puzzles over the matter for the rest of the day, word of her heroic deed filters back to the Cat Kingdom, which earns Haru a visit that night from a royal procession, complete with feline Secret Service agents to guard the Cat King (Tim Curry). Afterward, the cat stands on its hind legs, thanks the befuddled Haru and goes on his way. That last trait shows itself in the strongest way when she runs in front of a truck and uses her lacrosse stick to save a cat from becoming roadkill. Seventeen-year-old Haru (Anne Hathaway) starts the movie as a typically teenager, harried, prone to oversleeping, gossiping, fawning over boys and acting impulsively. Baron Humbert Von Gikkemgen (voiced in English by Cary Elwes), a cat statue come-to-life who provided some sage advice to Whisper's heroine, helps another girl in The Cat Returns, but in a more visceral role. It's probably no coincidence that The Cat Returns follows up on a character from Ghibli's only other non-Miyazaki/Takahata movie, Whisper of the Heart. 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. Novice director Hiroyuki Morita proved to be a wise choice. Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata directed every Ghibli theatrical feature but one prior to 2002, and studio officials wanted to broaden the company's talent base. The Cat Returns is a new movie from Studio Ghibli not only in terms of chronology, but also direction. ![]()
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