Having self-doubt and overthinking situations is a common problem that everyone deals with at some point in their lives. My favorite aspect of The Cat Returns is its message of believing in yourself and having the confidence to stand up for what you want or believe. Not only do they have to fend off the Cat King’s guards mounted on top of the walls, they also have get past walls that move to misdirect them! It’s an exciting sequence with a great visual gag of all the fake walls coming down.
The maze sequence is a major highlight as the Baron and Haru have to get to the end of the maze to reach the portal to get Haru back home. With the film gracefully bouncing from one entertaining set piece to another, it succeeds in keeping the audiences attention.
The Cat Returns is a very fast paced story. The Baron is very much in the same vein as Dread Pirate Roberts or Robin Hood from Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The story reminds me of swashbuckling adventure films like Robin Hood or The Princess Bride, which makes the dub casting all to more perfect with the iconic Cary Elwes playing the suave and sophisticated Baron. The reward turns out to be much more than Haru bargained for an arranged marriage to a prince! With the help of the titular Cat (also known as Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, or just the Baron), she must find a way to escape this arranged marriage and make it back home! The cat she saves happens to be Prince Lune of the Cat Kingdom who promises to reward Haru. One day as she is heading home, she kindly saves a cat from getting hit by a tuck. The Cat Returns follows Haru Yoshioka, a shy, clumsy girl who deals with a lot of self-doubt. Like Whisper of the Heart before it, The Cat Returns is one of the few Ghibli films not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or the late Isao Takahata. Released in 2002 and directed by Hiroyuki Morita, the film is a spin-off of the 1995 Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart. While not as visually stunning as other Studio Ghibli works, The Cat Returns is a fun, fast paced adventure that anyone can enjoy. At the feast, the Baron (in disguise) dances with Haru as part of the entertainment, and reveals to her that the more she loses herself in the kingdom, the more cat-like she will become, and that she has to discover her true self.The Cat Returns is a swashbuckling adventure that finds our main character Harou on a quest to discover her own self-confidence. Haru is treated to a feast at the castle of the Cat Kingdom and she begins to slowly turn into a cat with tan paws, ears and whiskers, though still mainly human, so that she will make a suitable bride for the Prince. The Baron and his crow friend find the entrance to the Cat Kingdom on Earth: Five lakes forming a cat's paw. Soon after meeting them, Haru and Muta are forcefully taken to the Cat Kingdom, leaving Toto and the Baron in the human world to follow the group from the air. Haru meets Muta, a large white cat the voice told her to seek for directions, who leads her there to meet the Baron (the same Baron from Whisper of the Heart), who is a cat figurine given life by the work of his artist, and Toto, a stone raven who comes to life much like the Baron. Wanting none of this, Haru hears a kind, female voice, which tells her to seek the Cat Business Office.