This one clocks in at roughly 34 minutes and covers all the major aspects of production. Packaging and Extras Behind-the-scenes documentaries typically consist of electronic press kit frippery, and while The Making of The Cat Returns has the glowing praise you'd expect from an EPK, it also has more information than American DVD viewers might expect. Score: 7 out of 10 Words just fail me on this one. The original Japanese audio is available in 2.0, and anime purists can be happy that the English subtitles are well-placed and easy-to-read. However, composer Yuuji Nomi should be pleased - the mix distributes the music very well. Audio and Languages This uses Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, but the surround speakers and subwoofer get little use from the movie's many action moments and ambient noises. Score: 7 out of 10 The latest sport in Japan: cat lacrosse. The DVD keeps the original widescreen format. Disney maintains its laudable work on colors and black levels for Ghibli releases. Nor is the graininess seen in DVDs of older Ghibli movies much of an issue on this disc. Although it has the much of the same annoying edge enhancement that plagues Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Porco Rosso, the halos aren't quite as obvious here. The Video The Cat Returns, perhaps because it's a relatively new movie, looks much crisper than Disney's other Ghibli releases. Score: 8 out of 10 The Cat Returns DVD Menu. It's a glimpse of Ghibli's future that ought to reassure anyone who cares about animation. He hasn't made a poetic film in the manner of his Ghibli mentors, but it's actually more polished in some ways than much of their work, especially in terms of movement. This movie exhibits a craft that belies Morita's inexperience as a director. The surreal feel escalates once Haru, the Baron and Muta flee into the royal maze and doesn't stop until a final, seemingly never-ending scream before the denouement. Darn, where are my party guests? When the film moves to the Cat Kingdom itself, it feels like Haru in Wonderland, filled with courtly felines content with a monarch who alternates between surfer-dude cool ("Ciao, babe") and hair-raising lunacy. It's no surprise that the original Japanese voice actress for Haru, Chizuru Ikewaki, felt as though she spent most of the movie yelling. While Miyazaki and Takahata largely focus on quiet relationships, Morita emphasizes madcap action - for Haru's lacrosse save, animators used a slow-motion technique that would seem jarringly out of place in a Miyazaki film - and frantic situations. 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. sir? With his top hat, cane, coattails and dashingly aristocratic demeanor, the Baron comes off like a 19th-century League of Extraordinary Gentleman adventurer. 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. 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.
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