MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS REFERRING TO THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE VERSION WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. AS SUCH SOME MINOR DETAILS AND NAMES MAY DIFFER.
Whilst the The Cat Returns (2002) never quite reaches the dizzying heights of Ghibli’s other riff on Carroll, Spirited Away (2001) it is a sweetly charming film, even if it is a smaller work from the famous anime studio.
Where the Cat Returns shines is in its simplicity. Essentially the plot is how normal teenager Haru gets stuck in the kingdom of cats, and the friends who help her get back home again. it’s the down the Rabbit Hole trope at its base level, but it works marvellously.
Haru as a protagonist doesn’t have an awful lot of depth, and is probably the protagonist with the least personality I’ve looked at so far for this project, but then again she doesn’t need to really have one. As the main character Haru is ultimately mainly a vessel for the audience to project their reactions on to.
The real meat of the film occurs in the kingdom of cats, specifically the court of the Cat king, whose displeasure and habit of savagery is clearly influenced by Carroll’s Queen of Hearts.
`I see!’ said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. `Off with their heads!’ and the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.
In another Alice's adventures in Wonderland influenced aspect of this film, Haru frequently has problems of scale, when she is in the Cat office, she struggles to get through the door due to being too big for the room she is in and has to make do with tiny sized tea given to her by Baron.
It is easy to compare this scene with this chapter from Alice's adventures in Wonderland:
She went on growing, and growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head.
Another scale problem occurs for Haru in the kingdom of cats, the cats are huge in comparison to the now minuscule Haru. On arriving in the kingdom the first thing she sees is her gluttonous cat friend Muta who appears to have grown to the size of a giant- but in fact she has just downsized.
Similarly the Caterpillar towers above Alice when she grows too small:
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar
In keeping with various actual film adaptations of Carroll’s Alice, a climatic chase sequence happens in an unruly Monarch ’s garden labyrinth, although unlike 1951 Disney’s Alice, Haru manages to properly escape the world and her adventures haven’t all been imagined.
In another visual reference to Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, Haru follows Muta through the city streets to get to the realm of the cat office, akin to Alice following the White Rabbit.
Like the majority of protagonists in the films for this project I have looked at, Haru’s sense of self is at stake once she enters the unfamiliar world of the cat kingdom. Not just faced with the fate of marrying Prince Lune, Haru also experiences loss of self via metamorphosis.
The more she warms to the kingdom, the more chance of turning fully into a cat she has. Central to this conflict is Baron and Haru’s friendship. It culminates in a moment which boarders on romance. Whilst dancing with him, Haru wonders for a second if being a cat forever wouldn’t be such a bad idea - until the Baron tells her to focus and not lose her true self.
Once back at home again Haru has a renewed sense of self, less clumsy and unsure. The link in her new self to her adventures is pointed out when she makes Baron’s tea for her mother on the next morning. This also conforms to the down the rabbit hole archetype of the protagonists adventures making them realize truths through experience.
Overall Ghibli’s the Cat Returns is a charming if flawed watch which has an intense feel-good factor. Ideal for a rainy afternoon!
