This movie's story couldn't be more straight-forward. It's a simple fantasy tale that, despite not being a two-hour epic like Miyazaki's movies, tells an incredibly coherent story that's easy to follow for anyone. I think the key to enjoying this movie lies in the fact that the viewer needs to take what is presented before them as it is. There is no point in wracking your brain for any sort of in-depth, universal message in this movie because there really isn't one. I have a feeling that this is where people dismiss the movie as "weak" when compared to Ghibli's other efforts. The film's message has no more depth than your average Disney animated film ("believe in yourself"), which seems sort of tagged on at times thanks to one of the characters saying that several times over the course of the film. If you try to watch the film based on that message alone, you won't get much out of it, though there are elements of a coming-of-age story buried beneath the film's fantastic adventure and splendor. The story is something that should be appreciated at face-value rather than something that could be measured up to one of Miyazaki's films. On its own, the story is simple enough to almost be boring, but the witty humor (which is actually quite well done) and interesting characters make the story one well-worth being told.
Speaking of characters, it would be harsh to say that these characters are two-dimensional, but, then again, the movie's suspension of disbelief works well enough to make me believe in a talking cat. While these are not the most realistic characters in Ghibli film history (again, talking cats), there's a human warmth to each of them that makes the viewer support the heros and sympathize the villain. In a fairy-tale-esque story like this, it would be easy to separate the heroes and villains into black and white, but even the villains' chaotic deeds are lined with good intentions and the heroes aren't all that heroic to begin with. The main character, Haru, sort of belongs in the middle ground because of how indecisive her personality was to begin with. The characters' distinct personality traits also make them easy to recognize. You could probably summarize each character in one sentence without saying which species they are. They're also all very likable, including the villains' lackeys, which almost never happens to me when watching an anime. Maybe its Baron's gentlemanly poise or The Cat Prince's nobility that do the trick. Or maybe it's just as easy to get lost with the characters as it is to escape in the world they live in. Normally, I would say that not adding enough depth to these characters is a missed opportunity, but with characters like these, heavy, three-dimensional character depth almost becomes unnecessary. For the world that they're created in, the amount of warmth and depth they have is just enough.
Do I really need to go into the art for a Studio Ghibli film? It's almost a given that if you're going to watch a Ghibli film, you're going to be handed some gorgeous visuals along with a decent story. While this is by no means the studio's best artistic effort, a handful of scenes really stand out in terms of artistry, such as the introduction of The Cat Kingdom and Haru's search for "the big, white cat" at a busy shopping centre. The latter especially stood out in my mind, since the artists put great detail in making sure that every piece of lettering on the signs by the shops were legible. As for the character designs, Haru's is noteworthy to me even though she is supposed to be an average Japanese student with average looks. She looks like a cat to me, which makes me wonder if that was an intentional character trait on the artists' parts of if that's just a conclusion that I came down to on my own. Aside from the fact that they walk on their hind legs from time to time, the physiology of that cats is really well done. It even shows when they fold their paws in as they stand up. The overall artistic atmosphere will feel familiar to you if you've seen movies like "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" or "Catnapped!" without the trippy visuals. For a movie that was made at the dawn of the new, computer-colored anime age, the animation is refreshing and vibrant.
Over the years, Disney has built up a reputation for having top-notch dubbing in the English versions of Ghibli films, and this one was no exception. The flow of the voice acting hardly made the film sound like I was watching an anime at all. It didn't even sound like the voice actors went into the studio thinking that they were going to dub an anime feature. For the majority of the characters, the English voices matched the characters well. I thought Haru's voice was a little deep at first, but I got used to it eventually. Baron having a dapper British accent made his character all the more likable and Muta, the fat cat, even sounded like he was fat and boorish. It's easy to hear in the actors' voices that they not only put in the effort to try to match their voices to the characters' lips, but they sounded like they had fun taking on the challenge.
The music didn't stand out a lot of the time for me, but when it was noticeable, it was worth listening to as a separate piece of music. The soundtrack even strayed into neo classical territory at times, especially during scenes in the Cat Kingdom. Straying from the film's orchestral soundtrack, the ending theme song is an incredibly upbeat and catchy pop song led by one woman and her ukulele. You'll have to drink a couple of bottles of brain bleach in order to get that one out of your head. The audio aspect of the film couldn't have been more satisfying to me.
I don't know what it is about this movie that made me enjoy it so much. The story, characters, and the world they live in are simple enough that this movie seems to be tailor-made for children and their families, yet there's a certain spark about it that made me cheer on for the characters and leave me in shock if they were ever in trouble. That's probably it: the innocence of this story was what drew me in. The magic is in its simplicity. There's nothing hidden beneath it and there's no reading between the lines. It's just a good movie with a good plot and nothing more. Sometimes Ghibli films need a break from their reputation as animated epics with hard-hitting moral messages. Sometimes you just need to escape into a world of fantasy without the weight of philosophy on your shoulders. And if that fantasy world is filled with cats that stand on their hind legs and talk, so be it.
