70
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- The Cat Returns is an excellent companion to Spirited Away, as they are both Alice-in-Wonderland-like excursions into bizarre worlds with their own rules and logic. Both have female leads who, unlike dear Alice, experience definite arcs of character and capability. The Cat Returns is a lighter film overall, delivering belly laughs.
- Director Morita does an exemplary job of bringing a Japanese graphic novel to the screen.
- 88Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderIt's a masterful succession of images, tickling the viewer's curiosity with the characters' curiosity. The fantasy emerges little by little—through hesitant, feline steps, if you will—until the floodgates open.
- 80CineVueBen NicholsonCineVueBen NicholsonAs with much of Miyazaki’s own output, the film offers a winning heroine and a joyful dip into Japanese folklore, even if it does not stand up against the studios most celebrated works.
- 80VarietyLisa NesselsonVarietyLisa NesselsonAnimated by Hiroyuki Morita -- a protege of Hayao Miyazaki -- story draws more from fairy tales than the eerie transformative productions by Studio Ghibli. Result is catchy entertainment for kids and adults.
- 80IGNIGNThis movie exhibits a craft that belies Morita's inexperience as a director. 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.
- 75The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe results are disappointingly conventional for a Ghibli film—the film is good-hearted, energetic, and full of Ghibli's characteristically beautiful hand-rendered animation, but it's also lightweight and hyper, with none of Miyazaki's more resonant themes.
- 70Time OutTime OutAnother enjoyable fantasy adventure from Studio Ghibli, the animation house that gave us the delightful Spirited Away. This is not in the same class, but lovers of Miyazaki’s masterpiece will recognise the same worldview – essentially that of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories refracted through a modern Japanese sensibility.
- 40EmpireAnna SmithEmpireAnna SmithThere's little tension or opportunity for emotional involvement in the brief story, and despite competent animation the cats are rarely anthropomorphised to good comic effect. One for anime - and animal - lovers only.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThe story has a moderate charm, but is less baroque and ambitious than many Japanese animations.