The film embodies the story of a girl who was rescued one day, who managed to save the life of a cat transformed into a completely unusual cat. It seems that this girl named Harrow finds herself engaged involuntarily to a cat prince in a magical world. Harrow tries to find a figurine of kittens to achieve what she wants.
There'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.
[Director] Morita has a slightly cruder, more realistic sense of the world and its looniness than does Miyazaki, and you can see where The Cat Returns moves on a different track even as it pays homage to Japan's current animation master.
The story whisks gracefully along with little saunters and pitter-patters of humour. A Princess-and-the-Cat tale that also coolly reflects the arrogant aloofness, suave superciliousness and intriguing independence of man's best-when-convenient friend.
