The Cat Returns

In one of his documentaries Hayao Miyazaki commented on a cat sleeping in the sun: ‘Just look how carefree it is. It has no plans at all’. The whole Ghibli Studio adores cats. There are various feline incarnations in their films, including an animated vehicle with a face of a cat. The Cat Returns is the best example of this affection. It all begins with a black cat in the middle of the road that is so busy with its own affairs that it doesn’t see a coming truck. A good-hearted college student saves the animal immediately. The cat turns out to be a prince from a fantastic land who thanks the girl by proposing to her. If you know anything about feline ways, you probably understand that cats don’t take ‘no’ for an answer when they generously offer humans their favours… But even when our protagonists are a little bossy, it’s hard not to be impressed by their delightful faces furry backs, and agile movements. The animators were able to portray feline motor skills in all their elegance and wit.

Karolina Kostyra

Hiroyuki Morita (b. 1964) is a Japanese animator and anime film director. He started his career as a animator on television, working for the Shaft Animation Studio and later for several studios making anime feature films. His work on Studio Ghibli’s first fully computer-animated film My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) led him to be selected as the director of animated feature The Cat Returns (2002). Since then he has also directed the animated series Bokurano (2007), based on a popular manga by Mohiro Kitoh.