First Review: Catnapped!

Year: 1998
Country: Japan
Director: Takashi Nakamura
Watched through: streaming
Also known as: Totsuzen! Neko no Kuni Banipal Witt!

The scenario: Brother and sister Yasuo and Meeko have lost their dog, Papadoll. Meeko is sure the dog was abducted by aliens, but they get some even stranger visitors in the middle of the night: anthropomorphic cats from an alternate dimension. In the alternate dimension, the children find a heap of trouble in the form of an insane princess, a misguided sorcerer, and their own beloved pet, who has been transformed into a giant monster. In a race against time, the children have to subdue Papadoll and get back home before they, too, morph into monsters.

First impressions: Well, my first impression was frustration, because this movie is pretty hard to find on DVD; luckily, the internet came to the rescue, and I was able to watch both the English dub and the original Japanese with subtitles. It’s creative, in a madcap sort of way, and as children’s fantasies go it’s pretty original. It’s not exactly perfect, however, so here’s the breakdown.

Plot and story: Well, the story is great, but the plot is. . . so-so. The biggest problem with the plot is the order some of the story information gets presented in. For example, we know that Papadoll is Yasuo’s pet, but we don’t really know anything about their relationship until the film is almost over, when we get a lengthy flashback right in the middle of a climactic action scene. Another important bit of the backstory was also given at an odd time. One interesting plot point is the villain’s ability to inflate people like balloons when she touches them, and the reason she can do this is explained in the middle of the film, through a dream sequence. Apparently, she caused a magician’s daughter to fall to her death, and the grieving father cursed her to turn every person she touched into a balloon. Um, okay. Apart from being a weird punishment for causing someone’s death, the odd placement of this information really slowed the plot down. Aside from the poorly-placed flashbacks, the film was also hampered by one story point that didn’t make any sense. The entire alternate world is physically supported by an enormous sleeping cat, and the world will be essentially destroyed if it ever wakes up. The evil princess has a grand scheme of constructing a giant rat to rouse the sleeping cat and pretty much destroy the world she lives in. And she wants to do this. . . why? It makes no sense in either the dub or the original. 14/20

Characters: This is the film’s strongest element. Though the plot is very action-driven, the characters all have distinct personalities, and many of them are fleshed out quite well. Meeko and Yasuo are appealingly normal (in the original, anyway; in the dub they both sound unnaturally smart), and act like real kids. Yasuo is lonely and somewhat sullen (though his good traits come out in the end), while Meeko is cheerfully indomitable. The princess is spoiled and hysterical, while her chief henchman, Doh Doh, is both evil, in a cackling sort of way, and goofy. The best of the supporting characters is Chu Chu, the tough cat girl who helps the mains in their quest. 17/20

Voices: Well, I can’t comment much on the casting, as all of the voices are unknowns, but I must say that the original voices are remarkably better than the dub voices. There isn’t a single bad performance in the original, but the English equivalents are. . . ugh. SO ANNOYING. Skip the dub and watch the original with subtitles. 17/20

Music: Not much to say here, as this isn’t a musical, but the score is decent. All of the music is appropriate and pleasant, but not outstanding. I must say I loved the song in the end credits, though. 15/20

Visuals: I’ve come to expect a lot from anime films, and this one delivered in terms of both design and movement. The characters are cutely drawn, the backgrounds are wonderfully imagined, and everything is very colorful. The animation is full and smooth, but there are no outstanding moments. 16/20

Overall grade: 79/100 (B+)