Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1995. That movie is "Catnapped!"
Now, I've wanted to see this movie for the better part of a couple of years. But, much like certain movies on my list to watch, finding a physical copy of it hasn't been possible. But thankfully, there is a copy of the movie on YouTube, so I'm gonna be watching the movie from there. I just kinda hope that I don't run into the same problems I had with "Black Magic M-66", where that movie was riddled with syncing issues. But I'll worry about that once I start watching it.
About the only thing I can tell you that I know about this movie is how I came across the trailer for it. You see, I'm someone who likes to buy movies on VHS. And during my VHS hunt, I came across all 3 of the Sailor Moon movies. And whenever I watched them, about two of the Sailor Moon movies had the exact same trailers for 2 certain movies. The first one was for a movie called "The Dog of Flanders", which looked really dull and boring. And the second trailer they showed was for "Catnapped!". And while I was watching it, I was really entranced by the song that they played. So much so, that I wanted to find a copy of this thing somewhere and give it a watch.
As for the trailer itself, barring the song that was playing throughout the trailer, I'm not totally sure what to think of it. The only thing that I could remember from watching that trailer was that it had something to do with cats and...that's about it. I know nothing about the movie itself, other than it has something to do with cats, and the song that played when I watched the trailer. But I am certainly hoping that my long wait of wanting to watch this movie will pay off. So the only thing for me to do at this point, is to shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Catnapped!".
10 minutes later
All right, guys, I know it's still early in the movie, but I think now might be a good time to say that Meeko's voice is irritating as shit. You guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but if this is the kinda voice I have to get use to for the next hour or so, then I fear it may be torturous.
12 minutes later
Well, guys, I can say that while the story hasn't made a ton of sense so far, Meeko getting kidnapped was probably the best thing that could happen in this movie. So maybe I won't have to put up with her irritating voice for a while.
2 minutes later
So this cat princess has the power of inflation...OK. It's sorta different. Doesn't make me less comfortable after seeing her use this power as an example.
7 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm willing to give the movie this. The score in this movie is fantastic. The orchestral score that is being put to use in this scene really shows off the creativity of the animation. It's just kind of a pity that the movie is still kinda dull. But I'm certainly hoping for the rest of the movie to be better.
3 minutes later
So hold on a fucking second here. So, as a child, Buburina wanted to see the daughter of this wizard walk some tightrope on a very high spot of the castle. And after seeing her fall and possibly die, she says to herself that it wasn't her fault. Dude, you were the one who suggested, well, ordered her to do it in this case. I think it IS your fault. I'm sorry, guys, but that scene kinda rubbed me the wrong way, you know?
20 minutes later
You know, guys, it's kinda sad. Even though there is a lot of action going on here, I just can't bring myself to care about it very much. This movie has been really boring, and, honestly, I can't wait for the movie to end.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Catnapped!". And we're closing out with the song that was played in the trailer with some...odd stop-motion animation. You know what, I'm gonna shut the movie off now...OK. I'm trying to figure out where to even start. You know, when I saw the trailer for this movie, I was instantly hooked because of the song that played. And the visuals really sucked me in as to what was going on. The trailer really didn't explain a whole lot, but still, I was interested enough to check this movie out. And after watching this movie...well, I guess you could say curiosity killed the cat. Let me see if I can explain this further by talking about the writing.
Some of you may happen to recall a couple of episodes ago, I reviewed another animated film called "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure". Well, "Catnapped!" sorta has the same problems as that movie did. Such as the story being really weak, and a ton of characters not having much character development. Now, I will say that, unlike "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure", the character depth in "Catnapped!" blows Raggedy Ann out of the water. Granted, that's not saying a whole lot, but still, there is some character development to be found here. And also, the music is really good. Partially because, it's not riddled with god awful songs. The only song I can think of was the song that played throughout the trailer and during the end credits, but I will cover music later.
But I guess I should get into the writing proper. And the writing in this movie is really weak. Well, "really" is a bit of a stretch. It's sort of weak. Because we have this story about these two kids being dragged into this cat world, where their dog, Papadoll, was taken, and has been transformed into a monster. And so, along with a bunch of other cat people, they need to transform the dog back to it's original self before the next sunrise. Because, according to one of the cat people in this movie, when a foreigner, AKA a human, is exposed to the cat world's sun on their second day there, they are then permanently transformed into a cat. Mind you, when Toriyasu and Meeko, our two main child characters in this movie, are transformed into cats, it's when they first set foot on this cat world. And before we learn about the second sunrise, they think that it's only temporary until they leave the cat world. And, OK, that's fine. It's perfectly normal for a fantasy world to establish it's own rules. The problem here, though, is that you want to have a story that will make you want to keep watching and to stay interested. And for kids, they're going to enjoy this, because all of the problems that I had with the movie are not going to be noticed by children. But as for an adult watching this...well, I'll get more into that when I get to recommendations.
Now, you may have noticed that I keep referring to the cats as cat people. And that's mainly because I couldn't remember a majority of these characters's names, partially because, most of them were unmemorable. I can remember a few names that I can recall. And those names were Toriyasu, Meeko, Papadoll, and Buburina. Everyone else, I could say might've had names, but like I said, I couldn't remember any of them, because their characters were mostly shallow. The only two characters that had any level of development were Toriyasu and Buburina, the cat princess and our main villain of the movie. I want to touch upon Buburina, because most of my issues with the writing are going to mainly focus on her.
So, my issues with Buburina, mostly, has to do with her backstory. So, as a child, Buburina was a spoiled princess. In fact, she's still spoiled when she's an adult, but that's beside the point. And we get a flashback to where she, along with the King and Queen of the cat world, are watching a magic show performed by this wizard, along with his daughter Lily. And the whole time, Buburina gets more frustrated and angry, while everyone else is in awe of the magic performance. She then yells out to stop the performance, because she wants to see the child cat, Lily, perform her own magic, even though she was told by Lily's father that her magic was limited. And the only thing Lily does for magic is make a couple of birds appear from her hands. Still not impressed by it, Buburina wants to make Lily walk some tightrope at a very high spot of the castle. To which Lily does that, despite her father not wanting to go through with this dangerous act. Buburina insisted on it, because if Lily didn't do it, she and her father would not leave the castle. And it ends up with Lily falling and dying in the process. First of all, I wouldn't even call walking tightrope a magic trick, but's just me, personally. Secondly, I have a question. Why did the King or Queen not give out any order to stop Lily from doing this? They should know that it was dangerous, so why didn't they attempt to stop it? Is it because they didn't want to upset their daughter? If so, then that's a stupid fucking reason, because she was the one who ordered the child to perform it. I don't care if she's spoiled, there are certain things that, as royalty, you need to take a stand on. But no, they end up watching it, as the child falls to her death.
Now, after all that has happened, we see the wizard sneak into her room, later that night, after she falls asleep. He then puts a spell on her, which gives her the power to inflate people into a balloon. And that the spell would go on until she feels the sorrow of loss. I want to touch upon that point, because, and this is gonna be a bit of a spoiler, she never learns that lesson of loss. So ultimately, it makes her character development kinda pointless, as she ends up just being a bland, comedic, cartoon villain. Now, perhaps maybe, if this movie had gotten a television series, or even a sequel, then I think it would've made some sense. Because, right towards the end of the film, it does look as though that this movie was setting itself up for a sequel. The problem with that, though, is that neither of those possibilities end up happening. We never got a sequel to this movie, or even got a television show out of it. And that's kind of a shame, because I would've like to have seen where they could've gone with a TV show or another movie. But unfortunately, we got stuck with this standalone film.
Setting aside Buburina's backstory, her plan makes no sense either. So, one thing about the cat world that I didn't mention is that underneath it, there's a giant sleeping cat that holds the entire cat world together. If it were awake, then the entire cat world would plunge into chaos. OK, fine, I guess that makes some level of sense. But Buburina's plan is to inflate all of the cats she's captured, and use them to create a giant mouse that will cause the sleeping cat to awaken. And then she's gonna use Papadoll to scare the sleeping cat to go back to sleep, thus claim it as the protector of the cat world. On what basis does she think that any of this plan of hers will work? If the dog did end up scaring the cat, it probably would end up trying to run away instead of going back to sleep, thus causing more chaos in the cat world. Nothing about this plan of Buburina's makes any sense. If this is because of her selfishness or because she wants to make an example of the other cats if they get in her way, then...it still doesn't make any fucking sense. But hey, I guess this is what happens when you get a villain that's kinda written like shit. And I totally understand that she's a spoiled princess, so maybe her plan wasn't suppose to make any sense, but still, it was stupid as hell. And me even trying to make sense of it was pointless.
Now, aside from her. The only other character who has any kind of development is Toriyasu. Because during the latter portion of the movie, we get to see how Toriyasu's relationship with his dog, Papadoll, ended up breaking apart. And all of that is fine. The only problem, though, is that it takes almost an hour to get to that point, in a movie that's only around 76 minutes long. And you have to get through the rest of the movie in order to get to that point. But by the time that happens, you're, more than likely, going to end up getting bored by the movie. Because the movie tries way too hard to be interesting. And I personally stopped caring about the story a little before that plot point happens. So, I do have to warn you there, on the off chance you want to see this movie.
I can say, though, that beyond some of the nonsensical writing, the acting, for the most part, is really good. Except for one. And that would be whoever voiced Meeko. Now, I've made comments in a couple of my past reviews that, when you're voicing a child character, you're not expecting a lot of miracles. But, guys, I mentioned it at the start when I was watching the movie, that Meeko's voice was irritating as shit to listen to. Because for about 90% of her dialogue, Meeko's voice actress has to shout her lines, and it is grating to listen to. And it probably wouldn't be so bad, except, there were maybe about one or two lines of dialogue where she was speaking her lines all into one sentence. Now perhaps maybe that's how it was written in the Japanese version, or maybe it was because of a slightly poor translation where the voice actress didn't get enough breathing room to give out her lines properly. I don't know. Maybe I'm reading into that theory too much. But it was kind of an issue, enough for me to make mention of it. And if the intention was to make the child character annoying as hell, then congratulations, this movie certainly accomplished that. Beyond her, though, the acting was certainly really good.
Animation in this movie is great. I really like the attention to detail that went into the cat world, along with the designs to all of the cat characters. Including Papadoll, when he's transformed as a monster. My favorite moment is during the flashback when Buburina was a child. The detail of the animation during the portion of the magic show, along with the background music that went with it, looked beautiful. And I have to give the animators a ton of praise there. That said, I do feel as though the animation is a little...over-bloated. Now, when I say that, I don't mean any of the animation is bad. It's just, during the latter portion of the movie, say around the last 20 to 30 minutes, feels like it's trying way too hard to capture the viewers interest. Because there's all of this action that's going on, and it's suppose to be tense and exciting, but it ends up being rather tiresome. And I get that you want something to happen during the final climax of the movie, but as I said, the animators tried a little too hard to accomplish that by dragging it out to almost a half an hour. Now, mind you, what I just mentioned is very minor, in terms of flaws regarding animation. And I will say that I admire all of the creativity that went into the animation for this movie. I just thought it was a little too much, even for me.
The sound-mix is mixed well. There are, thankfully, no syncing issues when it comes to dialogue matching the mouth movements of all the characters. The score is great, but then again, it's mostly just orchestral music, which I don't mind. And, of course, the song that played from the trailer. Which, after looking it up, is called "Yume e No Tobira". I hope that's the right title of the song. But otherwise, the song is great. And I would highly recommend giving it a listen at some point, because it is that good.
So, with all that being said, can I recommend "Catnapped!"? For kids, yes. I can totally recommend it for children, because, as I said earlier, most children are not going to notice any of the flaws that I have mentioned. They are going to be sucked into this movie and they are, probably, going to end up loving it. As for adults...um...if you seriously have to watch this thing, then it's on YouTube right now. Go ahead and check it out. And who knows? You might find something more out of it then I did. But personally, I'm probably not gonna end up watching this movie again. Which is really disappointing to say, because I've wanted to watch this thing for several years, ever since I saw the trailer for it when I was watching one of the Sailor Moon movies. But like I said, curiosity killed the cat. And unfortunately, that cat ended up being this movie. Now, I kinda want to go and watch a better movie involving cats. And the first thing that comes to mind is "The Cat Returns". I'm gonna go watch that, because that movie is amazing.
Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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