I am a huge fan of the movie The Cat Returns. It just entranced all of us in my household, so I was looking forward to the “prequel” Whisper of the Heart. However we just found that movie incredibly tedious for some reason. As it turns out, we seem to be an outlier, as everyone else I’ve spoken to who has seen both are in agreement that Whisper was the better movie. Nick is just the latest anime fan to affirm their preference for Whisper over Cat.. I just don’t understand it. Maybe I need to give Whisper another try…
the whisper of the Cat
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Did you see the dub or the sub of Whisper of the Heart? This could make a big difference. Count me as one of the much-prefers-Whisper camp (one of my favorite Ghibli films).
I have to re-visit Cat Returns (a Favor) one of these days — as I have become a big fan of Chizuru Ikewaki who plays Haru. CI has become one of the top three Japanese actresses of her “generation”.
There was something about Whisper of the Heart that seemed to click more with me. Though I do remember The Cat Returns being the more fun film. I’ll have to watch it again.
I too love Whisper over Cat.
To watch Cat then Whisper for me is akin to watching something like Indiana Jones followed by Amelie. They are both great films for their own reasons, but their paces are completely different.
The Cat Returns felt like a Ghibli ‘lite’ to me – there was little evidence of the guiding hand of an experienced director. It had a few good bits in it but overall it left me with an empty feeling. Whisper of the Heart is much more fulsome, with only the slightly abrupt ending taking a bit of the shine off. My second favourite after Only Yesterday, which I’d be interested to know if you enjoyed.
The version is important too, as Michael says. Personally I can’t bear to hear the English dub because of the two giggly teens in the main female roles (although the rest of the cast is pretty solid). I definitely prefer the subtitled version, probably also because that’s the first version I saw.
the dub is usually what we end up watching when its a children’s or family version; my wife and daughter dont share my enthusiasm for subs
So that may have affected it, certainly. I think however that Cat Returns was equally good in dub and sub – Cary Elwes in particular was superb as The Cat. Also, the theme song to Cat is just awesome tokyopop (I think Ive posted it here earlier – check my Cat Returns tag link).
The more character-focused Ghibli films are far more dependent on the original Japanese voice performances than the more adventure-oriented ones). So, it stands to reason that Cat would fare better with (on average) more mediocre voice actors than Whisper.
Why don’t you want Nanoha first. Everyone loves Nanoha, right?
heh. i shoudl probably finish ef first.