Eleven-year-old Karin is still processing her mother\u2019s tragically premature death. She gets little comfort from her father, a somewhat likable loser deeply in debt to loan sharks, who leaves her in the care of his father, Osho, for her own safety. Her grandfather serves as the keeper of Sousei-Ji temple, where he \u201cadopted\u201d Anzu as a foundling kitten. After thirty-seven years, Karin\u2019s Tabby \u201cuncle\u201d has blossomed into a full-fledged supernatural Yokai creature, who can duly see all the invisible spirits in the forest. This includes the cranky \u201cGod of Poverty,\u201d who regularly curses one of Anzu\u2019s luckless loser human friends.
Essentially, Anzu is part Garfield the cat and part Coyote the trickster. The big orange Yokai-cat is willful, mischievous, and often rather self-centered. Yet, he always remains true to his friends. Before long, that includes Karin too. Anzu really starts to feel for her, as he learns more about her misfortune. In fact, he decides to help Karin visit her late mother, by strong-arming the God of Poverty into showing them the secret location of the portal to the realm of the dead.<\/p>\r\n
![\"Ghost](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ghost-of-Anzu1.png\")
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\u00a9Courtesy of GKIDS\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
<\/ins>\u00a0 \u00a9Courtesy of GKIDS\u00a0 If you like the review, share tour thoughts below!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
The first half of Ghost Cat Anzu<\/strong> derives sly humor from the inherent absurdities of an overgrown cat freely interacting with human society. Anzu proves himself quite a fount of comedy, who regularly delivers a sarcastic one-liner or an arch sidelong glance. Screenwriter Shinji Imaoka\u2019s adaptation of Imashiro\u2019s manga consistently hits the right notes, maintaining a light tone, while showcasing Anzu\u2019s appealingly impish attitude.
However, the second part veers through the looking glass, turning into an appropriately eccentric riff on the Orpheus<\/strong> legend. Anzu even ignites a Yokai rumble that exceeds the unruly spirit of Takashi Miike\u2019s The Great Yokai War<\/strong> films. Yet, despite the potentially dark themes, Imaoka maintains the same lightness of touch throughout.
Animation fans might not believe it, but Kuno and Yamashita (previously known for live-action cinema, including the popular coming-of-age film, Linda Linda Linda<\/strong>) incorporated rotoscope techniques (animating over footage of real-life actors). Indeed, their resulting film never displays the photo-realistic effect associated with rotoscoped films like Richard Linklater\u2019s A Scanner Darkly<\/strong>, because Kuno\u2019s animators so thoroughly transform Yamashita\u2019s live action \u201ccanvas\u201d into a pastoral animated wonderland. In fact, the leafy green natural backdrops surrounding the temple look so lush and lovely, they would not seem out of place in some Studio Ghibli films.<\/p>\r\n
That is especially true of Anzu, who looks like a big, goofy cartoon cat, in the most endearing way possible. That big feline has plenty of roguish charm, which Japanese voiceover artist Mirai Moriyama perfectly expresses (only the original Japanese audio track was available for review). Watching Anzu interact with people, who mostly accept him without a second thought, sounds like a simple premise, but it delivers an abundance of entertainment.
It should be a universally recognized principle of animation that talking animals are fun. Anzu certainly proves the point. His frisky troublemaking will keep younger fans laughing, but older viewers should equally appreciate his bizarre fantastical misadventures, which are indeed wonderfully weird. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Ghibli\u2019s The Cat Returns<\/strong> (which would make an apt pairing for a cat-themed anime double feature), Ghost Cat Anzu<\/strong> opens this Friday (11\/15) in theaters.<\/p>\r\n![\"Ghost](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ghost-of-Anzu3.png\")
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Grade: A<\/p>\r\n