Review of A Whisker Away

I went into this film with the expectations of it being a kid’s film with way too much effort put into it. Instead it was a teenage melodrama with way too much effort put into it. Until the climax when it turned into a kid’s film with way too much effort put into it. This film is surprisingly charming for anybody who’s willing to give it a chance. From Muge’s delusional view of the world when it comes to her love interest, Hinode, to the underplayed yet effectively complicated family dynamics that both characters have (there is a genuinely great step-parent character arc), everything inthis film feels like it’s in service to developing the charming main characters and their adorable relationship with one another.

It’s like the people creating it wanted to prove that they could make a better film than Ghibli, so they chose their worst movie and somehow managed to make it actually great. They even got the voice actress for Arriety (and seemingly nothing else) to come in and give a genuinely engaging performance. I don’t know much about voice acting, but that only means that when I notice it in a positive or negative light that must mean that the actor or actress voicing the part is either doing something very right or very wrong. Fortunately for this film, Mirai Shidai is the former.

Honestly my only real issue with the film, is that I didn’t like the latter half quite as much as the first, since I found that it worked because it was such a simple story that only used it’s supernatural elements when needed and, without spoiling too much, that didn’t happen in the second half. That’s not to say that it was bad by any means. When you consider that the whole emotional crux of the cat transformations throughout the film was to demonstrate that it’s not good to wear a mask and pretend that you’re ok when you’re not, and that you shouldn’t run away from your problems, having the whole climax focusing on this element makes narrative sense. It just wasn’t what I was hoping for. It would be like if you were in the mood for pizza and somebody gave you a cake. It’s still great, just not what I was looking for in the moment.

This film is great, the characters are charming, the concept is new and exciting, and, it’s on Netflix so you have no excuse not to watch it, unless you’re one of those sick, disgusting lepers that doesn’t like cats, in which case, maybe you should swallow a bullet or two, because even the end credits of this movie made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

8/10

This Review is actually the script to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2372pcnnV_I

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