Review of A Whisker Away

It's an okay movie, if I would pass by it on TV, I would probably be entertained for an hour; but it's not something I would look for nor something I would earnestly recommend. The story boils down to "treasure the life you have right now, no matter the circumstance." It's the same lesson most people learn in many stories that have shown when we are not careful of what we wish for. One thing I was bothered, and something the movie could've presented better was the Miyo's family issues. Early on the story, it was shown that she had problems with her father remarrying,also making it a central point in her struggle throughout the movie. I believe that the root of her problems stems from her adjustments to her new family. But the movie did not seem to delve deep into it, her father did not even seem to have any interest in addressing it (it might be that he was not aware or really dismissive of it). The direction of the story was just shifted to her budding love to Kento, which was very weird and confusing to being with. In the beginning, I thought the she already had a crush on him for some reason. Later on, she tells about how they've cuddled (after she was discovered) while she's in her cat form. It seems that that was the beginning of it, but the way it was shown, she seems to have feelings for him already (regardless of being in cat form). She still had the confrontation with her step mother, but it was not directly resolved.

I also do not like the motivation behind why she can't return to being a human. That reason was that she was not very accepting to her stepmother, as if to imply that it was Miyu's fault that she is struggling with adjusting to the new family. She's a middleschooler. It is the responsibility of the adults to make her understand. Afterwards, the movie did not touch on this issue. I see this as a missed opportunity for this to be a better story to represent broken families.

The resolution and the ending did not help at all. They've basically fought, literally, their way out. Their relationship was already weird enough, it was weirder that the story highlighted it when there was a much more meaningful battle that Miyu should've accomplished.

It's a kids show, a junkfood movie, its entertaining enough if you want to see some moving pictures.