Review of A Whisker Away

There are some spoilers in this review. A Whisker Away had a really interesting premise based on the trailer that was circulating on social media. I got to watch it when the movie was released on Netflix, and it's pretty much what I expected -- cute, top-notch animation, a good enough hook -- but its narrative disappoints as it falls flat in the second half. I applaud the first half and exposition of this movie, as it really had the potential to set the story in a satisfying direction. Muge was a compelling character from the beginning: her motivations, background, and personality were very clear, andI was excited to see where her journey would go.

However, the story didn't craft the other characters as carefully as with Muge. Hirode seemed great at first but oh wow... he literally said he hated Muge, just out of embarrassment. For me, this was rather out of character, or at least based on what was shown of him in the first half. Kinako had a rather good motivation for taking Muge's place as a human, so as to please her owner, but her change of heart could have been handled better so that it didn't feel like she changed her mind all of a sudden. The villain is just plain annoying, and the human-cats from the bar were cute, but kind of random; it felt like they were thrown in there for the sake of the plot.

While these characters were not handled flawlessly or stellarly, they were still passable and I still got to enjoy how the story unfolded. The real disappointment for me, however, was the lack of a satisfying conclusion. Where is the heart-wrenching confession and apology from Hirode (it was rather half-hearted)? What were Muge's deeper realizations after she went through this journey of maturation? For me, the story should have focused on and carefully executed the themes it laid out in the beginning -- self-awareness, coming-of-age, and romance -- and not just on the hectic, crazy adventure in the Cat Island itself. Side note: why the heck was Hirode a half-cat?? LOL

Still, this movie was enjoyable enough. The animation is beautiful, and the movie is really cute, albeit it would better satisfy a much younger audience who wouldn't think so hard about plot and character execution. It does give the feeling of wasted potential, but it did what it could and delivered for the most part.