Review of A Whisker Away

You know cats can get a pretty bad rap especially if they are represented in a live action film. I mean we have a vast array of cat related films that are just straight up stinkers. 2019's Cats, The Cat in the Hat, Catwoman, Cats and Dogs, Garfield, even the live action Lion King, etc are the first things that pop up in our heads when we think about bad cat related movies. But if you try to scavenge for some good cat related entertainment, you will find that a lot of it is found in the medium of animation. A Whisker Away is one suchexample of a cat based anime film that managed not to suck somehow. All things considered, this movie played out surprisingly better than I ever thought it would. Let's be honest this could have easily been a very generic love story and used the plotline which by the way involves a girl who can transform into a cat to win the affection of her crush to feed into some strange fetish and just catered to the lowest denominator. Thankfully, A Whisker Away doesn't do that. The film treats it's characters like actual people stuck in a very absurd scenario and the results are far better than I ever imagined. And it was only after I finished watching the film did I realize that it was actually written by Mari Okada who brought us original works like Maquia, Anthem of the Heart and Anohana.

Our main romantic duo, Muge and Hinode, felt like actual individuals with very different personalities but fortunately happens to have one thing in common and that is their inability to properly communicate their feelings. I hesitate to call them bland or just plain standard as they are far from it. Even a lot of the supporting cast get a good hefty amount of characterization to be able to latch on to. The only real issue is that I don't think they used every character or storylines to their utmost potential. I think the biggest example of this is with Muge's best friend, Yori, who actually gets a very compelling backstory behind their friendship but ultimately gets sidelined for much of the third act.

This is also a gorgeously animated film and there were certain background shots that almost looked photorealistic. The music is fine for the most part though there was this one scene where a serious arguement happens and they kind of play it for laughs with the music and I didn't think it really worked for me.

Now I was originally planning on watching the film with the original Japanese audio but when I found out that Johnny Yong Bosch was going to be playing the main male character, I decided to go with the dub. Bosch is one of my favourite voice actors. He is someone who admittedly doesn't have much range but certainly knows how to leave an impression with his incredibly distinct voice. But the star of the dub was actually Cherami Leigh who plays Muge and she nails the sheer amount of excitement and eccentricity that was leaping out of this character. Overall, this was a very good dub.

The world building was a bit muddled with several mechanics of the magic felt like they were being made up on a whim with any proper set up. And I have to admit, the film almost lost me in the last half when it kind of became a pseudo-Ghibli movie and lost a little bit of the simple charm that made it so endearing.

In the end, A Whisker Away turned out to be a far better film than I ever thought it would be with its simple but heartwarming love story that is very well paced, beautifully animated and filled with many likeable characters.