Ghost Cat Anzu Movie Review: Animated Misfire

While Nobuhiro Yamashita and Yōko Kuno keep the striking visuals moving in Ghost Cat Anzu, the movie doesn’t have much to offer beyond platitudes.

Now, the Linda Linda Linda filmmaker enters the world of animation with co-director/animator Yōko Kuno in Ghost Cat Anzu. The premise itself seems rife for a fun, carefree time at the movies: a teenager, Karin (Noa Gotō), spends time with a ‘Ghost Cat’ named Anzu (Mirai Moriyama) after being abandoned by her father in her grandfather’s temple. The Ghost Cat’s origins aren’t explained, and it doesn’t matter because, in this world, anything can happen. What’s most important in a movie like this is not if we can buy into the cat’s antics but if they are interesting enough to sustain a 90-minute-long feature film that isn’t so much reliant on plot efficiency but pure, breezy vibes. 

Swimming in a Sand Pool was also drawn using the same framing device. It wasn’t so much about the story but about how the central discussions the protagonists would face inside the swimming pool would develop them. The enveloping soundscapes and symmetrical cinematography exacerbate the sense of immersion the audience feels in this world (Confession feels more like an outlier in Yamashita’s filmography in that regard).

Ghost Cat Anzu retains the same aesthetic approach Yamashita employs in Linda Linda Linda and Swimming in a Sand Pool but within the tools of the animation sandbox. The larger-than-life characters feel rooted in reality, and you immediately buy into the tonal shift in its bonkers final section without questioning it once. It takes a gargantuan feat to make the audience not blink one eye when the movie takes a much different direction than it did for its first hour, and few anime artists have been able to accomplish this. 

Of course, the most famous of them all is Hayao Miyazaki, but the storytelling structure Yamashita and Kuno adopt feels more in line with Isao Takahata’s My Neighbors the Yamadas, which is comprised of a series of vignettes, than with the movie everyone will compare it to, My Neighbor Totoro. Anzu may have had the potential to become the ‘next’ Totoro, but its story is far more reliant on atmosphere and setting than on telling something tangible. That’s why the moments of high-spirited drama don’t work; we feel too distant from what’s happening on screen. 

Don’t get me wrong; there’s some fun to be had, but it feels difficult to emotionally latch onto Karin or Anzu because the movie never gives us any tangible reason to follow them on their mischievous adventures for an hour and a half. The setting is minimal, and we’re immediately plunged into the world Karin inhabits. And while it initially works, Ghost Cat Anzu begins to lose itself to unfortunate platitudes that involve far too many (unfunny) fart jokes and slapstick situations that detract from the ‘core’ of its paper-thin story – Karin wanting to reunite with her parents. 

Exploring the world Karin lives in to acclimate the audience isn’t a bad thing, but in a movie that seemingly wants to talk about something, it shouldn’t last as long as it does here. Because when Anzu suddenly develops motivations, and Yamashita and Kuno begin to develop Karin’s arc, most of us have already checked out. We passively watch what’s happening because the animation is always vivid and fresh, but never in an investing way. We like what we’re seeing because it looks good, but we aren’t compelled to look beyond its pretty images. 

The result is a rather disappointing watch that’s only lightly funny and charming but never reaches the emotional impact of a Studio Ghibli film or the best anime film of the year, SPY x FAMILY: Code – White. It has glimmers of fun, but they’re so sparse that, by the time Yamashita and Kuno attempt to pull our heartstrings during a climax that wants to discuss grief and moving on, it does so in a haphazardly brief and uneventful fashion. It is undoubtedly full of imagination but limited by its own storytelling shortcomings. 

A movie solely based on vibes needs to immerse, not distance its audience. Unfortunately, this is the cardinal mistake Yamashita and Kuno fall prey to and sink their movie in the process. And though it may be a better and more entertaining cat animated picture than The Garfield Movie, it isn’t by a lot.

That said, I look forward to seeing what Yamashita is cooking next. And teaming up with Kuno, who has slowly made a name for herself in independent animation in Japan, proved to be a good enough experience to dip his toes into that world. It might not have worked the way it should’ve, but it’s another showcase of a genre filmmaker’s incredible versatility. On the plus side, it could also direct audiences to seek out Kuno’s work further than this movie, which could be a better use of your time than sitting through Ghost Cat Anzu. Some may like it, but its impact won’t be lasting.

Ghost Cat Anzu will be released in select US theaters on November 15, 2024.