She and Her Cat: An Anime (Short) Movie Review
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Length: 5 minutes
Genre: Slice of life
Source Material: Anime original by Makoto Shinkai
No Trailer, but here's the beautiful ED theme:
There's really no excuse for you not to check out this 5 minute short that is beautifully written and produced by the great Makoto Shinkai (his other works include Voices of a Distant Star, 5cm per Second). She and Her Cat tells the sweet story of how Chobi (the cat) is found by a woman (Her) on a rainy day and how they spend their first year together in Her small apartment, all of which is narrated from Chobi's point of view.
**No Spoilers...cause the whole thing is only 5 minutes long!**
Overall Impressions: It's hard to say how I could have fallen in love with She and Her Cat when the movie is only 5 minutes long, but after repeated viewings, I think that the combination of Chobi's simple narration (Makoto Shinkai's voice) and the gorgeous background art and music is what did it for me. Seeing the world from Chobi's point of view and hearing him describe Her with such deep affection allowed me to experience, for 5 minutes, a world that is small, safe, and simple. Chobi is an adorable narrator who is self-aware that he is, indeed, just a cat. But at the same time, he seems strangely human in the sense that he observes and analyzes the world around him, especially Her. 
Rating: 9/10
Ps. I can't post a review about a movie where the main character is a cat without posting a picture of my own furry friend. Mew is not quite like Chobi, but she's still a very good cat. :)
Fascinating to see Makoto Shinkai's early work, and what do you know, he's been waxing poetic since that long ago, adding a touch of magic to the most mundane encounters.
ReplyDeleteLovely review Wind~ .^^.
Thanks for commenting, GlassShadow. Yeah, Makoto Shinkai's works are really something in terms of the simplistic feel of them as well as the beautiful visuals. Voices of a Distant Star was apparently made by Shinkai on his own Mac without anybody to help him...this man is crazy good with computer animation!
DeleteAnd I gotta say, I actually quite like his voice as Chobi here, hehe :)
Oh really? No wonder it looked so off-model LOL, I actually criticized the designs when I wrote my Children Who Chase Lost Voices review. But now I'm pretty amazed if he indeed did everything by himself...it goes to show how talented Shinkai (and Mac) is. xD
DeleteAgreed! Voices of a Distant Star was the first Shinkai film I watched, and I was kind of turned off by the animation of the main characters, but that was made up by the beautifully poetic feel of the story and dialogue, along with lots of amazing background art. Plus I'm a sucker for anything that has a mecha in it and a well thought out love story, but his animation has since gotten a LOT better since he's gotten studios to back him. :) And yes, Shinkai does indeed have some talent--I tried to use an animation program called Maya once, and the best I could do was make a cube flip over a couple of times, and even that took me like, 3 weeks to learn how to do. xD
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