Warning: This review sucks.
Totsuzen! Neko no Kuni Banipal Witt / Catnapped!
Year: 1995
Span: One movie, around 75 minutes.
Rating: E for Everyone, but there may be some light innuendo in this one scene, I can't quite tell.
Summary: 10-year old Toriyasu and his little sister Meeko own a dog named Papadoll who has disappeared for little over a week. Meeko believes that their dog was kidnapped by aliens and Toriyasu just mocks her for her ideas. However on their way through town, Meeko discovers a trio of cats who are strangely wearing clothing. Later that night, they are visited by these three cats who take the two children to their cat world "Banipal Witt" via their cat balloon, the Tomcat, asking for their assistance. Once they arrive they discover that Banipal Witt's sun will turn outsiders into cats, which the two children are immediately transformed into, and that any outsiders who are touched by the sun's rays on the second day will then turn into monsters.
As it turns out, a cat named DohDoh had kidnapped Papadoll, who had turned into a flying monster dog by the sun, and is now controlling him to cause chaos and destruction in Banipal Witt. Thus why Toriyasu and Meeko were taken here, the cats feel that only Papadoll's owners can save him. Unfortunately they also have another problem, the wicked Princess Buburina, who can turn any living thing she touches into balloons, also intends to destroy Banipal Witt with the use of Papadoll and her curse.
Review: From a first glance and my not-so-great summary of the film, most people would say that this would be pretty darn weird. And frankly, it kinda is. Banipal Witt is defined mostly as a 'bright, dream-like world of colors and abstracts", literally. However this is also what makes the film, in my opinion, fun and enjoyable and, dare I say it, full of ADVENTURE. It also does have some of its more deeper moments, such as when the usually-pessimistic Toriyasu starts to get flashbacks of how he mistreated his dog.
When I first rented the DVD of this years ago, I found it to be epic. Now after watching it again, it could have used a little more, but I find that some of its other themes makes up for it. What you'll probably notice the most is that the film is pretty short and does not fully elaborate on some characters' backstories, most notably the story of the "Forbidden love between the cat and the mouse", which was only mentioned once and no story was given on it at all.
Despite those, the film does still have it's good positive points. I'd especially like to also say that the dub is actually pretty faithful to the original, and that they actually bothered to keep the ending theme song. And even if the dub isn't for you, subs also exist for this as well.
One thing I'd also like to point out is that the opening theme and ending theme animations were created entirely by the use of creative stop animation, and that's what I find makes this film really stand out from others.
All in all, I personally think this movie is pretty enjoyable for almost everyone, and is very family-friendly. It'll certainly appeal more to younger viewers though.
Availability: Back in 2000, a DVD along with subs was released. A newer edition with a red tag was then released in 2004, which I think also contains a mini art pamphlet inside (Think art book, but much smaller). Both DVDs are unfortunately out of print but should be fairly easy to find. There were also VHS tapes, and as far as I know, there was one with the dub and another with subs, but I can't really confirm this for myself.
