Movie Thoughts: Cats (2018)

 

• Released: April 5th, 2018
  
• Directed by: Gary Wang
  
• Running time: 1h 27min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A cat named Blanket and his son Cape are two inside cats who live in an apartment in the city. Blanket detests the outside and thinks its dangerous, but Cape has a lust for adventure and exploring. In particular, he wants to find the realm known as Peachtopia, where he believes his long lost mother might live. After Cape escapes the apartment and goes to look for Peachtopia, Blanket and his new friend, a parrot, go to look for him.

My Thoughts

The poster of this movie looks kinda dumb and yes, I'm not gonna pretend this is some fantastic movie or anything. It's got its cheap moments and is pretty bland, but at the same time I did genuinely enjoy myself watching it sometimes. Despite the simple story it's still a pretty fun and solid movie overall.

I in particular liked Blanket and his character development of getting over his fears of the outside. His growing friendship with the parrot character was also nice and I love the relationship between Blanket and Cape. Blanket isn't always truthful with his son, but it's so clear he genuinely loves Cape and their relationship is just really sweet, even if simple. Cape was also an enjoyable character, so getting to see this strong father-son bond was a treat.

Where the movie kinda lost me was this big plot regarding some glass maker who wants to obtain the special bead that can open the world to Peachtopia. This all falls much more into the same old "generic kids movie" type of plot and the main villain was neither interesting nor super intimidating. I guess the whole thing of him using live animals for the molds for his glass statues is pretty effed up, but aside from that I remember legit nothing about this villain. He was pretty underwhelming.

The final conclusion of the movie is also pretty bittersweet. The animals find Peachtopia and arrive there safely, but Blanket and Cape also realize they need to walk their own paths. Blanket decides to go back home, and Cape stays behind in Peachtopia and eventually decides to look for his mother, who may or may not still be alive (possible sequel hook?). So a nice conclusion overall with room for future installments.

I do have to say that visually this movie is nothing to write home about. It's not bad-looking or anything, but it does have some goofy character designs and the animation really doesn't stand out at all. 

But despite this it's a solid movie writing-wise. Nothing great and it's still a pretty standard kids movie, but I genuinely think there are a few good things here, particularly in how the movie handled Blanket and Cape's relationship.