Directed by: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A music teacher named Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot at playing with a professional singer but a premature death sidelines his plans.

Cartoon Cat: Joe refuses to die peacefully and finds himself in the new souls area where he meets 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), a “new” soul who has never found their spark to become born. It isn’t until the middle of the film when Joe and 22 end up on Earth. Joe is trying to reach his body, which is lying in a hospital bed. A therapy cat named Mr. Mittens is lying on the bed with him.

After Joe and 22 fall to Earth, Joe is ecstatic thinking he is back in his body. But it turns out he is in the body of Mr. Mittens, while 22 is in Joe’s body.

Joe tries to explain this to the doctors but can only meow.

As Joe and 22 try to figure out how this could have happened, a very brief shot of Mr. Mittens’ soul is seen heading to the Great Beyond.

Realizing they need to find Moonwind (voiced by Graham Norton), the man who transmigrated them to Earth, they leave the hospital.

Joe finds himself doing cat things, like chasing a light reflection in the elevator.

As one who has never been to Earth, 22 finds New York disconcerting.

Joe is able to calm 22 with a slice of pizza.

Moonwind promises to meet them in front of the club where Joe is to perform that night.

In Joe’s apartment, Joe finds himself falling asleep in the warm sunlight.

Joe and 22 have to overcome many obstacles in their quest to set things right and get Joe to his performance on time.

Disaster strikes when Joe tries to trim his own hair but finds the razor hard to hold in Mr. Mittens’ paws.

This necessitates a trip to the barber where Joe is surprised watching 22 interact with his barber in a way he never did.

It takes time but Joe realizes he has a lot to learn from the way 22 looks at life through fresh eyes.

It isn’t until Terry (Rachel House), an accountant from the other side, catches up to them that Joe is expelled from Mr. Mittens’ body.

In the end Mr. Mittens is reunited with the Therapy Cat Lady (voiced by Laura Mooney).

The fact that Mr. Mittens is a male and also a calico has caught the attention of some fans, who also noted that the other Pixar calico cat, Mochi from Big Hero 6, is also a male. Since most calico cats are female, this is a high ratio of male calicos for Pixar films!

People were also confused about how Mr. Mittens’ was seen alive and returning to his therapy mom when his soul was seeing heading for The Great Beyond. Director Kemp Powers explained that the cat has nine lives and that storyboards were created for a whole segment showing exactly how Mr. Mittens came back to life, but it was not used. At one point the filmmakers even thought of running it over the end credits but decided it was too silly for that space. Now people are hoping a short film of the segment might eventually be created so we can know exactly what happened.

Mr. Mittens soul, who appears for just a few seconds on screen, even has its own merchandise, with cups, keychains, plushies and a Funko figure available.

Final Mewsings: Cats provide safe spaces for our souls.

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