by Linda Kay
Original Title: Meikyû monogatari
Directed by: Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Rintarô, Katsuhiro Ôtomo
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Anime trilogy of surreal science fiction and fantasy stories including an intense and deadly circular car race and a man assigned to bring an end to a construction project manned by malfunctioning robots.
Cartoon Cat: The wrap around story, Labyrinth labyrinthos directed by Rintarô, follows an imaginative girl named Sachi (voiced by Hideko Yoshida) and her longhair black and white cat Cicerone, who is first seen running quickly down a hallway.
Sachi has painted cat whiskers on her face with lipstick and sets out to search for her cat while her mother cooks. She finds Cicerone hiding inside a clock.
Leaving his hiding place, Cicerone is surrounded by antique toys, including a dancing mechanical clown. He is also blasted by a fan and the loud music from a phonograph.
Cicerone spots Sachi inside a mirror which seems to lead into another dimension and follows her to the other side.
The clown is now full size and urges the girl and cat to follow him down a labyrinth of narrow alleyways inhabited by strange ghosts and other-worldly creatures.
Some of the visions the pair encounters are terrifying while others are just confusing or even amusing.
Eventually the clown welcomes them into a circus tent where he shows them the other two animated stories.
Sachi and Cicerone applaud when the stories are done and are then surrounded by a strange bevy of carnival creatures brought forth by the clown.
The girl happily joins this strange parade and in the end she and Cicerone are watching Sachi on television.
Final Mewsings: Catnip doesn’t usually make you hallucinate this much!
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