by Linda Kay

Also Known As: Cats

Directed by: Gary Wang

Although animated, this film contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

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

Synopsis: A content housecat named Blanket (voiced by Li Yufeng, in English by Dermot Mulroney) tells his young son Cape (voiced by Yang Yanduo, in English by Nicole Tompkins) about a mythical land called Peachtopia, little imagining that his enterprising offspring would attempt the journey to the mythical land in this Chinese animated feature.

Cartoon Cats: The film begins with a flashback of Blanket as a kitten and his owner finding and rescuing a nameless black cat (voiced by Chen Linsheng, in English by Conor Polley) from the street. After the black cat brings home a bunch of strays he is turned back out. Blanket goes in search of him and is eventually found by his owner who wonders where he’s been. The experience leaves the cat afraid to leave home.

In the present day, Blanket is a chonky grey cat and Cape is his ginger and white tabby kitten. They live in an apartment with the same loving female owner.

Soon they are joined by a rambunctious, biting female Macaw which the woman brings home.

They get to talking about the marble Cape wears on a string around his neck, which reportedly has a connection to the mythical land of Peachtopia.

Cape is convinced his mother lives in Peachtopia and sets out to find her, creating a rocket powered by vinegar and baking soda.

More afraid of losing his son than he is of leaving the house, Blanket sets out with Macaw to find Cape.

Cape reaches a mysterious factory surrounded by glass animals and guarded by raccoons. A crazy human artist creates animals out of glass using molds and covets the marble hanging from Cape’s neck.

Cape is rescued from the raccoons by the Black Cat who takes him to the abandoned train cars where he and other cats live in secret, paying off the raccoons for protection.

The Black Cat explains that Peachtopia is at the bottom of a lake on the property.

On their way to find Cape, Blanket and Macaw meet up with a group of spiritual ungulates who accidentally accompany them to the factory where they are captured.

Cape is also captured. They and numerous other animals are kept in cages.

Kitty Carnage Warning! It turns out the mad artist compresses his molds around the living animals, usually killing the poor creatures in the process. Cape is subjected to this and in a disturbing scene pretends to be dead and is put into a plastic bag and thrown into an incinerator.

Blanket, thinking his son has been killed, starts to leave. It takes a lot of energy (and luck) for Cape to escape and reach him, which he does with the help of Black Cat.

There is an explanation of how the mad artist came to be and his association with Black Cat and the glass bead but we won’t go into all that here.

The animals work together to bring down the factory then sail in a giant glass boat down into the lake to finally reach Peachtopia.

But even after going through all of this, Blanket announces he wants to go home. Cape also leaves the paradise, setting out on new adventures.

While clearly an animated film made for kids the plot is overly complicated and contains dark elements. Peachtopia is clearly a metaphor for Heaven. And it turns out that Cape’s mother simply died in a tragic accident, falling to her death from the apartment window after Cape’s birth. The scene when the owner comes back upstairs after going down to find her body (not shown on screen) rivals any heartbreaking moment Disney could have conjured up.

Disturbing or not, the film animates cats and their personalities very well and despite not being the most cohesive film it may still be worth a watch if you tend to like animated fare that doesn’t follow the Hollywood formula.

If you’re interested in the artwork behind the film, check out this website for some great production art.

Several posters were created for the film, including a series featuring the man characters on “Lost” posters (one was made for the Macaw character as well).

Final Mewsings: Cartoon cats lead complicated lives, too!

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