These Two Underrated Ghibli Films Share a Connection (2024)

Many animation studios have an amusing tendency for connecting their films together. Pixar, for example, has the ever-popular "Pixar Theory" that sets every major film on a cohesive timeline, while Disney inserts fun easter eggs from their previous movies into every new production. The anime community's beloved Studio Ghibli has formed a bridge between two of its tragically underrated movies (Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns) by using a pair of minor yet important characters: Baron and Muta.

Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns were both released in July just seven years apart, with the former directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo (whom many claim could have carried Ghibli into a new era) in 1995 and the latter by Hiroyuki Morita in 2002. Despite having different directors and telling vastly different stories, the characters of Baron and Muta are both recognizable figures that create a significant connection between the two timeless films.

Who are Baron and Muta in the Ghibli-verse?

Baron Humbert von Gikkingen is a Well-Dressed Figure

Baron Humber von Gikkingen, or "The Baron," is a statue of an anthropomorphic cat that is said to come alive at night. Fully dressed in a suit and top hat, he is first seen in Whisper of the Heart as one of the many objects collected in the antique shop owned by Shiro Nishi. In The Cat Returns, he plays a role as an actual sentient character—being the deuteragonist of the film. In it, he is voiced by Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, while Yoshihiko Hakamada voiced him in Whisper of the Heart. Cary Elwes later provided the Baron's English voice for both movies.

Renaldo "Muta" Moon is Fluffy Perfection

Muta, who is also known as Renaldo Moon or simply as "Moon," is a portly cat who appears in both Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns. In the latter film, he behaves as any normal cat would; however, in the former, Muta is an important supporting character that accompanies the protagonist throughout the entire run. He is voiced by Tetsu Watanabe in the Japanese release and Peter Boyle in the English dub version.

Whisper of the Heart is Yoshifumi Kondo's Legacy

Ghibli's 1995 Classic Focuses on Letting Passion Guide Your Future

Whisper of the Heart, based on Aoi Hiiragi's 1989 Shueisha manga of the same name, is a film directed by Yoshifumi Kondo and was released in July 1995. It is Studio Ghibli's first theatrical film directed by Kondo, who was initially chosen to succeed Hayao Miyazaki before Kondo unfortunately passed away in 1998. The movie also has a 2022 live-action adaptation directed by Yuichiro Hirakawa, which is available on Tubi and Prime Video.

The story of Whisper of the Heart centers around young Shizuku Tsukishima, a junior high schooler who loves to read and write song lyrics. In the several books she's borrowed from her local library, she has noticed the name "Seiji Amasawa" on the check-out card of every one and begins to wonder about the kind of person they could be. Eventually, she learns that the irritating boy she has been running into is none other than the same person she's been thinking about. As Shizuku gets to know him, she becomes inspired to turn her life-long passion for stories into something that will carry her future.

Shizuku is a girl who doesn't take studies seriously. While her peers are cramming for tests and thinking about their future, Shizuku prefers to read all day and meander about life with a sense of childlike imagination. Though, secretly, she worries about her own future just as much as anyone else. One day, while following a cat that she found on a train, she stumbles upon the antique shop owned by Seiji's grandfather, Shiro Nishi. It's there that she is introduced to the statue known as The Baron.

Muta and Baron are Small but Important Pieces in the Plot

For the most part, Muta rarely does anything significant in Whisper of the Heart other than go about the business of being the neighborhood cat, though he takes a liking to both Shizuku and Seiji. His biggest role in the film is to simply act as Shizuku's unassuming guide to a location that changes the course of her life. And although the color of his hair differs slightly from how he appears in The Cat Returns, his nomenclature is the same in both films—he is referred to as "Moon" by both main characters, and, at the end of the movie, a girl who is assumed to be his owner calls him "Muta."

Baron's role, on the other hand, holds more weight in the movie despite only being depicted as an inanimate object outside of the book that Shizuku becomes devoted to writing. According to Shiro Nishi, the Baron statue is something he received from Germany, and it had a female counterpart named Louise. Nishi has been desperate to reunite them, although he hasn't had any luck in locating Baron's missing half. Baron becomes an important character in Shizuku's story, and his popularity in Whisper of the Heart is what led to his much bigger role in Morita's The Cat Returns.

Whisper of the Heart

G

Drama

Family

A love story between a girl who loves reading books, and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.

Release Date

December 13, 1996

Runtime

1 Hour 51 Minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Characters By

Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana

Production Company

Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network (NTV), Hakuhodo

The Cat Returns is Whisper of the Heart's Lively Spin-Off

Morita's Ghibli Production is a Fun Tale About Personal Growth

The story of The Cat Returns, also called "The Cat's Repayment," is based on Aoi Hiiragi's Baron: The Cat Returns, which is a manga spin-off of Whisper of the Heart. Released in July 2002, it was directed by Hiroyuki Morita and remained the only film he directed until he went on to become a co-director of One Piece: Episode of Luffy: Adventure on Hand Island in 2012 and NiNoKuni in 2019.

The Cat Returns focuses on 17-year-old Haru Yoshioka (voiced by Anne Hathaway in the English dub), an awkward and shy girl who gets herself into quite the pickle after saving a cat that was about to be hit by a truck. This cat, by a strange stroke of luck, happens to be Prince Lune of the Cat Kingdom, and she becomes engaged to him as a show of gratitude by the Cat King. After seeking help from the Cat Bureau, she ends up getting dragged to the Cat Kingdom against her will. Now she must outrun an entire nation of felines in order to get back home.

Haru's hesitance and insecurity tend to land her in unfavorable situations, as she has trouble asserting herself. It's for this reason that the Cat King continues to interpret her mixed reply to being offered Prince Lune's hand in marriage as an acceptance of the union. However, after meeting sourpuss Muta and the courteous and ever-supportive Baron Humber von Gikkingen—whom she opts to simply call Baron—Haru starts developing the courage to stand up for herself.

Muta and Baron Become Haru Yoshioka's Saviors

Muta is given more character in The Cat Returns, as he becomes one of the characters who accompany Haru on her journey through Cat Kindom. He is first seen sitting outside the very antique shop where Haru finds Baron, and, despite initially coming off as rude and condescending, he is noted to have a big heart. This is proven when he goes out of his way to protect and help her get home. Towards the end of the film, he reveals himself to be "Reynaldo Moon," a feared criminal in the Cat Kingdom who is said to have devoured a whole lake of fish.

Baron, just like in Whisper of the Heart, is still a statue and not a true cat; however, just like in Shizuku's story, Baron comes alive in The Cat Returns and earns himself the role as the movie's main hero. He, along with Muta, work at the Cat Bureau, where Haru goes to seek out their help before she's kidnapped by a parade of cats and is taken to Cat Kingdom. Throughout the movie, he proves himself to be an exceptionally kind and gentlemanly figure. Because of his heroic and charming nature, Haru develops a minor crush on him.

The Cat Returns

G

Adventure

Comedy

After helping a cat, a seventeen-year-old girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat Prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life.

Director

Hiroyuki Morita

Release Date

July 20, 2002

Cast

Chizuru Ikewaki , Aki Maeda , Takayuki Yamada , Hitomi Sato , Yoshihiko Hakamada

Writers

Aoi Hiiragi , Reiko Yoshida , Cindy Davis

Runtime

75 Minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Producer

Ned Lott, Toshio Suzuki, Nozomu Takahashi

Production Company

Hakuhodo, Mitsubishi, Nippon Television Network (NTV), Studio Ghibli, Toho Company, Tokuma Shoten, Walt Disney Productions

Both Ghibli Films Deserve More Attention Than They Were Given

Muta and Baron are Childhood Icons Within Stories That Teach Meaningful Lessons

Whisper of the Heart was one of the highest-grossing films in Japan during the time of its release and was the first Ghibli film to win the Animation Film Award. Despite its domestic success, however, the movie remains one of the studio's most underrated masterpieces simply because it wasn't nearly as popular outside of Japan. The Cat Returns also didn't do quite as well as Miyazaki had hoped, as the movie itself is quite short in comparison to most (running at only around 75 minutes), and many claim that it was riding on the success of Spirited Away, which was released just the previous year, and its connected counterpart.

Regardless of any lack of success, the two movies have provided a memorable and joyful experience for every person who has sat down and watched them. The Cat Returns is a lighthearted film about a girl who gains confidence and learns to stand up for herself. It feels as though it came straight out of a child's dream, with its innocent humor and a silly, fantastical world where cats behave like humans. Its more "grown-up" yet wholesome predecessor, Whisper of the Heart, is a film about chasing dreams and setting childhood passions on a more realistic path to cementing one's place in the world.

Perhaps The Cat Returns was meant to be a look into the kind of story that Shizuku Tsukishima so ardently poured her heart into—something that captured the childish wonders she experienced in her youth while trying to show how the fairytale-like adventures she loved to read about can shape people into the best versions of themselves.