Catnapped!

[areaseven]

Totsuzen! Neko no Kuni Banipal Witt ( とつぜん！猫の国　パニパルウィット )

Triangle Staff/AC Create/Oniro/Bandai Visual/Pioneer LDC, 1995

Pioneer/Geneon Entertainment, 1999, 2004

Directed by Takashi Nakamura (A Tree of Palme)

Rated 3-Up. No cats or dogs were harmed during the production of this anime.

Fifth-grader Toriyasu and his little sister Miiko have a dog named Papadoll, who has been missing for the past week. One night, two cats take the two children to the distant cat land of Banipal Witt, where Papadoll was abducted. Because of his long exposure to Banipal Witt's sun, Papadoll mutated into a giant dog monster, terrorizing the city under the control of the evil Princess Buburina, who has the curse of turning anyone she touches into balloons. Toriyasu, Miiko and the cats have until the next sunrise to turn Papadoll and the ballooned citizens of Banipal Witt back to normal and return back to their home planet - or end up with the same fate as their dog.

Story: B+

Let's face it: a lot of children's stories out there are twisted. Banipal Witt is like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss storybook. It may be a children's anime movie, but I would recommend some parental guidance when showing this to kids, as there are a lot of scary elements in it. But then again, parental guidance is another word for "family entertainment."

Animation: B-

Just because it's done by Triangle Staff doesn't mean Banipal Witt's animation is of the same level as Macross Plus or Junkers Come Here. The artwork is pretty messy and some of the characters look pretty demented.

Soundtrack:B

Not too much a fan of this movie's BGM. The ending theme is too sugary for my tastes.

Sub vs. Dub

Banipal Witt features Hiroaki Hiro as Toriyasu, Mirai Sasaki as Miiko, Noriko Hidaka (Noriko in Gunbuster, Akane in Ranma 1/2) as Buburina, Fumihiko Tachiki (Gendo in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Choro-sama in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar) as Papadoll, Mayumi Iizuka (Sora in Escaflowne: The Movie, Nanaka in Magic User's Club) as Chu-Chu, Masato Yamauchi as Sandada, Ichiro Nagai (Happosai in Ranma 1/2, Left Hand in Vampire Hunter D) as Henogee, Sukekiyo Kameyama as Suttopoke, and Mitsuo Iwata (Kaneda in AKIRA, Pyoro in Vandread) as Doh-Doh.

I wasn't very impressed with the English dub.

DVD Extras: C

Just an image gallery and character descriptions.

The Bottom Line

If you're a cat person, you'll like Banipal Witt. Otherwise, it's strictly rental material.

Reference

Anime News Network

[KingNor]

Sub vs. Dub

Banipal Witt features Hiroaki Hiro as Toriyasu,

Mirai Sasaki as Miiko,

Noriko Hidaka (Noriko in Gunbuster, Akane in Ranma 1/2) as Buburina,

Fumihiko Tachiki (Gendo in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Choro-sama in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar) as Papadoll,

Mayumi Iizuka (Sora in Escaflowne: The Movie, Nanaka in Magic User's Club) as Chu-Chu,

Masato Yamauchi as Sandada,

Ichiro Nagai (Happosai in Ranma 1/2, Left Hand in Vampire Hunter D) as Henogee,

Sukekiyo Kameyama as Suttopoke,

and Mitsuo Iwata (Kaneda in AKIRA, Pyoro in Vandread) as Doh-Doh.

i know its nitpicking, but its really hard for me to sift through your "sub vs dub " section with all the unfamiliar names, maybe you could do them like this?

thanks though, i love your reviews i find tons of anime i'd never come across on my own this way :-) thanks!!!

Edited April 25, 2004 by KingNor

[Radd]

I haven't seen the movie since 1999, but if my memory serves me well, I recall the animation being pretty spectacular, with really fluid motion and lots of it. I also appreciated the really unique character designs. I'd reccomend this movie to any fans of animation.