a very strong 3/5. the visual comedy in this movie is so fucking on-point, man. this movie is an outright comedy with how funny it can be. that entire ballroom feast sequence just had me busting a gut, i guess im just a sucker for cute visual gags involving cats. the characters in this are great, too, theyre also a really solid source of comedy. my favorite being the cheeky fat cunt muta, he was always a joy to watch. the baron himself is kind of a boring wet blanket, but the main character haru at least made up for it by being this adorable, clueless fun mc. the cat returns was much sillier and more whimsical than your standard ghibli faire, which is both a good and bad thing. all of them have mild fantasy elements, but this one really took it over the top, which made it simultaneously fun to watch and a little patronizing too. the movie almost treats the audience like kids, and the whole third act is filled with plot conveniences and just kiddy-movie-tier moments. upon reflection, this is actually quite a bit like what id imagine a kooky japanese take on the typical disney princess flick would look like. its real weird. also of note is the kind of shitty mood i was in for around the first 30 or so minutes due to a theater fuck-up, which almost definitely affected my score. the theater cropped out the top and bottom of the frame, making the subtitles completely unreadable. it was fixed eventually, but man that soured my experience big time. without that fuck-up, and on blu ray in the comfort of my own home, i can see this being bumped up to a light 3.5 on rewatch.  a good time, though this time around i understand why some people would call it lesser ghibli.