Thoughts and Reactions: Cat Soup

1. What is this movie about.

In a literal sense, this movie is about a young cat and his sister who go on an adventure through a very strange world. They go to a circus and end up in an endless sea for a while, and to a strange desert. In a less literal sense, I interpreted this film to be about a young boy coping with the loss of his sister. As he is traveling on this adventure through this strange world, he is searching for half of his sisters soul to try and bring her back. He is able to interact in such a way because he had a near death experience (drowning) at the beginning of the film but was brought back. The movie also alludes to some of the major sins at times, which the younger cat commits in an attempt to bring back his sister from the dead.

2. What are 3 creative strategies you can pull from this film?

This film did a great job in it's execution of visuals and manipulating visual symbols. A good example is during the circus when the wizard turns words into the things they say during the circus. I think the transition between the more common symbol into the thing it actually represents is an interesting way to interpret.

I also enjoyed the design of their transitions through different scenes. I felt like they made them seamless while transitioning between very different areas. It helps with my creative process as it allows me to explore more ideas and search for a more creative way to get between them.

Finally, I thought they did a good job of using objects and actions to symbolize how people were feeling within the family. When the boy first drowns, it is somewhat unclear what actually happens there, but the lacking response of the mother when he runs up to her implies he is not actually there. Also, I interpreted the family turning into alcohol as a symbol of their coping mechanism when dealing with the deaths of the children.

3. General Reactions

I personally loved this film. I thought it gave a lot of good ideas in a very abstract form. I thought it was also a great example of how to tell a story visually as opposed to just using dialogue. The dialogue was only used when required to move the story along. I also liked the amount that was left up to interpretation, as I felt it gave the audience more of a chance to relate to the film.