A Movie Review: Cats and Peachtopia (2018)

We found this movie accidently to spend time with my nine-year-old cousin. My prejudice that I would be bored ended from the very first minutes of the movie. Cats and Peachtopia is a well-done movie that you can enjoy and find something from your inner world, no matter your age.

Blanket is a lazy chubby house cat. After getting rid of freezing at the last minute when he was young, he believed that the outside world was a dangerous place and spent his day on the warm cushion of the house.

Blanket’s son Cape is a lively and curious kitten. He looks out of the window where he chases the birds and wants to know what the street is like. He constantly asks her father to tell about the outside world.

His curiosity is fueled by a story his father told: His mother is in a wonderful place. In Peachtopia, “a place of milk, fish and fantasy”, where cats live happily…

Cape now has only one wish: to go out and go to Peachtopia, where his father says he is behind the mountain visible from the window!

Cape has a long way to go. He must first descend from the high-rise apartment where he lives, then cross the river, pass through the city full of skyscrapers, and then climb the mountain. After overcoming all these tracks, he will be able to reach the blossoming utopia in his dreams. This 87-minute film tells about this long journey.

Warning: There are spoilers in the rest of the article. I will write some quotes and scenes.

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Cape starts by gathering a lot of information. He watches videos on his tablet for days and tries to fly inside the house with the wings he has made. After all his experiments, observations and efforts, he manages to rocket and thus takes the first step of the journey to utopia.

I perceived the kitten’s efforts as an example of humanity. Watching nature, trying to take advantage of the forces in nature, our technologies in this world to which we are sent like a traveler… Isn’t our voyages in the sea with ships and in the skies with airplanes for the utopia that lies deep in our souls, the longing for heaven?

However, there is no perfection in the world, we know but we seek it. This is our natural inclination.

The determined cat flies along the river with his rocket, paragliding across the city and manages to reach the forest at the foot of the mountain.

After Cape leaves the house, Blanket and Mack, the parrot of the house, set out to save Cape. Because there is a glass factory in the forest producing animal-shaped sculptures. The boss of the factory abducts the animals and throws them into the oven alive after taking their molds. In this way, he thinks he has produced stunning works of art. It is the soul of animals that inspires his art.

He is also after the glass globe necklace hanging on the neck of the Cape, because without that necklace, he could not get inspired and sell his sculptures in the way he wanted.

In short, Cape flew into danger, not utopia.

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A raccoon gang is guarding the factory. The Cape, which was chased by raccoons, is rescued first by a monkey and then by an old cat.

This old big cat lived in the house that Cape had abandoned long ago, and saw the baby Blanket. It is he who once gave the glass globe necklace to Blanket. The old cat takes Cape to the bar he runs at a locomotive and hides him from raccoons.

Cape, who sees the glass factory in the valley and admires the sparkling lake next to the factory, leaves the bar despite all the warnings of the old cat and goes to that place he thinks is Peachtopia. Before leaving, he removed the necklace and left it at the bar, following the advice of the old cat.

Meanwhile, Blanket and Mack go through difficulties and reach the mountain. On the way, Blanket tells Mack that he regrets saying Cape’s mother had gone to Peachtopia. Because in reality, Cape’s mother fell out of the window and died.

Cape dives into the lake by putting a bell jar on his head and activating the air motor, and even manages to reach the bottom of the lake. He sees a lush green and wonderful view with the currents at the bottom. But without enjoying the view, he was pulled up by the factory workers and enclosed in a cage. In this place, where dozens of wild animals await death in cages, he runs across the monkey who saved him and learns about the fate of the animals that come to the glass factory.

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Meanwhile, Blanket and Mack came to the old cat’s bar. Mack flies to the factory and learns that Cape is locked in a cage. Raccoons, on the other hand, went out to search for the lost necklace on the boss’s order. While the old cat distracts the head of the raccoon gang, dad cat and parrot run away.

When the boss couldn’t find the necklace on the cat’s neck, he lost hope and began to believe that the factory was cursed. He decides to throw all the animals into the oven to regain his inspiration. He will start from Cape.

When the Blanket comes to the factory, he sees Cape falling into the oven.

In this part, Blanket’s facial expression was very realistic. They successfully reflected the transition of emotions, disappointment, anger, sadness, and shock. I would like to congratulate the creators of the animation. It was an impressive scene.

Cape manages to get out of the oven at the last minute, but cannot make his voice heard by his father. Meanwhile, Blanket was destroyed because he thought that his son was dead and he surrendered to the factory workers because he had nothing to live for.

Cape is out now and must liberate his father.

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He meets with the old cat in the forest. They decide to negotiate with raccoons using the glass necklace. The head of the raccoon gang agrees to release Blanket, but in return demands Cape along with the necklace. They accept.

During the bargain, the old cat neutralizes the raccoons with the help of a glass melting tool. They save not only Blanket, but all animals. The animals unite, turn the glass whale statue standing in the middle of the factory into a submarine with the help of gas-filled tubes and dive into the lake.

The boss enters the lake, the necklace on Cape is hung. All he wants is a necklace. The head of the raccoon gang -he has turned- helps Cape so that the boss gets caught up in the current of the lake and disappears.

The glass globe necklace broke off during this turmoil. When Blanket is alarmed, the old cat says it’s okay and tells the story of the glass sphere in these words:

“It’s just an ordinary glass bead, just a souvenir. Huh? Originally, he gave it to me. When I met him, years ago, he was poor worker with big ideas. He said I inspired him. I inspired his first cat sculptures. The bead’s lovely, mutating colors were like the inspiration he chased. The workshop was his Peachtopia. Later, he went too far, into the dark side. So, I left.”

When you look closely at the glass ball, you can see that it contains flowers. The sphere is the symbol of inspiration, a little specimen of heaven that lies in the human heart and is longed for. When the boss could not achieve the perfection he was looking for, the “peachtopia”, he fell into ambition, then lost his inspiration and eventually himself disappeared. The “boss” character is a portrait of people who fall into perfectionism and lose the knowledge that life is a process of seeking the good, and become unhappy.

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Animals passes through the scenic place at the bottom of the lake, they reach a land where the sun shines, rivers flow, trees full of pink flowers and smiling greenery. They dance with joy around the fire. You would think the movie should end here, but it doesn’t. Because what the movie wants to give us is not the simple “happy ending”.

Even though all that bliss and fun, Cape grieves. He leaves the dancing animals and retreats into a secluded corner. In the next scene, we see Cape unhappy under a deep blue sky, a green hill and a pink tree.

Cape wants to go home. To the apartment across the river. Where the whole journey begins.

“Hey, son. This giant world… is all yours. Go! Experience it, be daring. But if… If one day you miss home, you know that your home is wherever I am.”

… says Blanket. Then he goes in a random direction in the endless greenery.

Cape’s face shines. Now he can go in any direction, wherever he wants! He realized that he carry his house, his heaven in his heart. He realized that life was a journey of search.

The director’s name is Gary Wang. I want to watch his other movies. I conclude with a final quote.

“I have a home. We all have to let go, leave and grow up. Maybe that’s the true Peachtopia, a place you long for, but where you can’t stay.”