Banipal Witt: The World of Cats (1999 edited anime film dub)

Banipal Witt: The World of Cats is a 1999 re-edited children's film derived from the 1995 anime film ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catnapped! Catnapped!]'', originally directed by Takashi Nakamura. The edit was the combined efforts of its original director Robert A. Hughes and Magic World founders Michael Warren and Joseph Haddad, Pascal and Sandra Colline, Margaret Murray and Entervest Finances.

Originally intended to be a direct English dub, the project instead put the source material through considerable alterations, such as editing/cutting scenes deemed too frightening for young children and the addition of pop music to help generate commercial appeal.

Despite semi-American involvement with the production and the distribution rights being granted to Miramax, the edit's release in the United States was extremely limited and not given a proper home media release until 13 years later, although it was given a limited theatrical release in Canada on July 9, 1999.

The dub was first released in Germany on July 8, 1999 and later that year on October 8 in the UK and Ireland, both through Warner Bros. Family Entertainment.

Release dates

 * July 8 1999 (Germany)
 * July 9 1999 (Switzerland) (German speaking region)
 * September 21 1999 (Canada) (video release)
 * September 23 1999 (Israel)
 * September 24 1999 (Australia & New Zealand)
 * October 8 1999 (UK & Ireland)
 * November 18 1999 (Malaysia)
 * November 18 1999 (Singapore)
 * November 26 1999 (South Africa)
 * December 10 1999 (Italy)
 * December 16 1999 (Belgium)
 * December 16 1999 (Netherlands)
 * December 17 1999 (Spain)
 * February 10 2000 (Denmark)
 * February 11 2000 (Norway)
 * February 25 2000 (Sweden)
 * June 30 2000 (Poland)

Cast

 * James Earl Jones as Narrator
 * Andrew Francis as Tony-O (Toriyasu)
 * Britt Irvin as Mimi (Meeko)
 * Myriam Sirois as ChuChu
 * David Kaye as Horace (Henoji)
 * Garry Chalk as Henry (HoiHoi)
 * Richard Kind as Sullivan (Suttoboke)
 * Kathleen Turner as Bubblinda (Buburina)
 * Gilbert Gottfried as Donny (DohDoh)
 * John Rhys-Davies as Sandada
 * Richard Newman as The Great Magician Remlan
 * French Tickner as The King of Banipal Witt
 * Louise Vallance as The Queen of Banipal Witt
 * Tabitha St. Germain as Young Bubblinda
 * Andrea Libman as Lily

Production
Robert A. Hughes was tasked with helming a dub of the anime film Catnapped!, after Magic World had been alerted of its existence through a film festival. Impressed by the "unconventional" nature of its story elements and visual motifs, he was enthusiastic about preparing it for an international audience.

To aid him in this project, Magic World called in the husband and wife duo Pascal & Sandra Colline, because of their humble background working in children's media, for a job in the writing department. Both Collines agreed just as the project's financier Entervest (who was tied with Magic World, purportedly to help the studio branch out internationally) brought forth Margaret Murray, another client of theirs.

From there, trouble began, especially after a subtitled preview screening. While the Collines diplomatically voiced their concerns that it would possibly be traumatizing for very young children, Murray denounced it more vocally to the point of angry complaints towards the higher-ups who then proceeded to make cuts.

By his own account, Hughes, who made a point of analyzing the film and its contents every day as the dub was in the works, feuded with Entervest over the cuts and, with difficulty, managed to gain authorization to the editing department where he could try his best and make sure the plot would remain coherent amidst the financiers' orders.

Of further issue was that Entervest tried to make the project more "marketable" by demanding the inclusion of pop music, particularly aiming for a potential youth audience in Europe (whose favourite acts might in turn receive exposure in Canada through the film's soundtrack), although Magic World was permitted to suggest which out of numerous available pop songs would best match the story and messages.

Edits from Catnapped!

 * Much of Toriyasu's flashback scenes during the air battle were moved to the beginning of the film as the narration explains that he and Papadoll used to be inseparable pals, albeit not revealing the exact moment it all came tumbling down until later (with the audience being urged to wait and see).
 * Some parts of the sequence where Toriyasu and Meeko transform into cats upon their arrival to Banipal Witt was cut and rearranged because some shots were deemed too frightening for a younger audience.
 * Buburina's curse popping a flower and small fly were both removed, reasons cited being that the moments were "suggestive" and "too frightening in excess". Instead of intimidating DohDoh with popping the flower as a threat, she requests to have a word with him about how he's in love with her.
 * Toriyasu envisioning himself turning into a monster just like Papadoll is cut so it only shows the end result emerging from inside Sandada's mansion.
 * Both halves of the sequence with Buburina holding an assembly and turning her abductees into balloons to fill out the giant mouse blimp were fused with Buburina's attempt to pop Meeko (for openly standing up to her) changed to her realizing mid-rage she could use the girl as leverage against Sandada's resistance movement (or else turn her into another monster-pet). As such, Toriyasu and ChuChu's argument scene is played after this and followed by the palace infiltration.
 * ChuChu's backstory about her forbidden relationship with the mouse who pulls Banipal Witt's moon at night is explained in better detail, also expanded upon using storybook-style watercolour drawings filmed with a 35mm camera (drawn by a member of production staff).
 * When Toriyasu insults ChuChu and she is ready to claw him before Henoji interrupts to inform them Buburina's palace is up ahead, the look of extreme rage on her face (before she immediately stops to ready herself for sneaking inside) is replaced with an earlier shot of her just before cutting to Henoji, once again because it would be frightening for younger children.
 * When the dramatic reveal for what led to Papadoll's abduction is finally shown, Toriyasu kicking him is cut, also edited so he instead verbally blames his dog for their shared interest in space aliens getting him bullied by neighbourhood children.

Release and reception
The film was released theatrically in Canada, much of Europe, Australia and New Zealand from mid-1999 to early 2000. Despite considerable promotion and the inclusion of songs by popular artists, it was not a box office success in these territories.

During its limited run in Canadian movie theaters, the film was overshadowed at the box office by Disney's Tarzan and its much later summer release Inspector Gadget. Though local kids' network YTV promoted the film considerably, public interest (aside from amazement with the bizarre visuals) was largely minimal, with the film primarily showing in major cities and their nearest towns at chain cinemas like Cineplex Odeon, Famous Players and Empire Theaters with few smaller chains booking it.

In the United States, it fared even worse. Other than a few sporadic showings on Toon Disney and other cable networks during the late 90's and early/mid-2000's, it had little to no release and its home media debut wouldn't be until 2012 when Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released it on DVD as part of their deal with Miramax.

It has been suspected that this was due to legal issues regarding confusion with a translated video release of the original film but according to Haddad, "Entervest wasn't really intent on giving it a U.S. release. TV showings were arranged mostly because it was the minimum of a contractual stipulation in order to set the international release in motion as they had wanted."

Critical reception for the film has been largely mixed. While few publications of the time (in countries where it was shown in theaters) praised it for the creative and fluid animation, there was also criticism geared toward the inclusion of pop songs and script including late 90's cultural references, among other things. Contemporary response from audiences has been worse, with many objecting to the dub's alterations from the original film (with some arguing certain plot holes and loose ends from the original were fixed).

Promotion
The dubbed film received considerable promotion over in Europe, such as in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, where Ferrero advertised it via collectible circular cards inside the lids of Nutella jars. The German-language theatrical release was also accompanied with a contest in which the grand prize was a trip to Movie Park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen (then known as Warner Bros. Movie World) with the Game Boy Color as a runner-up prize.

In Spain, the film was promoted considerably on Antena 3 during its kids' program Club Megatrix, including tie-ins with Toys "R" Us, Chupa Chups and Yoplait.

Home media
After its short limited theatrical run, Alliance Atlantis released the film on VHS and DVD in Canada on September 21, 1999. In addition to a trailer for Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang and an advertisement for the Family Channel animated series Hoze Houndz, the home video release included a bonus CD of the films' soundtrack and a mail-in rebate offer with purchases of regular or Honey Nut Cheerios. In contrast to its box office underperformance, the tape/DVD sold modestly well in Canada that year.

On June 12, 2012, Echo Bridge finally released the film on DVD in the United States. As with their DVDs of Miramax films, there are no special features. This release was criticized for the quality of its video transfer, particularly slight (but noticeable) banding and compression artifacts.

Soundtrack
The film's original score by Shigeaki Saegusa was retained in the dub, albeit edited to accommodate cuts and other rearrangements of scenes. Many scenes (as well as the end credits) utilized pop songs by various artists. In many international versions of the dub, songs by artists native to the countries were played instead to replace certain songs in some moments (or are included on the CD rather than in the film).

The soundtrack was released on CD in the UK on October 6, 1999 by BMG (two days before the film's theatrical release in the country). It was also included free with VHS and DVD copies of the film in Canada by Alliance Atlantis.

(the track listing is for the original soundtrack as released in Canada and the UK/Ireland)


 * 1) Music Box Overture - Shigeaki Saegusa
 * 2) Buburina's Palace - Shigeaki Saegusa
 * 3) Rollercoaster - B*Witched
 * 4) U Drive Me Crazy - NSYNC
 * 5) If I Let You Go - Westlife
 * 6) Lean On Me (With the Family) (Radio Edit) - 2-4 Family
 * 7) The Great Magician - Shigeaki Saegusa
 * 8) Simple Obsession - Andru Donalds
 * 9) You Are Not Alone - Modern Talking
 * 10) Air Battle Suite - Shigeaki Saegusa
 * 11) Big Big World - Emilia
 * 12) Heartbeat - Steps
 * 13) I Cross My Heart - All-4-One
 * 14) Yume e No Tobira (The Door of Dreams) - Mayumi Iizuka ft. Suginami Children's Choir

Video game
Two PC games were released by Playfair Interactive in the fall of 1999 in North America: Banipal Witt: Chaos in the World of Cats and Banipal Witt Activity Center.

Chaos in the World of Cats is a point-and-click adventure game while Banipal Witt Activity Center consists of various activities such as crosswords, mazes, word searches, virtual chess, a print studio etc. all themed to the movie and its setting.

In the typical style of Playfair's PC games, which are produced on a limited budget, minimal dialogue is utilized (simply a careful selection of voice clips from the film) and important is stuff is generally conveyed through text instead.

An action-platformer/adventure game, entitled Banipal Witt: Cat-astrophic Pocket Adventure, was also released in 1999 for the Game Boy Color, acting as a sequel to the film (which ends on a cliffhanger), wherein Tony-O (Toriyasu), Mimi (Meeko) and the others return to Banipal Witt to deal with a new problem caused by Bubblinda (Buburina), seeking to enact vengeance for the retrieval of Papadoll from her clutches.