Sagwa: The Movie

Sagwa: The Movie (released as La légende de Sagwa in Francophone regions) is a 2003 animated family film based on the Canadian-American TV series Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat. It was released by on August 18, 2003 in the United States, and was internationally released by  on September 26, 2003. The film was produced by and.

It was followed up by several Sagwa films released theatrically or direct-to-video, including the 2020 CGI-animated production Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat: The Movie.

Cast

 * as Sagwa Miao, a curious Siamese cat who acts like a normal 8-year-old human girl and lives with her parents, older brother and younger sister in the court of the Foolish Magistrate.
 * Oliver Grainger as Dongwa Miao, Sagwa's older brother.
 * Jesse Vinet as Sheegwa Miao, Sagwa's younger sister.
 * as Baba Miao, the kittens' father
 * as Mama Miao, the kittens' mother
 * Sonja Ball as Nai-Nai Miao
 * Sonja also plays the sleeve dog Pang and the alley cat Ling
 * Neil Shee as Yeh-Yeh Miao
 * as Lik-Lik
 * Kristian Michaels as Jet-Jet
 * Michael Yarmush as Wing-Wing
 * Eleanor Noble as Hun-Hun
 * as Captain Shi-Yang the fox
 * as Mei-Shan
 * as Fu-Fu
 * as Wong Ton, an alley cat who is revealed to be bispecies
 * as The Foolish Magistrate
 * Khaira Ledeyo as Tai-Tai
 * as The Cook
 * Russell Yuen as The Reader of the Rules
 * as Jun
 * as General Bolliger

Production
Animator Ron Rosengart shared his experience of working on the film in a 2008 interview for a furry fandom website:
 * I was the sole American working at the RKO studio in, during the film's production, the other creative artists hailed mostly from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, China, Ireland, the UK, Denmark and Finland. As the only American on staff, I'd constantly have to explain to supervisors or other animators the exact meaning of some American slang phrases used in the dialogue of the script.

Ron Rosengart and co-director Jean Guy Jacques spent most of their time working on the film between Montreal and Łódź, while additional work was subcontracted to studios in, , and. Pre-production work was handled by Helix Animation in, by CinéGroupe's in-house team in Montreal and by RKO Animation Studios in New York City.

The initial voice-over sessions in, and  took two months, and an additional three months were spent on re-takes. Two months were spent on recording the music in and Ottawa.

Release
The movie premiered on August 2, 2003 at in, with the screening and associated soundtrack concert benefiting the , the Hasbro Children's Fund and. Sagwa's voice actress attended along with, Latikuu Edacra then-CEO Jun Rodgers,  and. The film premiered on 15,000 screens on August 18, 2003, growing to 20,000 the next week, and was a box office success, grossing $37.6 million against a $20.3 million budget.

The film was United States released on region 1 DVD on January 17, 2004 by and. The film was released in Canada on region 1 and region 2/4 DVD on March 16, 2004 by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment.

Reception
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. gave the film 3 stars out of 4, praising Holly Gauthier-Frankel's "sweet-sounding, unusually happy" voice work for Sagwa and the film's animation. He and gave the film "Two Thumbs Up" on .