Tim Curry’s Only Anime Role Is a 24-Year-Old Studio Ghibli Masterpiece on HBO Max

It is easy to imagine Tim Curry commanding a stage, terrifying audiences as Pennywise, or lending his unmistakable voice to Western animation. But there is something wonderfully strange about discovering Tim Curry inside a Studio Ghibli film. The actor who became immortal as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show also lent his unmistakable voice to The Cat Returns, Hiroyuki Morita’s 2002 fantasy about a teenager swept into a kingdom ruled by talking cats.

Now, following Curry’s death at 80 on August 25, 2026, the film offers an unexpectedly poignant way to revisit one of his lesser-known performances. In the U.S., The Cat Returns is currently streaming on HBO Max, making its eccentric little corner of Ghibli especially easy to rediscover.

Tim Curry’s Role in The Cat Returns Makes It Worth Revisiting

Tim Curry as Cat King (left) and his chamberlain (right) from The Cat Returns. [Credit: Studio Ghibli]

Curry’s career was built on theatrical extremes. He could be seductive, sinister, comic and gloriously eccentric, whether as Frank-N-Furter, Wadsworth in Clue, Pennywise in It, or the flamboyant villainy of Legend. Yet his career also endured after a severe stroke in 2012 left him partially paralyzed, with voice work becoming an important part of his later years. He died at his Los Angeles home on August 25, with authorities confirming a death investigation; his cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.

That makes his performance as the Cat King in The Cat Returns feel like an especially curious footnote in his filmography. He does not play the elegant Baron, the gruff Muta, or Prince Lune. Those roles belong to Cary Elwes, Peter Boyle, and Andrew Bevis in the English dub. Curry is the booming, imperious ruler (Cat King) whose ridiculous royal confidence helps turn the Cat Kingdom into a fairy tale with whiskers and sharp claws.

The Cat King is a flamboyant, self-important monarch whose idea of gratitude quickly becomes a nightmare for Haru Yoshioka. After the teenage girl saves Prince Lune from being hit by a truck, the King showers her with gifts before deciding that she should marry his son and remain in the Cat Kingdom. The English cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Haru.

It is precisely the kind of part Curry could make sing. His voice carries the Cat King’s theatrical arrogance without making him frightening; beneath the grand declarations is a comic absurdity that suits a monarch who thinks abducting a teenage girl and arranging her marriage is perfectly reasonable.

The story begins when ordinary high-schooler Haru Yoshioka saves a cat from being hit by a truck. The cat is actually Prince Lune, and Haru’s good deed plunges her into an increasingly bizarre chain of events involving gifts from grateful cats, an unwanted marriage proposal, and eventual imprisonment in the Cat Kingdom. Her escape depends on the mysterious Baron, the enormous Muta and her own growing realization that she cannot simply let other people decide who she should become.

Why Studio Ghibli’s The Cat Returns Still Stands Out 24 Years Later

Released in Japan on July 20, 2002, The Cat Returns is a brisk 75-minute film directed by Hiroyuki Morita and produced by Studio Ghibli, with a screenplay by Reiko Yoshida and original material by Aoi Hiiragi. Studio Ghibli itself credits Morita as director, Hayao Miyazaki as planner, and Toshio Suzuki as producer.

The project grew from a proposed short centered on cats, with Miyazaki wanting the Baron, Muta and a mysterious antique shop involved. When that project changed direction, Morita expanded the material into a feature. The film ultimately became a spin-off of sorts from Whisper of the Heart, bringing back the Baron and Muta from Hiiragi’s world.

The Cat Returns feels like Ghibli taking one of its own daydreams and letting it sprint away. Unlike the melancholy grandeur of Princess Mononoke, the dreamlike coming-of-age journey of Spirited Away, or the romantic spectacle of Howl’s Moving Castle, this film is lighter on its feet. It moves quickly, jokes often and embraces absurdity. The Cat Kingdom is not an elaborate philosophical universe; it is a fever dream of royal cats, impossible architecture and frantic escape.

Yet Haru’s predicament gives the chaos emotional shape. She begins as an uncertain girl whose life seems to happen around her. The fantasy forces her to make decisions for herself. It is about learning not to disappear inside everyone else’s expectations. Its humor is fast and physical, its fantasy is visually playful, and its emotional core is remarkably uncomplicated. The movie’s reputation has also aged well. It received an Excellence Award in Animation at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, with the jury specifically praising its youthful, refreshing presentation and its relationship to Whisper of the Heart.

And then there is Curry. Watching The Cat Returns today, his voice arrives almost like a familiar face glimpsed through a different doorway. The actor who once ruled a midnight cult classic is suddenly presiding over a kingdom of talking cats. It is funny, unexpected and, after his passing, unexpectedly moving. Some performances dominate a career. Others quietly illuminate its edges. Curry’s Cat King belongs to the latter, and that may be exactly why discovering him here feels so special.

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The Cat Returns is available on HBO Max or via the Hulu add-on bundle.