Hello Kitty is a rare breed. A brand that has somehow managed to transcend time, the 40-year-old cat has appeared on purses, jewelry, clothes, toys and more, coming and going from trends but never disappearing entirely.
The character is enjoying an all-time high in popularity, so the company that owns her, Sanrio, is doing what's done to everything popular: make a movie. It will be the first big screen film produced by the Japanese lifestyle company, and is expected in 2019.
Despite what you may have heard via a now-famous story from the L.A. Times, Hello Kitty is a cat. That story asserted that Sanrio categorized her as a little British girl from the London area, interpreting those comments to mean that Hello Kitty was a human... who happened to look like a cat. This oddly compelling — but mostly just odd — notion of a disfigured little cat girl is way wrong.
What Sanrio's representative actually said (or at least meant) was that Hello Kitty was "not simply a cat." This was later explained to mean that she's an anthropomorphized cat, similar to Mickey Mouse, who's "not simply a mouse." She's smarter than the average bear more than your usual cat, but she's still a cat.
So with that nonsense resolved, let's focus on the bigger and far more troubling question: What on earth will Hello Kitty: The Movie be about? More to the point, what unbearably adorable concoction will parents be forced to lose 90 minutes of their lives to in 2019? Well, it turns out, there's a little more to this kitty than that unmistakable face.
First of all, Hello Kitty's name is not Hello Kitty. Her real name is Kitty White. She has an über-girly twin sister named Mimmy, a housework-loving mom (Mary), and a funny, absent-minded dad (George). Basically, the Whites are an undisguised stereotype of 1940s suburbia.
Kitty has a best friend who serves as her male counterpart in product licensing, who goes by the moniker "Dear Daniel." Sanrio describes Daniel as "sensitive and naïve," with a strong fashion sense and talents for photography, dancing, and piano playing.
But back to the movie question. We're guessing it will consist of an extremely mellow caper, like a lost pet (Kitty owns a pet cat, and no I can't believe I just typed that, either) that requires cuteness, rainbows, and unbridled product placement to save the day.
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