Mrs. Ashboro's Cat (2003)

"Ghost Cat" or "Mrs. Asboro's Cat" is a family film from 2004 starring a young Ellen Page, Michael Ontkean who at 58 here still looks like he did on The Rookies, Lori Haller, and Shirley Knight as Mrs. Ashboro.The story concerns an elderly woman (Knight) and her cat Margaret, both of whom pass away. Mrs. Ashboro had her house up for sale, at her nephew's prodding, which is when Wes Merritt and his daughter Natalie (Ontkean-Page) look at the house. Then she changes her mind. Margaret the cat shows up to help Natalie, her dad, and the animal shelter owner (Haller) from time to time, especially as people are trying to destroy the animal shelter in order to get the property. It looked to me as if the producers used an older cat for Margaret, which makes sense.This was cute. Not everything has to be bloodshed or special effects. Every once in a while, a story about a ghost cat is all you need.

Wes Merritt (Michael Ontkean) and his daughter Natalie (Ellen Page) get more than they bargained for when they buy an old house that was formerly inhabited by the nice old Mrs. Ashboro and her pet cat, Margaret. When strange things start happening in the house, all fingers point to the presence of Margaret, who died the same day as Mrs. Ashboro. But why has she come back to haunt them? Trying to call this a "horror" film is something of a stretch, as it really falls more into a "family mystery" category. Having been made by Animal Planet, it has something of a TV vibe and is quite family friendly. There is, in fact, a ghost cat, and it does somehow happen to claw people from beyond the grave.The casting is decent, bringing a post-"Twin Peaks" Ontkean together with a pre-"Juno" Page (who would have thought she would get big after seeing this film?). Everyone else is largely unknown (although, to be fair, they were probably all largely unknown at the time).Great film? Definitely not. Good family fun, yes, certainly.

This is a really cool movie! I enjoyed it immensely, and watch it every time it is on TV.This movie, "Ghost Cat", deserves to be on DVD!It's the ultimate Halloween movie for the whole family.If you are an animal lover, "Ghost Cat" will be one of your favorite movies.Maybe if we all contact Animal Planet, or the Studio that made the movie, and ask them to put this movie on DVD, they will.Ghost Cat has a special charm to it, that is sorely lacking in many movies.It is a very special movie.Let's put it on DVD!

This is a simple children's movie with all the classic Disneyesque components, evil nephew trying to get his hands on his late aunts estate, kind hearted woman trying to save all the animals and implants from the big city relocating to "start over". It's not that great - I only watched it because of the cat - the acting was rather wooden and although i was fooled by the New York licence plates, my instincts were still good - it was Canadian, wooden - why is it that we Canucks can do brutal stuff well like 'life after billy' and the story of the Christian Brothers abuse, but we do general stuff so badly - I'm not sure if it's just poor directing (after all we have great canadian actors who go on to make in in other milieus) Anyway, simple stuff for kids, no one ends up dead (except the ghosts of course!)