A Cat in Paris

Claudine: [As she’s kidnapping Zoé] A nice man like you would never hurt a woman, would you? [Cat promptly claws her leg]

quick fox: C

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winding dragon

I’m sure that if cats could talk about what they while they’re prowling around in the middle of the night, they’d have some wild tales to tell. In Un Vie de Chat or A Cat in Paris, we get a taste of one cat’s nighttime adventure.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2011, the French animation company Folimage presents their crime drama, A Cat in Paris. The cat in the film leads a double life: by day living with a young girl, Zoé, and by night assisting Nico the cat burglar (not literally stealing cats). However, the cat’s double life becomes intertwined when Nico helps save Zoé from Victor Costa, the man who killed Zoé’s father. Told over the span of one night, the movie is a story about overcoming grief and uniting families.

The best part about A Cat in Paris for me was the animation. It has visually and stylistically creative 2-D animation, which plays like a moving picture book. The characters’ fluid movements contrast the stark and striking shadows that are reminiscent of an expressionistic film noir. One scene in particular that stood out to me was the scene where all the lights are turned out, and the characters become moving chalk outlines against a black screen. However, I also understand why the animation might be unappealing to people. Like previous animated films I’ve reviewed, Song of the Sea (Celtic artwork) and Corpse Bride (claymation), the medium and artistic design of A Cat in Paris is vastly different than the realistic perspectives and proportions most of us grew up with in Disney and Pixar films. Still, the film is worth watching—for even ten minutes if you get bored—just to get a sample of an international animation style.

But as I said, the animation is the best part—the rest of the film is a bit iffy. Despite the film being a crime thriller, I wasn’t really thrilled. For the most part the movie plays it safe; there isn’t any real twists that aren’t predictable or what I would have expected. And even though we had the exposition information that Costa is a murderer, I never felt any real and present danger from him. Part of the problem is that the events happen over the course of one night and the film itself is only an hour long. For example, with Zoé’s mother, who is a police detective, the audience keeps getting hints about her mental grief and her extensive work she’s done into tracking down Costa, but her character just kind of fizzles out. Honestly, I think the movie would have worked better as a thirty-minute short film. With only an hour, it’s short enough where too many different plot points never blossom into anything, and it was long enough where the creators felt they had to invent something to keep the plot moving along.

Overall, A Cat in Paris is a nice fluff film. It has its interesting moments but it lacks a deep and personal message that can carry the picture.