Un gatto a Parigi

At 70 minutes, "A Cat in Paris" is the little film that could. The hand-drawn animated film packs a surprising amount of action and pathos into a children's cartoon and weaves a fairly rich back story that lends heft to the battle that unfolds between a cat burglar and the cat he shares with the local police chief versus the leader of a ring of art thieves. Leave it to the French to give the older child target audience some real narrative meat to chew on - although the action can be a little rough at times and some scenes will clearly scare younger viewers. The hand-drawn animation technique amplifies the scare factor but equally amplifies the warmth factor with scenes of the Dino the cat (and cat burglar)sinuously jumping from Parisian rooftop to rooftop approaching art. While the film is mostly beautiful to look at there are some plot problems such as the movie never stopping to explain how the older, puffy antagonist can keep up with our experienced cat burglar and his feline accomplice step-for-step across the Paris skyline. Also, action scenes too heavily dominate the run-time so at times it feels like Mel Gibson action movies from the 1990's. In short, the brief run time and a lack of memorable characters recommend it to a rental rather than a $12 a kid multiplex visit but it is a charming little film.

Even when "A cat in Paris" isn't at the same level of animated masterpieces as "The Triplets of Belleville" or "Persepolis", certainly it is a much better film for the whole family than most of the awful stuff produced by Hollywood in the recent years.

The animation of this film is neat, with a great atmosphere and beautiful sceneries. Also, even when the character's designs seem to be quite simple at first sight, they are actually quite stylish and well made.

The story, without being spectacular, never fails to entertain, keeping a good pace from beginning to end.

While this film is clearly aimed to kids, I think that the adults will find "A cat in Paris" to be quite enjoyable, mostly because it is a way more mature and sober movie for the family viewing.

A charming, if somewhat trite, tale about the night life of a pet cat, Dino, who wanders off every evening, where he leads a second life as a partner in crime for an extremely elastic burglar. During the day he accompanies the mute Zoe, having lost her will to speak after the abrupt death of her father, murdered by villainous art thief Costa. Both her parents married into the police force, so now her mother, Jeanne, places great focus on pinpointing and capturing the elusive and ruthless crook.

The odd, yet arresting, traditional animation are extremely stylish, visibly marking the specificity of French animation, seen also in similarly caricatured human drawings of Sylvain Chomein ("The Illusionist"). Drawings are kept simple, yet layered, with well animated figures, inspired by unique lack of symmetry oft found in children books, not by the strive for perfection of Walt Disney animation. Whereas the throwback-style of animation brings about a sense of unique charm, the story itself really doesn't venture into any unknown territory, instead delivering a well-mannered simple tale, which - unfortunately - does not always seem suitable for children given the simmering brutality (dogs being squashed by large bricks or a surprisingly direct level of aggression in the final act) and the drastically building tension levels in the second act. Nonetheless the entertainment value, significantly enhanced as an ode to the old-style heist genre, makes it an enjoyable affair, just as long as expectations keep the audience very close to the base ground level: just enjoy, don't analyse.

Well-paced with a decent amount of action, after a more muted, restrained beginning, the voyages of a French cat thoroughly engage, leaving a level of satisfaction, not hampered by the overall triteness and familiarity of the whole affair. Naturally, French wouldn't be French without homaging and referencing other movies, hence the feel of old Closeau and Pink Panther movies is omnipresent.

The least familiar of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, this is a French film (originally just titled A Cat's Life) made with traditional animation. The style is similar to some other recent foreign animated features like The Secret of Kells and Persepolis, with a lot of exaggerated backgrounds and simply designed characters (sometimes they even look like figures from Picasso's cubist period). The best thing about the film is its beautiful use of colors, which are truly stunning. The film is always a joy to look at. Story-wise, though, it's nothing too special. It's a basic crime film spoof. The titular cat leads a double life, living with a young girl during the day but venturing out with a cat burglar neighbor at night. The girl's father, a police officer, has recently been killed by a gangster, and now her mother, also a police officer, is on the gangster's trail. Eventually the girl, being chased by the gangster, is aided by the cat burglar. The villain is pretty dull. In fact, most of the characters are pretty uninteresting, with the possible exception of the burglar, whose nimble acrobatics are fun to watch. It doesn't even run 70 minutes, though, so its pleasures definitely outweigh its flaws by the end. It's well worth checking out if you're an animation fan.

I found A Cat in Paris to be a very good film. Although it is rather short, perhaps too short, it is very well animated with ethereal colours, beautiful sceneries and a fantastic atmosphere that is both thrilling and nostalgic. I agree however that how tiny the feet were drawn was a form of annoyance. The music was both haunting and charming, almost like listening to a score by Bernard Hermann. The story is not the most original story in the world, but I didn't see it as a bad thing, seeing how slickly paced, vivid, affecting and humorous A Cat in Paris was. The characters also engage, with the best being the title character, a strutting observant sort of cat, and the little girl who is sweet and moving, and the voice acting is dynamic enough too. In conclusion, a very good film. 8/10 Bethany Cox