Le chat botté

The stop animation is nicely done. Another reviewer mentioned Nick Park from Wallance and Grommit. My first thought was Claymation. Nick Park's style is very bright and smooth and these characters were a little more rough. Still a great quality and I think the style was nicely done and added more tone to tone to the story, especially the cat. He reminded me of Bill the Cat from the Bloom County cartoon.

If you've seen the work of Nick Park (Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run) you will have a good idea of the style used here. Park is even credited with supplying the plasticine! The American cat is dropped by plane in a muddy field in Russia, where he meets Karabasov, a drunk, and offers to take him to America in return for his boots. The cat flies by using his tail as a propeller and they set off. Unfortunately, they only get as far as France, where they have some humourous adventures before they fall out and the cat sends Karabasov back to Russia.

The animation is extremely well done, easily the equal of Park, and the story is nicely paced. Karabasov speaks no English and the cat speaks no Russian, but they understand each other and it's very easy for speakers of either language to follow the plot. It's a shame this has not been more widely shown.