A Cat in Paris

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A simple story, almost cliché, but nicely done. The story has a well done form. The execution is beautiful. You have a little bit of everything here without making a mess. I loved it. And I loved it even more after seeing the bonus track with the other versions, more dark, more violent. It succeeds at making a child movie which is fun to watch for an adult. And it can be considered an adult light story that can be seen by children as well. A wonderful depart from the big budget animations from DreamWorks and DisneyPixar. So history seems to repeat itself. You have the big budget, nicely polished, yet silly and pointless Cars. And you have smaller, apparently independent European movies like this one. Bravo! Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Alongside Chico and Rita, this is another worthy contender for the Oscar best animation category. Unlike most other animation, this is uniquely European in terms of art and of both the physicality and the expressions exhibited from movements to geometrics and color contrasts. I believe that, concurrently with choosing such an art style, the intention is to make the whole movie slightly more one-dimensional and maximizes the potential in that regard. The plot is meant to be simple and the characters being as predictable as it should be (villains are bad & stupid, etc.). Despite being too crude or lacking advanced perceptions which would obviously boost up the script's potential for a far richer content, there is still enough entertainment value, material and the pace of the plot is quick enough to keep demanding viewers like me hooked. In fact it is superior to Chico & Rita in terms of that. Some of the scenes are very creative too. I do hope either this or Chico will win the Oscars 2012!!

touching, nice, interesting. not very moral, in fact, but this is not great problem. its virtue - the colors and game with Paris symbols, Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame de Paris as perfect actors. in same measure, a pleasant music. and adorable moments. a policier ad usym delphini. but really good for science of measure, for the art to create a puzzle with ordinary pieces but not boring. a cat as axis of events. a mother, her daughter. and the group of evil gangster. a poor dog, roofs, trip in zoo, crumbs from Persepolis animation. revenge, love story, wise thief with brave heart and slices of seduction. nothing new. nothing complicated. but beautiful. and this is the point !

I really like the hand-drawn animation with great attention to detail. I also very much enjoyed the musical score by Serge Besset. All the performances were good (if a little odd in places… more on that later) so honourable mentions go to the voice talents of; Marcia Gay Harden as Jeanne, JB Blanc as Victor Costa, Anjelica Huston as Claudine and Matthew Modine as Lucas. I guess the filmmakers were trying to please everyone by making the accents of the characters quite international. Of course the bad guy has an English accent, with one of his henchmen being German. There's an old lady with a very American accent; to be honest, it's all a bit confusing! Even so, I did find it entertaining with nods to Hitchcock (amongst others), this one managed to do much more right than wrong. It's funny (in parts) too, there's one recurring gag with a barking dog that had me in stitches! Over all, it's one I don't mind giving my seal of approval to. SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED. My Score 6.5/10 IMDb Score: 6.8/10 (based on 2,310 votes at the time of going to press). MetaScore: 63/100: (Based on 19 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press). Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 82/100 (based on 55 reviews counted at the time of going to press). Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 72/100 'Liked It' (based on 3,299 user ratings counted at the time of going to press). You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

I'll cut to the chase. "A Cat of Paris" was Oscar-nominated in one of the worst years in recent memories for the category of Best Animated Feature. Considering that the mediocre (at best) film "Rango" won and films like "Puss 'n Boots" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" were also nominated, I think I can rest my case. "A Cat of Paris" is really no better and is a film I could have skipped. The movie is told using a very simple looking animation style and looks a bit like another nominee that year, "Chico and Rita". The drawings appear a bit crude and the film has a very non-Hollywood look. Some might like it--I just thought it looked less than Oscar- worthy. Now it it NOT because I expect all animated films to look like Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks films--but I would have expected for with an Oscar nominee. The story is about a cat who spends its days living with a mute little girl. However, at night when she sleeps, it slips out and hangs with a thief with a heart of gold (a bad cliché, I admit). Later, when the child is caught up with a vicious group of gangsters, the thief and cat come to her rescue. I found myself only moderately interested in the film. It's not bad but it wasn't particularly inspired. I think had it NOT been nominated, I actually would have enjoyed it more, as my expectations were awfully high but the film couldn't match them. Additionally, I was a bit surprised how nasty and scary the gangsters were, as it seems a bit too much for younger viewers--which is unusual for a cartoon.

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.

Having most recently been seduced by Paris in The Artist and Midnight in Paris and before that in animation with The Illusionist and Triplets of Belleville, I was fully prepared to enjoy A Cat In Paris, a nominee for Best Animated Feature Oscar, worthy of the award even with competition like Chico & Rita. I was not disappointed. This cute, un-Pixar thriller depicts a cat accompanying a cat-burglar at night over the rooftops of Paris and into apartments ripe for the plucking with his accomplice, Nico (Bruno Salomone voice). The owner of the crafty cat, Zoe (Oriane Zani), lives with her chief of Police mother Jeanne (Dominique Blanc), both of whom are still mourning the loss of dad/husband at the hands of arch-villain Victor Costa (Jean Benguigui). The plot does not make this a memorable cartoon; it's the whimsical slit-eyed, long-nosed eccentrics who inhabit the flat pastel world, slim on speech and graceful even when they're thugs. It's a fantasy of our imagination, what we dream Paris would be like in a better world, even with burglars and mobsters. An interesting touch is to make the cat tough rather than tender and Zoe mute for the shock of her father's death. The tonal shifts between that darkness and then silly thugs and a sweet cat burglar, who doesn't seem to be punished for his crime, will make this a problematic choice for kids, who might not get it. Parents may find it difficult to decide if this is a thriller or a comedy as well. For me, it's just the exotic world of Paris in my imagination. Nothing beats swinging over the rooftops at anytime with anyone, even a mischievous cat.

French animation has a certain stylish aesthetic. From the Gallic influenced 'Pink Panther' and 'Inspector Clouseau' cartoons to the films of Sylvain Chomet such as Belleville Rendezvous and The Illusionist, French animation has a definite look and feel. A Cat in Paris very much fits into this category. Its appeal lies almost exclusively in its French aesthetic. Its story has three plot strands: a single mum and her daughter, their cat and a burglar and a gang of crooks. All the stories ultimately converge. In all honesty the story and characters aren't especially interesting. This is the weakness of the film. However, its strength lies in its animation and look. It's an old-style cartoon done in the traditional way. It isn't CGI and this is to its benefit. It has lots more heart and soul than the slick computer generated stuff we mainly see nowadays. The characters are simply drawn, resembling some forms of primitive art. The Paris they inhabit is beautifully presented. This city is such a knockout that it always looks terrific when animated, it really seems ideal for the treatment. Here is no exception, with the buildings lovingly depicted and the night-time rooftops romantically illustrated. The atmosphere created by the animation is very appealing. This is a good feature. It's not up to the standard of Sylvain Chomet's work but it is certainly operating from a similar place. If you appreciate traditional animation or more specifically French animation, then this is a feature well worth catching.

The only reason you should see this movie is the beautiful art/animation. Colors and scenarios are gorgeous but the plot is quite boring, old and basic, its just one chase after another. If anything is worthwhile in the script is that there's no moral implications, not everything is merry and bright with the "good" characters; but we can account this on the film being french. Far from the political-correctness from USA animations. The main character is a cat, that bonds a little girl to a jewelry thief. But there's also a big-time mafia leader that the girl's mother investigates restlessly, making her an absent mother that can't spend much time with her daughter, traumatized after her's father death. Everything comes together with this 4 characters in the streets of Paris and the church of Notre-dame.