Review No.106: A Cat in Paris

After the bashing and crashing of Snow White and The Huntsman I fancied something a little bit more sedate before I went back to the mind-numbing blockbusters so picked out A Cat in Paris as my next selection. The film is a charming animation that was one of the surprise nominees in this year's Best Animated Film Oscar category, along with Chico and Rita, and shockingly involves the adventures of cat who lives a double life. In the day it lives as a pet to Zoe a little girl who hasn't spoken since her policeman father was killed by the gangster M. Costa and whose police superintendent mother struggles to connect with. In the night though this cat aides a cat burglar by the name of Nico to carry out his various robberies eventually giving it a necklace which in turn is passed onto Zoe. As well as trying to solve the case of the burglar, Zoe's mother Jeanne is also dealing with the fact that she may have to come face-to-face with Costa when it is discovered that a statue he has wanted to steal is being moved from its place in a local museum. These stories come together as Zoe follows her cat on his adventures with Nico only to be captured by Costa who has had his lover Claudine spy on her as her role as child-minder. Zoe is kidnapped twice by Costa's gang only to be rescued both times by Nico before the film's climax takes across the rooftops of Paris ending in a spectacular set-piece on top of Notre Dame Cathedral.

I think it's great that films not in the English Language are getting recognised in the Animated Film category and while A Cat in Paris isn't in the same league as Chico and Rita it still is a lot better than the dirge that America regularly pumps out. The hand-drawn style and involving story-tellling remind me of The Illusionist, another French Oscar-nominated cartoon, as both tell of characters who are lost and have to find each other in order to start a new life. In the case of A Cat in Paris it is the relationship between Zoe and Jeanne which has become fractured and is only repaired after an encounter with Nico himself seemingly lost in the world of robbery. These stories are combined with some brilliant animation which is will utilised in a number of ways such as in the scene in which Nico cuts the lights in the building in which Costa's crew are celebrating the screen goes completely black with the only visible outlines being that of our heroes who are able to see in the dark to escape the bad guys. The final scenes atop Notre Dame Cathedral had to be an homage to Hitchcock's love of finishing his films around popular landmarks. The problem I had with the film was that it was fairly thin at only an hour long I could've done with a lot more meat to the story rather than just a rush to get to all of the points in the plot. At the end of the day though there was still more than enough for me to enjoy in this charming animation which nodded towards classic film noir but at the same time had enough lovely cartoon cat drawing to satisfy the whole family.

Verdict: Essentially a Hitchcock film for kids this splendidly drawn-animation was far too short for me to really get into and for that reason I'll have to award it 7/10