by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
I’ve always had a soft spot for animation. More years than not, at least a couple of animated features find their way onto my top 10 list. So, I’m setting out to shine a light on some films that may have passed you by. The idea with Animation Celebration is to take a look at some underseen gems — so no Toy Story or Frozen here.
Let’s get started.
“The Bat and The Cat” make their way back into movie theaters next month with The Batman. So, I figured we’d talk about something that could almost double as some sort of alternate Catwoman origin story.
A Cat in Paris is a French film nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2011 and follows a cat (Dino) who lives a double life — docile house cat by day, literal cat burglar’s aide by night — and has to come to his young owner’s aid after she gets caught up in the underworld life. The film is a production of Folimage. A scroll through their filmography shows nothing else that rings a bell, and this appears to be their most popular and successful film to date.
You can really feel the “art” of this film — and I don’t mean that in the pejorative way that such a descriptor can be used. It’s a hand drawn film and it very much feels like such. You can see the pencil/chalk/brush strokes in every frame that makes them look like a work of art. But even that art is unique, as the style has a bit of an abstract feel. It’s full of odd angles and crooked lines. Everything from faces to rooms is just a bit off and adds a bit of fun perspective. Even the way things are animated is a little abstract. During our cold open burglary, we get a sense of the smoothness and sleekness of the burglar that Dino is working with through his inhuman movements. At points, his limbs act like they are literally noodles and not confined by the limitations of a human skeleton. An added dose of creativity comes through in how a dark sequence is shot in a home that I felt was another creative way to show off stealth action.
This is what makes animation such a fun medium to explore. We, as audience members, are much more willing to accept a human defying the laws of biology and physics in this form than something like live action — except for maybe in something like Harry Potter. But even then, it’s couched in the existence of something otherworldly with the existence of magic.
Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a sucker for a fun caper flick, but I immediately got sucked in. However, while stealth burglaries and rooftop sequences are fun to take in, there’s also a deeper exploration done quite well. The family with which Dino spends his days are going through the loss of a husband and a father, and they both manifest that grief in different ways, but ways that I found powerful. The daughter has started not to talk and really only has a good relationship with Dino at the moment. The mother character plays a police superintendent on the trail of the gangster that murdered her husband, and the mental torment he puts her through is captured beautifully.
The villain himself — the aforementioned gangster — is the film’s weakest point. He comes off rather cartoonish, when not a figment of imagination, and keeps up quite well with a thief in his prime for an old man. For as well as the burglary scenes are shot, the final climatic fight leaves something to be desired.
The film even comes in at under half the time of The Batman. In fact, it’s nearly short enough to finish three times inside the runtime of the new take on the Caped Crusader. If you’re looking for an entry to expand your animated horizons, you’re not going to find a much smaller time commitment at a feature length that packs in the quality.
I’m excited to continue to geek out on some great animated work you may not have had a chance to catch. Next month, with the Oscars in late March this year, I’ll have one more first watch from the short list of underseen Academy nominees. Thanks for reading, and see you at next month’s celebration.
You can follow Jake Bourgeois on Twitter and Letterboxd