UN CHAT A PARIS (THE CAT IN PARIS)

France, 2010, 98 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Jean- Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol.

Hard to tell whether this is an animation film for younger audiences (some scenes too frightening as a little girl is a central character) or for older audiences (a police investigation of a robbery and the threats of a gangster to waylay a sculpture en route to a museum).

The animation style is quite striking and the plot keeps moving. It has a brief running time.

And the cat? He is the pet of a little girl whose father, a policeman, has been killed and whose mother is in charge of the investigations. The cat goes out at night and meets up with a cat burglar who skims over the roofs of Paris with feline ease. One night the little girl follows the cat which leads to all kinds of trouble with the gangsters and the police – and the cat burglar being nicer than we at first thought.

One of those films that is interesting enough to watch but not memorable.

1. The audience for the film? Adults? Children? An adult story, with a child at centre? The cat and animals?

2. The animation style, the design, the characters, the cats, the voices, the score?

3. The focus on Paris, the roofs, the houses, the streets?

4. The cats – and the image of cats and cat burglars?

5. The mother, the little girl, the cat and bringing the lizard, Zoe and her response to her mother, her mother being tired, Claudine as the maid and nanny?

6. The burglar, his manner of walking the roofs, stealing, the police puzzle?

7. The nights, the cat going out, the dog barking, the cat meeting up with the burglar? The jazz score? The man robbed? The mask? The importance of the mask for the burglar?

8. Discovering that the mother was the superintendent, the clue of the cat paws, her assistant and his doing the work? The briefing? The colossus and the transfer – Victor Da Costa as the criminal? The revelation that Da Costa had killed the husband of the officer? The itinerary of the colossus?

9. The martial arts, the octopus hallucination? The effect on the superintendent?

10. Da Costa, the villain, his henchmen, the plan?

11. The bracelet, with the fish, the burglar giving it to the cat? Providing another clue?

12. Zoe following the cat, the people throwing bricks at the dog barking, Zoe seeing the burglar, the criminals and their pursuit of Zoe, the darts, deadly aim of the crooks? The cat burglar, saving Zoe, the scratch, carrying Zoe on the roof, the roof tiles and their instability? Da Costa, the lake, the boat? The arrest of the burglar?

13. The criminals, Claudine and her being in on the plan? The cat attack?

14. The crooks, shooting the spider? The spirit and its following the cat? The power cut? The cat and the goggles? The difference in animation – the sketch style of Jean Cocteau? The gargoyles and the cathedral?

15. The mother, her search, the traffic? Suspicious of the burglar?

16. The gargoyle, Da Costa and his fall, his being caught? The burglar saving Da Costa, and Zoe?

17. The colossus, astride Paris?

18. The superintendent, the recovery of Zoe, the revelation about Claudine and her tough stances, Da Costa arrested, the cat burglar as being a hero?