7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In Paris, a cat who lives a secret life as a cat burglar's aide must come to the rescue of Zoe, the little girl he lives with, after she falls into a gangster's clutches.
Starring: Dominique Blanc, Bernadette Lafont, Bruno Salomone, Jean Benguigui, Oriane ZaniAnimation | 100% |
Foreign | 99% |
Family | 47% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
New Video has evidently cornered the market on quirky Academy Award nominated animated features, at least if their release of Chico & Rita last month and now A Cat in Paris is any indication. Both films garnered nominations last year (Rango won) and both were notable for being foreign language films in addition to their status as animated fare. A Cat in Paris is diametrically opposed to both Chico & Rita’s historical approach and is perhaps at least slightly more in tune with Rango’s rampant whimsy, although it has a decidedly darker edge that is largely lacking in the Gore Verbinski - Johnny Depp outing. Animated in a playful, almost childlike, style, A Cat in Paris is almost like a childhood storybook come vibrantly to life. The story is basically simple, but with enough twists and turns to keep both parents and their kids involved. Nico is—well, there’s no way around this—a cat burglar who has lately been accompanied by a little neighborhood feline name Dino. Dino actually belongs to a sweet little girl named Zoë who is suffering from a sort of post traumatic stress disorder after her father was murdered, leading to her having become mute. She attended to by a solicitous nanny named Claudine and (occasionally) by her own harried mother, who happens to work for the Paris police department. Though Zoë’s mother is on a mission to bring local crime bossa Victor Costa to justice for having murdered her husband (Zoë’s father), a recent rash of jewelry thefts has also attracted her attention. When Dino brings Zoë back a diamond encrusted bracelet rather than his usual dead lizard, Mom’s suspicions are raised and she has her assistant at work look into it. In the meantime, little mute Zoë decides to follow Dino out on his “hunting” adventures one night and that’s when all of these disparate story lines intersect.
A Cat in Paris is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of New Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a very vivid, bright and appealing high definition presentation that beautifully reproduces the hand drawn charms of this feature. A lot of the piece has an intentional "shimmer" to it, where line detail varies from frame to frame and even details, like noses and eyes, tend to vary slightly. That said, the image here is gorgeously sharp and well defined, with wonderfully saturated colors and very strong contrast, helping the many nighttime scenes to pop with lustrous blues and blacks.
A Cat in Paris has DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes available both in the original French and the English dub. Unlike many recent anime I've reviewed, there is no appreciable difference in the mix between the languages other than the voice work. The French language version seems a bit "gentler" (for want of a better word) in how the actors approach their roles. The English language cast does a great job with their roles, especially Huston as the nanny. Fidelity is excellent and the charming jazz inflected score sounds great (and the score in fact provides some of the most open use of the side and rear channels). There's not a wealth of dynamic range here, or even really incredible surround activity, but everything sounds clear and precise with excellent reproduction through all frequency ranges.
A Cat in Paris is an interesting little fairy tale that plays in fact much like a Grimm's yarn of old. It's shiny and colorful on its surface, but there are some very disturbing subtexts here that shade this story in some very interesting ways. The animation style here is delightful, very playful and childlike, which again plays intentionally ironically against the kind of dark subject matter. The humor here is not as in your face as in many American animated features, but there's a charming ambience to this film that should easily hold the attention of both kids and their parents. This Blu-ray is a little light on the supplemental features, but it comes with superior video and excellent audio. Recommended.
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