Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

A Cat in Paris Blu-ray Movie Review

Gay Harden Purree.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 7, 2012

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.

One of the interesting things about A Cat in Paris is how it sets up Nico to be the bad guy, but once Zoë literally stumbles into a situation which puts her in great danger (to say more would spoil one of the movie’s central plot points), he actually turns into a savior of sorts, but not before Zoë is captured by the real bad guys, namely Victor Costa and his dunderheaded crew, none of whom quite get the concept of using code names. It turns out that there is a traitor in Zoë’s midst who has been using their proximity to the family to get valuable information about a priceless (if patently weird looking) objet d’art to Mister Costa so that he might steal it. There’s some requisite confusion that breaks out when Zoë’s mom assumes Nico is the villain of the piece, and due to Zoë’s decision not to speak, things go from bad to worse.

For all of its sweetness of heart, A Cat in Paris also has the unabashed scary undertones that color many of Grimm’s fairy tales. Here we have a young girl devastated by the loss of her father, to the point that she has chosen never to speak again. Her mother isn’t in much better shape, and in fact has recurring visions of Costa in a variety of forms attempting to snuff out her life as well. And even someone they’ve trusted implicitly with their damaged state turns out to be conniving against them. The fact that the putative “bad guy”, Nico, turns out to be at least a relative “good guy” is some indication of the topsy turvy world of A Cat in Paris and one major reason why it’s so much fun (if slightly unsettling at times) to watch.

A Cat in Paris is just as distinctive as Chico & Rita in its animation style, though in a completely different way. This is entirely hand drawn (with perhaps a little rendering included on things like doors, which have a slightly CGI look when they open), and the style is just fanciful. Characters don’t really look “normal” in any sense, with bizarre noses that waver even in still shots and elongated body types that almost make them look like deformed Gumbys. Colors are incredibly brilliant throughout this piece, and there are a couple of great references to the Parisian setting, especially in the terrifically exciting climax which sees Nico and Zoë’s mom confronting Victor Costa atop one of Paris’ most notable landmarks.

Both the original French language track as well as a repurposed English dub are included. The English version features some fantastic voice work, especially from Anjelica Huston as Claudine, the nanny, who sounds amazingly like Jane Leeves (Frasier). Marcia Gay Harden is the harried mother of Zoë and does a great job of conveying the exasperation and emotional exhaustion the character is experiencing after having lost her husband and now trying to deal with an obviously troubled daughter. A Cat in Paris may seem bright and breezy on its surface, but it’s a surprisingly dark little fable, one that manages to barely eke out a happily ever after by its very whiskers.

A Cat in Paris Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Extinction of the Saber-Toothed Housecat (HD; 3:34) is a cute short that combines live action backgrounds with some goofy looking animation. This is very funny in a Bambi vs. Godzilla sort of way. Make sure to pay attention to the closing credits, including the final disclaimer that usually is about no animals having been hurt in the filming.


• The Many Lives of a Cat Video Flipbook (HD; 9:00) is a sort of comparison of three different versions of the film with preliminary drawings of various scenes.


• U.S. Trailer (HD; 1:54)


• The Secret of Kells Trailer (HD; 1:57)

A Cat in Paris Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.