A Cat in Paris 2010

Dino the cat has two lives – that we know of. During the day he’s best friend (and lizard catcher) to Zoé who lives with her mother Jeanne and nanny Claudine. Jeanne is the Paris Police Commissioner, which makes her a distracted mother, not least because she’s on the trail of gang boss Victor Costa who murdered Zoé’s dad. At night, Dino plays stealthy companion to cat burglar Nico, a daring Robin Hood of the rooftops. When Dino and Nico get caught up with the Costa gang, it takes the cat to put one and one together and purrsuade Jeanne and Zoé that the good-hearted crook is ideally placed to help them. A Cat in Paris is a droll, action-packed adventure for kids of nine or so and up, and armchair tourists of any age. Its affectionate, hand-drawn vision of Paris by night is rendered in a jaunty expressionist style and it swings to a moody retro jazz score. Note differing session times for French-language/English-subtitled and English-dubbed versions. — BG

“The City of Lights rarely looked as beautiful on the big screen as it does in Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s animated feature… If Toulouse Lautrec were resurrected to craft an animated film, he would probably look up Gagnol and Felicioli. Indeed, the city is an integral part of film, right down to its fitting conclusion at Notre Dame. Though clearly produced with young viewers in mind, the romantic urban backdrops, the hat-tips to film noir, and the jazz-influenced soundtrack (including a vintage Billie Holiday rendition of ‘I Wished on the Moon’) will keep parents and other ostensive adults quite engaged.” — Joe Bendel, Epoch Times