A Cat in Paris [Blu-ray]

Overview

French animators Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol directed this comedy-drama in which a family discovers their house pet is living a surprising double life. Zoe (voice of Oriane Zani) is a seven-year-old girl traumatized by the death of her father, a police detective who was on the trail of Victor Costa (voice of Jean Benguigui), a powerful underworld boss. Ever since the passing of her father, Zoe has been mute, and her mother Jeanne (voice of Dominique Blanc), also a detective, has been working hard to track down Costa and the killers and bring them to justice. However, it turns out a criminal is hiding right under their noses -- while Zoe sleeps, her beloved pet cat Dino slips out of the house at night and serves as a companion and assistant to Nico (voice of Bruno Salomone), a suave burglar who has robbed some of the wealthiest and most elegant homes in Paris. One night, Zoe follows Dino as he spends the night on the town, and as she crosses paths with Nico, she finds herself in the clutches of a handful of ruthless gangsters. Une Vie De Chat (aka A Cat in Paris) received an Academy Award nomination in 2012 as Best Animated Feature.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/03/2020
UPC:	0826663213683
Original Release:	2010
Rating:	PG
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:05:00
Sales rank:	18,502

Special Features

The Making of A Cat in Paris; "The Many Lives of a Cat" Video Flipbook; Theatrical Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Marcia Gay Harden	Jeanne
Anjelica Huston	Claudine
JB Blanc	Victor Costa,Jeanne (French Version)
Lauren Weintraub	Zoé
Matthew Modine	Lucas
Steven Blum	Nico
Mike Pollock	Mister Baby/Zookeeper/Additional Voices
Barbara Goodson	Old Lady/Additional Voices
Phillipe Hartman	Mister Hulot
Eric Bauza	Dom/Dog Owner/Additional Voices
Gregory Cupoli	Mister Frog
Marc Thompson	Mister Potato/Frank
Kristen Rutherford	Additional Voices
Bernadette Lafont	Claudine (French Version)
Jean Benguigui	Victor Costa (French Version)
Oriane Zani	Zoé (French Version)
Bernard Bouillon	Lucas (French Version)
Bruno Salomone	Nico (French Version)
Patrick Ridremont	Gangster (French Version)
Jacques Ramade	Gangster (French Version)
Jean-Pierre Yvars	Gangster (French Version)
Patrick Descamps	Gangster (French Version)
Stéphane Cortial	Conductor
Serge Besset	Composer

Technical Credits

Alain Gagnol

Alain Gagnol	Director,Screenwriter
Jean-Loup Felicioli	Director
Eric Beckman	Producer
Jacques-Remy Girerd	Producer
David Jesteadt	Producer
Annemie Degryse	Producer
Arnaud Demuynck	Producer
Michael Sinterniklaas	Producer,Sound Mixer
Emmanuel Bernard	Executive Producer
Izù Troin	Sound/Sound Designer
Catherine Blanc-Maurizi	Production Manager
Patrick Tallaron	Production Manager
Loïc Burkhardt	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

Based in Valence, France, Folimage Studios has spent decades turning out some of the most original and ingenious animations in the world, although their creations still remain largely unknown outside of Western Europe. The company makes a bid for broader exposure and recognition with A Cat in Paris, which netted a 2012 Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Paramount's Rango. Created by studio mainstays Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol (L'Egoiste, Bad Times) this 65-minute outing tells the story of a crafty Parisian feline named Dino, who leads a double life. He spends his days nestled in the lap of a sad little girl named Zoe -- mute ever since her police-officer father lost his life to a slimy thug named Victor Costa. Unbeknownst to Zoe and her mom, Dino spends his nights in the company of a kindly and clever jewel thief named Nico, whom he trails on nocturnal heists. The premise involves Zoe's mother, a police commissioner, attempting to catch Costa -- an effort that ends up stringing the cat, the girl, the mom, the thief, and others on a wild, hair-raising chase across the roofs and structures of the City of Lights. Aesthetically, the film is a knockout. The design actually showcases two very different French animated styles: that of Felicioli/Gagnol, and that of another contributor to the movie, Jacques-Remy Girerd. As in their prior efforts, Felicioli and Gagnol impart a stark quality to their characters and settings, with everything drawn at jagged right angles and with flat panes of color. The overall effect is both forceful and striking. Adding another flavor to the mix -- and softening up the screen somewhat -- is the input of Girerd, a regular Folimage contributor whose 2003 animated children's feature La Prophetie des Grenouilles reimagined the story of Noah's Ark. Recalling the images in that film, some of the incidental characters who turn up in A Cat in Paris (especially the funny anthropomorphized animals who appear during a chase through the Paris zoo) seem much gentler than the surrounding Felicioli/Gagnol creations -- here, it's as if the European illustrations from the Please Read to Me children's paperbacks of the early 1980s have taken on animated form. The two schools of design present in the film don't clash as might be expected, but blend together to create a smooth combination of influences -- the sound of two instruments that we've perhaps never before heard together, suddenly playing in unison. Unfortunately, the story of A Cat in Paris is somewhat less interesting. It hits a peak in the early passages, during a low-key sequence set in Zoe and her mom's Paris apartment, where we merely watch the day-to-day routine of these residents, Dino, and the family maid. Once the crime story kicks into high gear, we're never really emotionally involved in the high jinks because we've seen it a thousand times before, in both live-action and animated contexts. The Triplets of Belleville suffered from a similar issue -- the first and second acts, which delved into a kind of comedic existential ennui, were an unmitigated delight, but the last half-hour threw us into a tired and worn-thin chase plot. Why is it necessary for these European animated gems, which start off on such marvelous footing, to descend into cliché-ville? One wonders if this can be chalked solely up to commercial concerns -- the filmmakers' shared fear that an action-less plot would risk alienating younger viewers and thus rob the movies of box-office potential. As indicated, though, the journeyman story almost scarcely matters in the case of A Cat in Paris. The filmmakers hand us one dazzling image after another -- and not merely in the foreground. We get haunting background sights as well, as in a breathtaking vista glimpsed from the roofs of Notre Dame, where we can see tiny balls of iridescent light meant to represent automobiles coasting up and down distant Parisian freeways. It would have been just as easy for Felicioli, Gagnol, and their contributors to omit such details; instead, they are ever present, signifying a slavish love and devotion to every single frame. The adoration that went into the picture is so thoroughly contagious that one can overlook the movie's familiarities.