A Cat in Paris is one of those films you gawk at for the attention it got because the artistry and invention shown is less than your average episode of The Simpsons. And it’s not just like a poor-man’s Simpsons … this is a far cry from prime time Sunday night American TV. Kinda like Bob’s Burgers.
There’s a cat, yes. And she lives with the police chief by day and a cat burglar by night. That’s pretty much the joke. The producer didn’t get around to doing anything with the joke, so I suppose we’re just supposed to appreciate that it’s there. And just in case you wanted to take your child to this animated tale about a cat-owning little girl, the backstory is her father is dead, slain at the hands of mob boss Victor Costa. Mob boss guy spends the second half of the film chasing after the little girl.
Just who exactly should this appeal to? Adults into crappy animation and limited story-telling? Pedophiles? I don’t think anybody involved ever sought to make a movie that crossed such lines, but I wouldn’t take a kid under 10 to this film and it isn’t likely to appeal to anybody older.
I guess I’m unfairly critical of the animation. It does have a certain charm, but it’s like each still frame works 
better as art than when taken together in sequence. There’s a certain abstract exaggeration in the individual frames worth appreciation. When they move, however, it just looks kind of awkward. And since more than half of this film is devoted to characters jumping from rooftop to rooftop, I can’t help feeling abused. It’s like watching a Warhol painting come to life and repeat itself in an endless Möbius strip of waddling Campbell’s Soup cans. Whatever was effective in the still shot is lost in the movement.
BTW, can you imagine taking a cat to a robbery? I can’t get my cat to recognize her name. That’s one lousy word, Isobel, just one. Seriously? You can’t do that? And we’re supposed to believe the cat follows the burglar exactly as needed? Hey, this is a cartoon after all. A seventy minute cartoon that makes you wonder why you aren’t watching The Simpsons. I’m gonna do that now.
Rated PG, 70 Minutes
D: Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol
W: Jacques-Rémy Girerd, Alain Gagnol
Genre: Cheap animation trying to pass for “artsy”
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Cat lovers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Parents
