Movie: Une Vie de Chat (Eng. title: A Cat in Paris)
Year: 2012
Nominations: Best Animated Feature
Wins/Snubs: It didn't win, but it was part of a Oscar-French-fest, with The Artist nominated and winning for Best Picture. Rango took the award for Animated Feature, and deservedly given the nominations (Rango, Puss in Boots, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2). However, I think the lack of Rio and Gnomeo and Juliet as part of the nominations was stupid. Though the nomination of 2 foreign animated films was still pretty cool.
Unfortunately, Netflix only has A Cat in Paris with English voices - specifically Marcia Gay Harden, Angelica Huston, and Matthew Modine, instead of the original French narration that was actually nominated. So I can only assume it's even better in the original French. Our main character, Dino, lives with a little girl, Zoe, and her mom, Jeanne (Harden) a police officer, during the day, and sneaks out to prowl Paris at night, working with a less than reputable Nico, a (wait for it) cat burglar. Nico puts a bracelet on Dino one night and he brings it back to Zoe, and Jeanne's partner recognizes it as part of a theft. Zoe follows Dino one night and gets involves with the seedy underbelly of Paris' crime. The movie isn't long (under 70 minutes) and has some beautiful color, and a story just complicated enough to keep parents interested, and a cute cat to follow for kids. It's more in the animation of The Secret of Kells or Persepolis with slightly exaggerated backgrounds and movements, but terrific color and animation. A good entry as a foreign animated film, but I still would have preferred Rio or Gnomeo and Juliet, but it's not yet up to me.
My Neice loves this movie and watches it many times. I don't mind english dubs for animated movies if done right
ReplyDeleteVern - I think English dubs are great for animated flicks - helps people relate even better to a flick without having to worry about kids being able to read the words. But I'm assuming it was the French voices that helped get this nominated for Animated Feature, so I feel a little like a cheat for not being able to evaluate those.
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