Felidae

Comparisons to Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, films that are also adult-oriented and dark are inevitable. I'll keep my comparison brief, I do not think Felidae is quite as good as good as either one of those movies, but it is an extremely good animated film. The story structure occasionally doesn't always flow, but the concept and a vast majority of scenes are brilliant.

When it comes to the effective scenes, the dream sequences were incredibly haunting and I think surrealistic as well. Felidae is also quite daring, there is not only violence(and bearing in mind this is not cartoony violence, the violence here dependent on who you are is quite shocking) but also some sex and crude language. That is not a bad thing at all, as has been said already, Felidae is very adult-oriented.

It wasn't just the story that impressed me. The animation was great. True, like The Plague Dogs it does have a dark and haunting visual style seen especially in the colours. The colours are very bold and atmospheric, and the character designs of the cats are surprisingly excellent. Felidae also contains for me one of the darkest music scores I have heard in an animated film(not quite like Hunchback of Notre Dame dark, but some of the motifs are really quite dark), and this works wonderfully. Plus in the more tense moments it never feels intrusive.

The writing is strong, it takes quite a lot of risks, and I admit I admire the writers for doing that. The characters are really quite unique and engaging, I think the title character is likable and interesting without being too perfect. And the voice acting is very emotive, both in the German and English versions. I'd say the German is slightly better in terms of darkness and authenticity, but the English version never feels sloppy and none of the actors feel like they're playing themselves.

In conclusion, this mayn't be quite the best animated film I have ever seen, but I was blown away by it. It is unique, dark and very daring. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox

I have seen this movie at first in 1996 and every time when there are rerun of this movie I try to watch them.The great voice cast brings life to the cartoon-suspense thriller.Especially Klaus Maria Brandauer is doing a great job and play "his" best villain since "Never say Never".Although it is a cartoon the story of Francis,a cat which seeks the solution to the strange murders in his neighbourhood,has a very dark and adult theme.The best animated film since the Lion King!I give it a 10!

In many a German movie, dark themes of Holocaust, experimentation and Nazi ideology lurk beneath the surface. If there is a Grandpa with dark secret, whatever it is, it is a sublimation of the one who had not much fun in Stalingrad, and it is an almost uniquely German experience. Having been guilty for uspeakable inhumanity of the Holocaust and rarely discussed aggression and genocide of the Slavs, and counting such people as Dr Mengele as their greats, Germans have a dark cynical streak that almost comes off as humor. At least, that part of self aware honesty was still present in 1994, before the Merkel years and renewed expansionism.

This little cartoon is a wonderful animation of a bestseller novel by a Turkish German guest worker and writer, that strikes chords of this kind of German sickness but in the world of cats or uber-cats. Turks have a fondness for cats (as immortalized by the documentary about Istambul cats) as Islam treats dogs with less than respect, and in Germany ubermen are "in" again, despite through denaz ification, only pushed beneath the surface, into subconsciousness so to speak. Combine the two basic ideas and you get this darkly fun cartoon with a bit of mystery. Entertaining to watch, but ultimately nothing can beat the real thing and many many skeletons in the closets of the humorless but sickly amusing psyche of Germans past and present.

What you are looking at is the best film about cats. Ever.

This is the best film about cats I seen so far. And I saw... three (not much), "That Darn Cat" and "The Aristocats" and... well, Felidae. This one beats them both with one hand. It has a realistic setting, believable characters, a serious plot, great voice acting (English dub). Also the animation is superb. And cats are portrayed very naturalistically: nice job, animators!

Unless you are a sensitive person, DO watch the film. To like it, you must like cats, animation AND murder mysteries.

P.S. And it is NOT 4kids.

This may be the first animated German movie I've ever seen and it certainly shows with how weird it is. This is quite an impressive movie, if only because of the main character, Francis. I really do feel for this character and I appreciate how he's the most rational and decent character in the whole movie. I like how the cats in this movie are represented more realistically. I couldn't help but think this was kind of a ripoff of "The Secret Of Nimh". You know, a dark animated movie about genetic experiments on talking animals. Many of these scenes are quite intense.

The animation in this film is very well done. Many people will be turned off by the violence. I couldn't find a rating for this movie, but am fairly certain it would at least be PG-13 if it received mainstream theaters. I've heard of a popular book series called "Warrior Cats" which is similar to this. I really do feel bad when things go wrong for Francis and I like how he interacts with the much more dysfunctional characters. While not as good as "The Secret Of Nimh" this is still a fairly unique movie that I recommend. Don't let the animation fool you. It's very adult, so please don't think children should see it. ***