#felidea 1994

[craftmanatee]

Felidae (1994) Review

So I just watched a sort of old animated film, about cats investigating murders of other cats, and it has an adult and sexual theme... uh... READ MORE ABOUT IT

This film... is blurry to me.

The film stars a cat named Francis who moved in with his owner at a new place. He quickly finds out about a murder spree that is happening among the cats of the neighbourhood and from there, he is undergoing an investigation to find who the murderer is.

The story, and the lore behind the motive of the attacks and why things are happening is actually pretty interesting. It has some cool ideas, but it is plagued by inconsistencies and annoyances.

First of all, I watched the film in English. The film is originally german, and so the lip syncing and the script are probably different. I tried my best to forgive the dubbing, but honestly they ended up doing a mediocre job. And for such a grim story with grim visuals, I honestly regret not watching it on german. I think they probably did a better job, and (Forgive me for this) the german language would fit just nicely to such an adult theme.

Animation Quality

I also have to mention that the animation is both good and bad. There are select shots I think are... pretty clever and cool, and then there are the nots. The film is actually well animated, or has a quality to it, but it does go back and forward with the quality. So the animation is “Bearable” at worst. Pretty alright at best.

Alright, my first gripe with the film, and it went on CONSISTENTLY is how the pacing just does. Not. STOP. It goes on, and on. Not in a slow pace, but in a consistent speed. There is no breaks, or moments. There are some, but the whole film falls into a blurry mess because most of the film just flies by in one speed.

You can see this during the opening and the first shots of the film. Just, left and right shots of the cat (francis) walking around, exploring it. But you just HAVE to watch him walk from room to room, you dont jump cut to each room, no no. You watch go from door to door. That is just bad storyboarding I guess, but what sucks is that there is no atmosphere to it. Those shots simply had no intention to show anything. And most of the film is like that.

The english dub did not help with this, I honestly think that the english dub made it worse. The scenes progress too fast for the dialogue and the thought behind them to kick in for us. HECK even the characters dont get time to think. It falls into one of those animated films where sometimes the characters have to speak over each other just to save time and fit in within the timeframe. It is a mess and is unfortunate.

However, there are some key scenes that make this film, unordinary.

First of all, I also want to say that I think the film has some interesting choices, some amazing ones and some... regretful ones.

For one, the film is Adult themed, meaning it will show gore, sex and... contain naughty language. The cartoony style of the film is so weird to have juxtaposing with lines such as “he is too old to get it up for any feline” or, something like that. So weird to hear and see this cartoon, almost disney esque designs along with an adult film. One of the first visuals for this is plainly the gore on some murdered cats. That is fine and dandy, it sets up the expectations and assumptions for the film going forward.

Then not too long after, we meet this interesting character choice in an animated film, especially for its time, and it is basically a blind cat. This character was actually, very well done, I never thought I would be happy to see such a choice. Heck she even animates in a way that makes sense, like who would have- oh... no nevermind this film is merciless.

I try not to spoil it, but I had a mini-game of thrones moment.

The parts that stand out the most is the dream, and nightmare sequences.

Francis the cat ends up having dreams and nightmares. Maybe just one or two, the film does not give itself time more than these two. But honestly, the grotesque nightmare sequence is pretty damn amazing. Even the dream sequence was actually well done, even for the benefit of the story. Heck, truought the film I noticed there were some foreshadowing here and there. So... kudos? The nightmare and dream sequence were probably animated by completely different studios. They were both way too good/pretty to be animated in-house.

And then there are the parts that stand out, for the bad reasons.

Lets start with the first big bad standout. The sex scene.

There is a sex scene between Francis and an egyptian cat lady. God damn, they fucking handled it so... cat like and realistically that it just... does not fit within the film. I hate this scene, but it does play a role. They even added the silhouette of crows fuckin! I mean Aaawrgh, it just does not fit the god damn designs of the characters. I did not assume the film to be like this. But... honestly, the film feels more important because of it.

There is also the laboratory log tape scene. This is probably the most brutal and gory part of the film. I, also hate this scene too. Not because of the gore or brutality, but how it was handled. You basically have these cats being experimented on, and they actually show this healing serum, fucking melt the back skull of a cat. They are trying to make a healing serum of some kind but it always ends up the opposite in an acid sort of way. Again, I hate the way they handled the scene by mostly being memorable for its gore. I did not get a mood, or feeling or any kind of emotional attention other than just a realistic depiction of what is a brutal action. There were no, scary lighting or anything. It was just... shot for shot a doctor, trying to get a serum to work. Log to log.

Most of the film is like this.

There just are no moods of any kind. I think the only mood the film gave itself to in a particular scene was the cultist/sect scene. There was electricity, chanting, shadow, lights flickering. Probably the only scene crafted to have some kind of... mood.

I am lying, a little bit. The final fight scene had a mood too. But, it was pretty typical... Fighting, fire, orange... danger. But I wanna save that for later...

Characters

Francis (Main character) is, pretty gosh darn straight forward. I kinda like him, and not. He just does not seem believable and I think a big part of it is the english dubbing.

BlueBeard (Sidekick) is oddly placed. I think at first he was gonna be the anti-hero but he just ends up being some... sidekick to the main character. He is the only character with the most personality, and he delivers it well. Except for the way he pees...

Khan (Anti-hero) is the blockiest cat Ive ever seen. Nothing too much about him other than, being incredibly cartoony.

Felicity (Supporting character) Yeah...

So... honestly, I dont find the characters to be in anyway interesting other than Felicity. For the most part, the characters, as cats, should be taken in an anthropomorphic way. The situation, the investigation. It all plays out like a noir film, and I think the characters as CATS do it pretty much ok. It is simply made a little more interesting because they are cats. But that also delivers a fuck ton of inconsistencies.

The story inconsistencies are there, and you are made aware.

You just have to bite and take it in anyway. Im sure the actual book has made these inconsistencies to be believable but, fuuuck the placement of things in this film.

I mean, since when could francis know how to use a computer?! Hes not a god damn fucking mutant cat! god damnit...

The Film in the end receives a “NICE TRY”

This cat noir story, is not well made in animated form. But, for its odd choices, I honestly think you should give it a watch. It is only 1h 18min long, and is not entirely predictable in the way you think.

A film, both good and bad. But should not be disregarded.

Nice Try Felidea!

(SPOILERS)

2 final bits of Awesome things from the film

Bluebeard assumes that the first murdered cat they see was done by humans. This line is oddly well foreshadowed. What is made even better is that nothing mentions how Bluebeard was right all along. Ive just came to this conclussion thinking about the story.

And the ending fight with the ending slice actually made me burst into laughter. Probably the most over the top awesome thing in the film. I thought it was funny and ... well cool in the right way.