Felidae (1994)

8/10

lisacamillek18 August 2009

Felidae is a noir cartoon about cats and murder, based on the best-selling novel by the same name. It is very rare and unique in its genre - an animated animal picture with some of the most disturbing and dark subjects in film.

A serial killer slaying fellow cats in gruesome manners when they are on heat with the wrong race. There are visions of hell, animal experimentation, dead mutilated bodies, sex scenes and race purification - very much like Germany was during the Nazi regime.

It starts out as a plot similar to Basic Instinct, has a human-like tone just as Watership Down had, gruesome murder notions and Satan worshiping somewhat akin to Angel Heart and a few tragic characters like in Apocalypse Now.

Not recommended for children of course! But it is true to the novel and shows the world as we are in now, violent, hateful and cruel and more so in the past but with a future that still leads a way to hope.

25 out of 28 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

8/10

Wow!

Vastarien2025 April 2009

This is an amazing film. I had never heard of it before yesterday, but I found and watched it on Youtube....talk about blown away! I was not expecting such a deep story, or how graphic it was. I didn't walk in expecting Rainbow-Brite, but I was completely unprepared for the intense gore and scenes of the lab. I literally couldn't watch some parts of that, and I'm a gore-hound and horror fan. I'm not complaining, I just got caught off guard by it. I understand why it was done, and it was integral to the plot, but...brrrr. Anyway, I can't praise this film enough. The colors are rich, the characters are solid and strong, and the artwork is magnificent. I was surprised at how recently this was made, because it has the feel of something done much earlier. I have three felines of my own, and the body movements and mannerisms were perfectly right. As soon as the credits rolled, I immediately placed an order for this film. I will give it a place of honor in my animation collection, and I suggest you do the same. Just be aware that this is in no way a film for kids, and you have only yourself to blame if they see it and freak. Just hug your kitties when it's over.

24 out of 30 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

8/10

Not for kids

ericstevenson5 October 2016

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. ***

3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

For an animated movie, surprisingly gruesome - but *so* worth a watch!

hkmaja19 December 2002

When I rented out this movie a few years ago, I was expecting a cute, maybe even sappy happy little movie. Instead, I got one of the most disturbing animated strips I've ever seen.

First of all, having read the two books by now, kudos to Pirincci for making a murder story concerning CATS into such an intriguing tale. I remember being mesmerized by it more than the usual Who-did-it? murder mystery. It held me glued to the screen and actually repulsed in some of the more gorey scenes (Yuh huh, plenty of gorey stuff at that. In an animated cat movie. Whaddaya know.) I think the best thing about the movie, as well as the book, is the perspective from which the story is told: We see the entire movie with Francis, the cat, narrating and giving off his wisecracking and smartarsey comments. It's amazing just how well Pirincci portrayed the general cat's attitude; He manages to keep the arrogance and general feline-ness about them yet manages to bring more complex, what we believe to be human themes into the story without making it seem presumptuous or farfetched.

So if you like cats, aren't too turned off by the idea of seeing some fur and intestines flying while our most beloved kittycoos reveal their somewhat darker side, this is a movie you should definately see.

12 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

A nice, dark German cartoon

perica-4315119 July 2018

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.

7 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

A rare movie

RoamingTigress9 March 2008

After seeing The Plague Dogs for the first time and being very impressed by it, I was told about Felidae. At first, I was cautious. I'm not a big fan of of sci-fi and gory movies in general, but this movie turned out to far better than I had anticipated.

Not only was the storyline well written, the quality of the animation was great. There were no obvious CGI effects -- which the movie didn't need -- which sadly seems to be a rarity these days. For those of you who think animated movies are just for kids, guess again! For those looking for a well made, adult animated movie, consider giving this one a try. I did, and did not regret it.

28 out of 32 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

Interesting...

GSmith90722 July 2007

I don't find "Felidae" interesting for it's confusing story, which I must admit, I lost interest in. The plot sure does tackle a lot in the story, from genetics to animal cruelty to surreal dream sequences (all of which, when viewed outside of the story are still interesting to see animated), which I'm sure is somewhat true to it's literature source material. The plot is all trite dialogue and the characters aren't interesting enough to be engaging. In fact, they sort of repel the viewer out of the story and leave you with the animation to view.

I don't find the film interesting for it's extremely violent content. Although I must say, this film takes the cake as the most violent animated film that I've ever seen. It's got "The Plague Dogs" beat, as psychologically disturbing as that film is. It doesn't come close to the presentation and sheer gore of this film. Or even, I wasn't shocked by the fact that the film has the only animated sequence of mating that I've come across, but that fact did have a lot to do with what I found so interesting about this film.

I find the film fascinating because, aside from the obvious fact that we're hearing the feline characters, perhaps not literally, speaking a human language (depending on what what version you find, I could only view the English dub) and going about activities that are very human in nature (pertaining only to the whole mystery aspect), this is the most accurate depiction of animalistic behavior that I've ever seen in animation, at least by anthromorphization standards. This is most revealing in the attitude of the protagonist, upon discovering an admirable character's death, (after clichéd film conventions would call for otherwise) recovers instantly and never dwells in the past with his feelings focusing on that time. An odd thing for a human to digest, but so seemingly true for animals not as sentient as us and caring more toward long time family members (at least it seems that way). Due to this, the overall effect it that the film is isolated from our mentality. It's the only film I've seen that doesn't seem to recognize that it was conceived by humans.

I wouldn't say I felt much after watching this film, aside from witnessing something so different that it makes you really ponder the possibilities of animation, which really should be stretched to more artistic lengths, given it's vast flexibility and tendency toward being accepted by a mature audience despite it's absurdities.

7 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

9/10

Blown away by Felidae...

TheLittleSongbird7 November 2010

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

18 out of 20 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

Something different.

mushmanluvsmanga12 January 2013

As an animation fan, it's always good to seek out those that may have slipped through the net. In relation to what animation actually comes out in Uk cinemas, the numbers are most definitely poor compared to the cinema's in Europe and Asia - spending time in France allowed me to see many ore animated films, of which many were fantastic, only to have them never aired in the UK.

Felidae is an example. First off, it's age of release makes it an unlikely purchase at the DVD store, but it's an interesting and ambitious example of 2d animation from Germany that deserves recognition. Up there with Watership Down and Plague Dogs, Felidae is a ghoulishly gory tale of murder amongst a cast of cats. The animation is good, the concept well rounded and the general narrative an interesting one.

However the vivisection sequences and violence may leave some audiences upset and scratching their heads. Felidae is not a children's film, and contains a rather novel sex scene that left me a little surprised - the character designs seem to suggest a younger target audience then the narrative allows. Aside from the gore, I doubt children would be able to follow the story without being frightened. I strongly recommend that the film is seen in German with subtitles as well, as the lip syncing is an impressive achievement, somewhat cheapened by the rather poor English dubbing.

Overall the film is an impressive achievement, though in my opinion, over ambitious. It tries hard to develop adult ideas but fails to balance them with characters that you empathise with. The dream sequences are expertly achieved and an example of fantastic art but some of the character designs left me underwhelmed.

Credit where credit is due, Felidae tries hard to be dark and different and deserves a look.

2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

9/10

Feline brilliance

patronise7 July 2006

Isn't it always a shame that the best films are often the most unknown? I had to order my copy through eBay from a German seller to get my hands on the DVD of Felidae. Although there are no English subtitles, thankfully there is at least English dubbing, albeit in Dolby 2.0 as opposed to 5.1. Still, the English voice talent is quiet excellent and never irks, the way some foreign dubs can. Now, onto the actual film, Felidae is a feast for the eyes. What initially appears to be a typical animation with lavish colours, top art and high production values becomes much more. For one, there is animated violence that would shock an adult Japanese animation studio. We're talking gritty, horrid violence that makes this tale all the more real. Secondly, there are some brilliant dream sequences with incredibly surreal effects that just have to be seen. The most alluring aspect of this film is most definitely its noir feel. There's a murder mystery, thugs, grit and guts, femme fatales and a story that'll make your eyes pop. The story is arguably the most intriguing yet seen in animation. It covers cults, murder, ancient Egypt, animal experimentation, genetics and much more. It's definitely a film you need to see multiple times to soak it all up. Lastly, a word of warning. This is a feline noir film, so there's not only violence, but sex too. Yes, kitty porn. Well, not really, but it's definitely an unexpected event even for this animation. One of the best things you can do right now is to hope online to eBay or some other store and get yourself a copy of this excellent DVD. Here's hoping that someday there will be a re-release of this film with subtitles so that us non-Germans can watch the film in its original language, listen to the directors commentary and understand what's being said in the making of.

30 out of 37 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

6/10

A somewhat different animation movie

Horst_In_Translation15 April 2015

Warning: Spoilers

"Felidae" is (as you may have guessed from its title) a film centered around cats, but it's not an animated film for children as it is basically a crime thriller with some similarities to the likes of "Watership Down". It's bloody, we see dead cats, a religious cult, there's talk about colon cancer and also a massive fire almost at the end. The movie is from over 20 years ago and features quite some great names in the cast. Tukur, Adorf, Brandauer, Schneider and Ochsenknecht should be known to those with an interest in German cinema. And it also includes Wolfgang Hess, the German voice of Bud Spencer. Always a joy for me to listen to, especially as the cat that he voiced also had Spencer's physical appearance, not his kindheartedness though. The male cat Francis moves into a new home with his owner (or I should say "tin opener") and quickly acts as a detective when several cats (in heat) in the neighborhood get brutally murdered. It gets personal when Felicitas is killed right after he met her. All the cats reminded me really of humans at times, not only because they were speaking, but also because of the characterizations and character traits they possessed. Also when they get into comparing the victims' races, it is almost like a real crime movie with human actors. It's a pretty short movie, runs only for 75 minutes without closing credits. The novel it is based on and the script come from Akif Pirinçci ("The Door") and as I saw him in a recent talk show, the final developments made me think quite a bit in terms of the main antagonist cat obviously possessing a Nazi-like attitude. The film's director is Michael Schaack. You may have heard about his "Werner" movie work or "The Little A**hole", which also features Helge Schneider.

All in all, I did enjoy this film. The animation is fine and I also liked how the cats were randomly scratching their furs while talking. Also the crows representing danger were nicely included. However, I have to say there are a couple flaws too mostly near the end. I was a bit underwhelmed by the motive and the solution to the murders, but it's not so bad that it destroys everything before. I did not like the final quote about animals and humans coexisting in peace as this is really not what this film is about. It's about cats coexisting in peace with other cats, or humans with humans if you see it metaphorically. And how did out hero manage to kill the main antagonist and all the other victims before were not able to do so? Everything before that is good though (especially the tension as you did not know if cats or humans were the killers) and that's why I recommend watching this film.

2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

This is NOTHING like the Aristocats!

ManWithGoodTaste27 December 2009

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.

18 out of 22 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

Feline Centered Murder Mystery

elicopperman2 September 2023

Arguably one of the most gruesome animated feature films out there would have to be the German cat-centered mystery Felidae. Based on the crime fiction book of the same name by Akif Pirinçci, the film is often regarded as an infamously disturbing mystery thriller executed through animated filmmaking. Given that the subject matter is focused around cats as opposed to humans, there is a lot to take away from this fascinating feature. As a more serious minded cat movie outside of what audiences might expect in cinema, it's time to acknowledge what this film set out to do through murder and nightmare fuel.

The film focuses on a domestic house cat named Francis who sets out to investigate the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood. As a murder mystery meant to uncover the motives behind someone killing innocent cats one by one, Felidae knows how to keep the momentum going. As a more cautious albeit cynical cat, Francis is just as much of a victim of murder as the other cats, meaning all could end bad for him if he steps out of line. In addition, the more Francis unravels the clues behind the continuous murders, the more themes of genetic scientific studies are exposed through the origins of Claudandus, the only feline who survived an ongoing series of wound healing experiments. If there are any notable flaws to point out narrative wise, there isn't any additional time given on the updates of the cats who are still alive as the film focuses a bit too much on the plot. Not to mention, once the climax is out of the way, it feels like the film just abruptly stops rather than giving a proper conclusion around the neighborhood after all the events.

With an intriguing mystery comes an intriguing supporting cast, especially with Bluebeard making for a delightfully sardonic ally to Francis by showing how unfazed he is by any sort of horror going on in the neighborhood. In contrast, the more threatening bully of the place Kong has a conflicting presence as far as the whereabouts of certain murdered felines. Some characters like the cult worship leader Joker and the sympathetic blind cat Felicity sadly don't get enough screen time to show much significance beyond their basic roles. And then there's Pascal, a tech savvy feline who keeps track of all the neighborhood cats albeit with a suspiciously wicked facade. Also, as the film did get an English dub, the voice acting can range from well coordinated to all over the place, so perhaps the original German dub should be where it's at. It should be safe to assume that the mystery elements of the feature are more of a selling point than the individual characters themselves, as they're best used as plot fodder to keep the suspension afloat as things go from disturbing to worse.

Going into the visual content itself, the film should rightfully earn its place as the most expensive animated feature made in Germany at the time. Next to a lot of distinctive anatomical structure of the different cats, the character animation is smoothly acted while keeping the feline's proportions grounded to the real world. By establishing the layouts and shot composition from a cat's perspective, the backgrounds are carefully composited to keep the focal points and camera angles within a slightly smaller world to emphasize the scale of each environment. The color choices are another added touch of realism by displaying appropriately subdued palettes throughout most of the sequences. As far as surreal shock value goes, Francis' nightmares stick out with horrifying imagery and an experimental mix of effects and carnage for all eyes to behold (Hayo Freitag's Mendel sequence is one notable standout). By crafting a far better presentation than what one would expect from content like this, rarely has a feature provided visuals this frightening amongst the competition.

Although Felidae has infamously gone down as a frightening murder mystery with no punches pulled, it is still a remarkably crafted crime story told with an intriguing investigation angle, strong intensity, earnest characters and breathtaking animation. While the film is worth recommending for its disturbing mystery content, it must be warned that anyone interested should do so at their risk on account of any potentially traumatizing material shown on screen. It's not often when animation generated towards a mature audience actually feels mature in its sincere nature of telling a realistically scary story.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

4/10

"Well, you know what they say about curiosity..."

imnotinsane131 January 2011

This movie was, or still is, the most expensive animated movie in Germany. It shows too, the main animation on the characters are gorgeous. The art style really has a lot of appeal too. Even the CGI that's evident in places looks really good for 1994 standards and doesn't get in the way at all. And why is this so movie hard to like for me? Well, I don't know about you but how could you get that deeply into understanding the plot and the characters where every 16th of a second, you get bloody cat guts shoved in your face?

"Felidae" is certainly a very toxic breed of animated film. Due to how limited its release is internationally (only being released in Germany, Spain and France theatrically), you'd only know about it from hearsay, word-of-mouth, coming across the movie while on holiday in mainland Europe or, as we're in the 21st century, nowadays coming across the multitude of fan-edited music videos on YouTube using clips from the movie. But once you find out about it or even see a little bit of it, it doesn't let go from your head. And if you have the same experiences I've had with this movie and trying to enjoy it, you'd wish it would just leave your mind as soon as possible! The otherwise decent animated murder-mystery with a fascinating subplot about the ethnics behind human behaviour to other animals is savagely ruined by the animators disturbingly having far, far too much fun animating blood and guts at any opportunity during the story (and sometimes for the sheer hell of it, the first piece of bloodshed in the movie comes from the main character stepping on a bug...this bug is given an extremely pointless close-up shot, as is every single other gory and bloody part of the movie). This stems from just looking more in-detail on the feline victims of the story to around 4 solid minutes of cat vivisection, as well as fights and even an extremely disturbing and nihilistic dream sequence animated in almost sepia tone. Every little detail is put in close-up or shown multiple, multiple times in the same scene and it ends up being an incredible chore to watch and whether you're squeamish or not, really distracts you from the actual story and character development.

It's such a massive shame too, because what story it has isn't that bad and the animation is incredibly good for the mid-90's. It basically feels like someone wrote an intelligent plot and then a Marilyn Manson fan with a lobotomy decided to take that story and alter it insanely to the point of where the movie turns from a dimensional, well thought-out and even original murder-mystery into sheer exploitation in far too many fields that should be allowed for any animated movie, even an adult one.

If you don't fancy being shoved in the face with constant animated cat guts as you watch a movie, I can't recommend this movie to you. What a sad disappointment.

4 out of 10

4 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

the pet detective

Chris-60526 December 1999

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!

8 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

7/10

Only for adults

DogePelis20153 February 2021

A dark, bloody and violent movie; highly recommended to all adult lovers of animation.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Can anyone tell me WHY there's been no American release?????

maxeythecat27 April 2006

I love this film! After spending nearly two years trying to track it down, I finally got a copy thru Amazon Germany, which wasn't the easiest thing to do when you don't speak or read a lick of German! Clever little me...I opened up two windows on my computer, one with American Amazon and the other with the German version and since both pages are laid out exactly the same, I just used the US one as a guide and went from there.

Anyway, I got my copy and I gotta tell ya, I was quite pleased with the film....the animation is great, the imagery at times quite stunning ( the dream sequences especially) and the English vocal cast ain't too bad. Obviously it's not a film for kids and should appeal to those adult animation nuts such as myself that prefer something a bit edgy, and most definitely a film that should've been seen on this side of the water ages ago. My question is why hasn't it? Is it possible that the House of Mouse had a hand in preventing this from being shown in the US just like they prevented the Jungle Emperor Leo theatrical film from being shown? Wouldn't surprise me..."Felidae" was released in 1994, and if I remember correctly Mr. Eisner was pretty heavy handed when it came to squelching all competition real or perceived when it came to any other "Disneyfied" animated film from a rival studio. Too bad, because this is a film that deserved a lot better than it got.

22 out of 28 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

9/10

dark vivid beautiful and staggeringly artistic violence.

pointofbeing18 October 2007

Warning: Spoilers

Before I saw this movie I thought the darkest and most beautiful animal based animated movie ever, was the secret of nymph. honestly every challenging and dark subplot of that movie is done here, only better. there's animal cults, there's scientists playing god, there are also false profits, there's a fight scene with enough violence to make Clive barker blush, there's also side taking and backstabbing, sexuality, a beautifully mature who done it plot, and to top it off it's brutally violent in an artistic way.

SPOILER ALERT: when Frances first enters his revealing dream's the beauty of the animation is unmatched in artistic beauty, the dark faceless scientist that merges into reality out of the shadows is one of the finniest thing's I've ever seen animated, the pixar Disney animation of domination has no heart compared to this stuff, the other one of the finniest things I've ever seen animated, surprisingly comes later in this same movie, in Frances second revealing vision, he sees a false profit talk of the amazing improvement's to hibernation and genetics while this massive dark master gets crosses with strings attached to the damned cat's that have been mutilated, this is the darkest most beautiful thing I've ever seen, I'm an avid fan of a comic called JACK, and that's the closest thing to this kind of artistic violence.

SPOILER ALERT 2: The story flows to it's conclusion which has a fight seen, if this fight seen with fire surrounding to melodramatic cat's fighting to the death is accurate to the 1989 book, then Disney has clearly riped this ending off in the lion king(still a good movie). This seen flows with a great brutal battle with an finality that is both emotional and ultra violent, in fact this whole movie, feels like a mix between the emotional beauty of Don Bluth, with the artistic violence of Clive Barker. I saw the dubbed English version, which i was expecting to be horrid, but most of the voices fit, and gave heart in their acting. which is what really counts. seriously if your a fan of any of these three Clive Barker, Don Blouth, or David Hopkins, then you owe it to your self to see this movie.

13 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Brilliant

Jochen_Maas114 August 2002

I think this is one of the best German movies ever made,especially because of the genre (crime), which is something Germans are good in because it is serious( look at all the german movies in the 30´s). Unfortunately, it wasn´t a big success, probably because people still think that animated movies are only for kids. Unfortunately, even animated movies for kids and adults, only work because they are also made for kids( with the exception of South Park).Especially, because this is something out of the ordinary, I give it a 10.

15 out of 21 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Great book adaptation, not so great execution

andriy-tanatar19 July 2004

I have to say: I love this animation. This was one of the few movies I tried to find for years - and when I found it, I wasn't disappointed.

Bad things first. The movie is obviously a book adaptation. It is a good book adaptation, since it preserves most of the plot. Unfortunately, due to this approach the actual movie story line lacks smoothness and some attention to details. There are also very few 3d effects if you are concerned, but there couldn't have possible been many at that time.

Good things. Plot is great! It keeps you wondering what happens until the last moment, so, when I found the final scene lacking sound on the tape I ordered I had to re-order it. Animation is *very* fine - the cats are all real. I've never ever seen a better cat animation. There are no holes in the plot.

Conclusion. Not the best thing to watch for pre-teens, but just fine if you're 14 and above, since the movie has scenes of sex and violence. The execution is unusual, but hard to find, the plot is solid, all the characters are great, and you've got to see that cat animation!

16 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

1/10

Fail-idae is more like it :(

PeachHamBeach9 August 2016

Warning: Spoilers

(Weary Sigh....Spoilers)

I'm unable to comprehend the fact that the majority of viewers of this film give nothing less than perhaps a 6-8 out of 10. I finally watched it. I am a cat lover. I'll get that fact out of the way right now. I am also pushing middle age (46 this October), so by no means am I a kid, alright?

I thought this was a crock of excrement. And it really didn't have to be. It could have been SO many things. THE PLAGUE DOGS? THAT is a compassionate statement against the evils of humans using, enslaving, exploiting, torturing and murdering animals.

They wanted to make a movie about cats and have it be realistic with some disturbing content? It could have been a historical account of the evolution of cats, from their glory in ancient Egypt to their persecution during the ages of superstition to present day.

I'm not opposed to "adult animated" flicks. I rode my first dragon at the age of 12 when I watched WATERSHIP DOWN and THE SECRET OF NIMH for the first times. And both of those movies fascinate me to this day. I just re-watched the bunnies the other day and they still hold up. John Hurt rocks!

I am not a prude. I write erotica, and as a matter of fact, I found the kitty style scene LOL funny, especially when they both...um...finish...and yell out, "Aw yeah!" Besides, what do you SEE? No boobies or man-bits, right? The sex was so much less offensive to me than the other content. I found it hilarious that some reviewers have praised the gore and violent images but said the mating scene went "a bit too far."

Not even some of the gruesome imagery or nightmarish visions that Francis had were so horrid that they bothered me. At least not the nightmares. We'll go further on that in a moment.

OK so what's my problem? My problems are multiple with this film:

First and most obvious, is that unless Francis suddenly changed his name to Freddy Kreuger, there's no way he could EVISCERATE Pascal/Claud, with ONE swipe of his claws. It is ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS that a cat's guts will spill out everywhere, and that you can see his rib cage, AND THAT HE IS STILL TALKING!

I love and respect cats, and I find them clever, personable, even trainable in some cases, but a cat "learning" to type on a computer by watching a human? A cat keeping a DATABASE of all the cats in the neighbourhood? JUST HOW MUCH DOES THIS "FILM NOIR" THINK IT CAN INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE? I wish I was allowed to cuss on IMDb because I have a few choice words. It is an understatement to say that this movie is an inconsistent spazz. It can't decide what to do with itself. It wants to be a murder mystery, a horror, a eugenics sci- fi...WHAT?! A super-intelligent cat who made a premeditated decision to kill a human, then constructs a plan to "breed out" all inferior cats, and take cats back to their "roots"? Give me a break!

As if we didn't have enough crazy to contend with, a completely different character is a cat "preacher" who leads some cult of cats who worship some deceased legend. These felines gather in honour of their diety and yell out, "Hallelujah!" and some of them commit suicide by throwing themselves into some electrical shock device...And I thought the Jonestown and Heaven's Gate people were nuts.

Yet a couple more characters are supposed cats depicted in idiotic fashion. One of them, Kong (how original) looks more like a mutant bulldog, his lower jaw hanging way past his upper. And pray tell, are the "neutered" cats INTENTIONALLY drawn to look like inbred, cross- eyed psychos? What is this film trying to say to everyone? That spaying/neutering is "immoral"? Believe you me, I've had psychos TELL me that! I poop you not!

I had no problem with the plot. New cat moves into neighborhood, meets a gruff neighbor cat named Bluebeard. Francis appoints himself the neighborhood "Sherlock" and interviews different cats, has some horrific visions, learns about Darwinism, meets a seductive but odd looking cat who tells him that her kind are a breed both "old and new".

Intriguing stuff, honestly, but the execution of this story is FAIL. It's like 2 films I like (WATERSHIP DOWN and NIMH) got together and this mutant child came out. This movie was trying so hard to be "dark, twisted, gory, adult," etc. It was so transparent how "cool and edgy" the film was trying to be, using a few cuss words and clumsy dark humour.

I'm not an idiot. I know when there is a sincere use of gore to tell a story and when gore is being used purely for shock value. And why a gruesome decapitation of the sweetest, most likable character in the movie???

Cats might be clever and independent and retain some feral qualities even in their lives with humans, but cats don't type, don't read, don't spell, and don't concoct elaborate plans to conquer or destroy humans, they don't go around "murdering" because someone "knows too much".

3 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Der Katzenthriller!

Frisky_Kitty20258 March 2011

Warning: Spoilers

Felidae's tag line is "Der Katzenthriller," I think it means "Cat Thriller," and that is a perfect description of this dark animated movie. It is a trilling tale of a cat new to the neighborhood who is determined to solve the string of gruesome murders against the neighboring cats. There were some good twists in this movie, and until the final climax, I was kept guessing as to who the murderer was.

Felidae is also NOT for children. There is a lot of extremely graphic violence, that even me as a 25-year-old was shocked to see. In spite of that, I really enjoyed this movie. I love cats, and I love dark animated movies like Watership Down and Plague Dogs. I'm not sure if anyone else who does not appreciate those things would enjoy this movie.

Never the less, I stand by Felidae and consider it to be one of the greatest animated movies for adults. In fact, if you're only going to see ONE animated cat murder mystery movie, it should be Felidea.

5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

9/10

A disturbing and interesting animated film

Criticman1215 March 2011

There are time's when animated film's are cute and fun to watch. But there are time's where they can be adult-orientated and pretty violent like, "Heavy Metal", "Fritz the Cat", and "Heavy Traffic". But in 1994, Germany released an animated film about cat's trying to solve a string of gruesome murders. The animated film was called, "Felidae".

This is one of the most gory and violent animated films I've seen. What I really love about this film is that the animation is great and can be disturbing at time's. Some of the character's were interesting like the blind cat, Felicity. The story is also interesting and I like the idea of using Cat's in this movie.

The only problem's I have with this film is that there wasn't that much character development because when we're introduced to a new character, we only see them in one or two scene's. Also, the movie can get boring sometimes.

But overall, "Felidae", is an animated film worth watching if you like murder-mystery stories's or someone looking for a good animated film to watch. But just because it has a cute cat on the front cover, dosen't mean it's going to be a kid's film. Just wanna point that out.

4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

8/10

A movie for someone who likes "different"

ashtyn_carroll6 May 2014

Now as a lover of adult animation I already knew I would like this seemingly unknown German film from what I read about it. I watched it on youtube in English dub, which was pretty convenient. It gives a great outlook on how a cats life would really be like. If you are not one for violence then you prolly shouldn't watch this. A lot of gory and odd imagery but it was much needed to set the mood for the storyline. I have noticed a lot pf the commenters on youtube were bothered by the sex scene between the main character and a girl cat. All I can say is its adult animation for a reason. If your gonna be a titty baby and not bare a sex scene between two cats that doesn't even last a min then you should go back to watching cats don't dance and eating your capn crunch. I loved this movie. It was dark, strange, a little raunchy, and I love cats.

3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

8/10

A horror noir film, about cats.

cdietz94-667-59924410 June 2011

I love cats, I own 6 of 'em myself. I heard of this film while watching Watership Down (Which was excellent) and decided to check it out. It has a pretty decent dub, but an unknown dub cast.

The film itself is bloody brilliant. Its a mystery of a hybrid of Sherlock Holmes and Batman, the animation on the cats is rather good and the sheer amount of gore and blood in this movie is astounding so DO NOT let your kids watch it.

I want their to be a proper American release someday, outside of Youtube. Truly an underrated classic.

89/100

4 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

User Reviews

See also

Opinion

Details

Storyline

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

User Lists

Recently Viewed