Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Who knew that a story about a cat solving a series of brutal murders could be so engrossing? Germany entered this controversial thriller into the animation game that has become the country's own masterpiece, earning global praise. Its fame has even surpassed the literary source novel it was based upon.Francis is a house-cat who has just moved to a new neighborhood with his magazine writer owner and stumbles into a murder mystery that involves scientific experimentation, a feline cult and a bloody body count as he gets closer to the truth. Aided by a colorful cast of diverse characters from the wise-cracking deformed Bluebeard (Bleubart in German), the blind, gentle and wise Felicity (Felicitas in German) to the fatherly figure-like and all- knowing Pascal, Francis comes to learn that the truth is stranger and more horrifying than he could have known. Our leading feline is a simple cat who must become a hero in extraordinary circumstances. Francis is naive yet intelligent despite little knowledge of the film's events prior to his introduction. His voice is what guides us through the story as we see everything from his perspective, allowing us access into his mind when Francis begins to experience nightmares so horrible that it pushes the limit of what should be seen. Francis is also flawed as he gives in to temptations that could cost him his life or the answers to the murders, but in the end the hero does prevail thanks to his resourcefulness, razor-sharp wit and fierce combat skills.The violence is graphic and unyielding as the bloody aftermath is not shielded from the viewer. We never actually see the crimes occur, but are given details in some instances that would make one's stomach twist and turn. The carnage is spine-chilling as the murders grow more gruesome in the film's short run-time (I won't divulge here for the sake of not offending my readers). Best not to see this on a full stomach or if you are squeamish.The narrative takes many twists and turns as the mystery is slowly unraveled. By the time the killer's identity is revealed, the tension is so thick that the air could be cut with knives and still the adrenaline pumps through the veins. Even as the fiery and brutal final battle takes place, you can't look away as the hero and killer face off in the most epic cat- fight since "The Lion King (ironically released the same year as "Felidae")". It is only over when blood is spilled, but there is a bittersweet final word of advice that wraps up the film with a bow but not in a condescending way.If you are brave enough, give this little gem a watch but be prepared for one hell of a ride.

(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".

Not only is it dark and intriguing, it also is humorous and scary.F is for feline.E is for exciting.L is for lots of gore.I is for imaginative.D is for dark and gripping.A is for achievement in animation.E is for exciting.Highly recommend this film to any lover animation and dark stories.This is one of the masterpieces of animation!

Felidae is a 1994 animated film from Germany featuring cats as the characters, save for three or four minor human roles. According to the author, it is an allegory for Germany's Nazi past, a thrilling and compelling story of a cult of cats, with one cat secretly ruling above the rest in the neighborhood, trying to create the perfect breed of cat while following his deceased owner's cruel vivisection experiments.Francis is the new cat in town; his overweight and slobby owner Gus has moved to cure his writer's block. While exploring, Francis comes face-to-face with a murdered cat in the backyard and also meets the cranky, deformed and crude-speaking cat Bluebeard (Blaubart in German). They quickly become companions although Bluebeard won't admit he likes Francis. Francis is plagued with nightmares of a man in a lab coat and the next morning he learns more about the strange murders. He also accidentally disturbs the cat cult taking place in the attic where cats suicidally leap into an electric current. The cult chases him down and he hides at the house of a blind female Cat, Felicity. After meeting a cat good with computers as well he returns to talk to Felicity but her head has been ripped off.One day Francis discovers that his new home used to be a science lab years back, trying to find a tissue-bonding glue for hospitals. As funding was repeatedly cut back the head of the project became an alcoholic, spiraling into madness and killing lab cats just for fun. One of the scientists, Ziebold, thinks the cat experiments are cruel and he quits, leaving the mad professor alone. The professor is murdered that night by an unknown assassin.The next day Francis and Bluebeard discover a cavern under a garden and find it full of thousands of cat skeletons. The one living cat there is old and disfigured, having been part of the lab experiments and escaping himself. He tells them that mother cats with kittens, disfigured or ill cats, any cat not the neighborhood's ideal 'perfect breed' is murdered and chucked down to the cavern. Soon the cats uncover the cult's strange plot to fill the neighborhood with golden-furred blue-eyed cats, and find the cat behind it all.Felidae is an excellent movie. A lot of reviewers have said it was scary and inappropriate for kids, but I think it is forgotten that not every animated film is for kids. And contrary to some beliefs, this movie is not to raise awareness of animal testing. The animal testing was in the movie because during the Holocaust Nazis did horrible experiments on people. This film is not really about cats, it is only portrayed by them. To fully understand the messages behind the cat storyline it's good to read the book first.The soundtrack was great, if not really creepy. The cats, especially the eyes, were drawn really well and the animation was smooth. The one thing I didn't like was that it should have explained more details from the book, it would have made it much less confusing. I saw the movie first and had no idea what was going on until I bought the book and did some research on the plot. Other than that, Felidae remains thrilling and a great mystery all the way through.