A Cat in Paris

Director's Statement

For over ten years Jean-Loup Felicioli and I have been developing a universe spawned from the meeting of our personal creations. As an author of crime novels, I bring to our scripts a certain perspective from that domain, while Jean-Loup finds his inspiration in painting and illustration, allowing him to bring a certain freshness and an original vision of the frame. There is no need, in our opinion, for cartoons to recycle the same formula ad nauseam. In the same way, the cartoon is not limited to a certain narrative genre. Disney is no longer the sole point of reference Numerous children's books depict crime stories. And yet, there are few such stories in animated film for children. A CAT IN PARIS, with its intriguing characters and Jean-Loup's original illustrations aimed at kids, fills this void. The style of animation which we have developed from film to film seeks a form of movement at once simple and elegant. All of our efforts are concentrated on soft strokes, precise gestures, and inventive mise-en-scène, occasionally complimented with poetic licenses allowing our characters to transform themselves, to fly away, to achieve impossible movements. Chalk colours, used for both scenery and characters, animate cinematic ambiences and give a fanciful dimension to the characters' adventures. This world is at once real and imaginary; the power of animation fills the gap, a little side-step, as it were, which gives the film that strange impression which haunts us long after a dream.