Verdict
Summary
A traditionally animated German film based on a novel, Felidae may look like a kid’s movie in the style of The Aristocats (which this movie openly mocks) or All Dogs Go to Heaven, but I assure you: It’s not! This is an adult movie through and through with graphic depictions of animal torture, disembowelment, sex, cat characters who curse, and extremely violent fight scenes where blood and gore are prominently displayed, but what really turns the tide is its animal cruelty at the hands of humans, with very chilling and frightening experimentation scenes that doesn’t shy or cut away. This is very strong stuff, and pretty shocking, quite frankly. Cat lovers should steer far, far away from this one, and its plot is a little reminiscent of The Secret of Nimh, but not kid friendly in the slightest. Animation fans might appreciate it more than anyone else, and yet even they should be warned by how graphic it is.
Plot:
A cat named Francis moves to a new neighborhood and a house where a great many cats turn up horribly mutilated and murdered.
Review:
A green-eyed house cat named Francis moves into a big house with his “can opener” (cat speak for human) master who relocates them, not realizing or understanding that the house once belonged to a mad scientist of sorts who experimented on cats, hoping to create a mutant hybrid of a cat for the purposes of advancing science. Francis makes friends with an old-timer cat in the neighborhood that has seen it all, but within a few days, Francis finds himself at the center of a horrible reality where a series of cat murders and mutilations strike him as an everyday occurrence. When he befriends a beautiful blind tabby cat next door and discovers her decapitated an hour later, Francis’s whole world is shattered as there seems to be a cult of cats who perform rituals in his very own home in a secret room upstairs. Who is leading these evil cats and what is the secret of their origin? It turns out that the scientist who lived there before managed to create a mutant cat with serums and potions, and the cat is still alive and a god-like deity to all the cats in the neighborhood, but why is it killing and mutilating other cats? Francis is about to find out.
A traditionally animated German film based on a novel, Felidae may look like a kid’s movie in the style of The Aristocats (which this movie openly mocks) or All Dogs Go to Heaven, but I assure you: It’s not! This is an adult movie through and through with graphic depictions of animal torture, disembowelment, sex, cat characters who curse, and extremely violent fight scenes where blood and gore are prominently displayed, but what really turns the tide is its animal cruelty at the hands of humans, with very chilling and frightening experimentation scenes that doesn’t shy or cut away. This is very strong stuff, and pretty shocking, quite frankly. Cat lovers should steer far, far away from this one, and its plot is a little reminiscent of The Secret of Nimh, but not kid friendly in the slightest. Animation fans might appreciate it more than anyone else, and yet even they should be warned by how graphic it is. Director Michael Schaack clearly had a passion for this material, but just be warned by its content.
Deaf Crocodile’s recent 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray release of Felidae looks and sounds amazing in its first official USA issue, and it comes with a new video interview with the director, a separate video interview with the animation team, a new commentary, and some more tidbits.
