The Rabbi's Cat Reviews
Top Critic"Ambitious" isn't the word here; "random" is more like it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
An absorbing, nuanced, and vividly animated tale of adventure, ambivalent morality, colonial injustice, talking animals, and the vagaries of religious zeal and colonialism.
Despite the overstuffed storytelling, Sfar and co-director Antoine Delesvaux provide an incredible palette of visuals culled from the style Sfar originally created on paper.
Antagony & Ecstasy
One of the most grown-up animated features of the modern age.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Common Sense Media
Fascinating, clever animated tale not meant for young kids.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
culturevulture.net
Sfar's enchanting portrait of a society in which Jews and Muslims live compatibly is a lesson for our time
Spirituality and Practice
A French animated film about the unusual quest of a rabbi, a skeikh, and a talking cat to discover the essential unity of life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
It is often colorful, witty and inspired, but also too episodic, and lacks a strong ending.
The film presents an often sharp commentary on dueling beliefs and idiocies that unfolds in lush pastel hues and distinctively retro drawings.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Slant Magazine
Despite its flaws, the film is at least a consistent vision, attesting through both its story and animation to the rabbi's right to be different while also striving for human solidarity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
It's a wild and vivid ride and a spirited reminder of the kinship between Jewish and Arab cultural traditions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
AV Club
While the scenes don't always fit together thematically or tonally, each one is its own polished gem.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
Screen International
For someone as gifted as Sfar at visual storytelling, the film is very, very talky. That said, voice work in French is a delight.
Though we wander a bit, the trip is a delight, thanks to the witty company.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
San Diego Union-Tribune
It's a movie that packs all its ideas in beautifully animated doses, filled with Northern African music and landscapes. It may get clunky, but it's easy to get lost in its loveliness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Charlotte Observer
Like the title character, the makers of The Rabbi's Cat follow their noses wherever a new scent leads. Their eternal curiosity buoys this Cat, then impairs it somewhat, but redeems it by the end.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
