The Rabbi's Cat Reviews

The Rabbi's Cat (Le Chat du rabbin) French animated film directed by Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux. The film is based on volume Sfar's one, two and five s comics series of same name. Voice artists: François Morel, Hafsia Herzi.

Set in 1920s Algeria. A cat in Algiers swallows a parrot and it can speak its mind.
The plot focus cat's relationships with his open-minded sensual mistress, and her father, who is rabbi. The cat suspects about being Jewish himself to roam around the mistress and thus wants to go through circumcision and bar mitzvah - A Russian packed in a coffin-like box claiming to be Jew and plans to head to Ethiopia - ultimately all set out to take him to Ethiopia, including the Cat, the rabbi, a donkey, a big-mouthed Jew.

Charming. colorful and at some instances hilarious. Though unsuitable for the young children, film takes unbound indecent references.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Most of the people in the west; wrongly refer/mean 'Arabs' as being Muslims. Arabs can be Muslims/Christians/Jews. Christian doesn't mean to have been born in the US, UK, Italy or France, or Jew doesn't mean to have been born in Israel or Italy - All three religions have their foundation in Middle-East. If the people in the world were to refer Muslims comparatively as Arabs, due to combined population of most of Muslim countries in one region, then all three countries of South-Asia namely Pakistan, India, Bangladesh make up the far greater population than all Muslim countries of Middle-East - Hence, it's embarrassing on account of filmmakers and the people to keep repeating this mistake. Indonesia is the largest Muslim populated country in the world.

It is quite original in content and form, this French animation that part of a surreal idea with the cat of the title winning the ability to speak, to address several issues fairly current, mainly the war between religions.

Making use of a protagonist animal, which even questioned why humans all the time, "The Rabbi's Cat" works more as a reflection on the great philosophical and religious issues, than as a conventional story.

The work ends up being quite satisfactory, especially for those looking for a more entertainment-oriented real-life issues, where the visual beautiful, a colorful fascinating and fantastic content, serve as a touch of creativity and lightness in treating problems of considerable complexity today.

8.5/10.0

It has interesting retro animation and a very promising beginning, but The Rabbi's Cat is incoherent as a whole, it has too many characters which are therefore underdeveloped, the protagonist, which is very amusing, should have been given more screen time and the film is trying to tackle too many subjects making it an episodic and a somehow chaotic film.

Le Chat du Rabbin is humorous and equal parts reverent and irreverent look at religion, race and sexuality. The artwork and animation is gorgeous and the characters are vivid. However, the story meanders at times under the weight of its own musings and the audience longs for the wit of "le chat".

Visually striking and a very unique animated feature in it's own right. While the organic animation is a joy to watch throughout, it's a same that its filmmakers didn't allow the images to speak more then the characters did. The characters are well rounded but they don't seem to keep their mouths shut for longer then five seconds, which can make you feel smothered in the constant exposition. The story doesn't seem to take any breathing space for itself either, as it seems to keep throwing a lot at the audience without letting much of it sink in. Cluttered plot aside, this is still well worth watching.

This looks like a fun movie for all

It's not one of those movies with a stale plot. I'm not usually a fan of animated movies, but this one has pulled me in.

Very clever! and funny...

A digressive, transgressive, bounteous bit of cinema--a wandering, picaresque tale about a cat and his various adventures and misadventures as he follows his rabbi master and his friends (fellows Jews, Muslim cousins, and Communist foreigners), lusts after his master's daughter, miraculously acquires the gift of speech, loses it, gets it back, becomes a religious skeptic, and celebrates the bountiful life of the pilgrim. It's a story reminiscent of Chaucer (though with a decidedly more 20th century context), the animation is beautiful, and the whole thing is just a strange, joyful delight from beginning to end.

Apparently I missed reading a part of the comic series, and I definitely missed seeing Malka's lion in this adaptation of the comic. But the art was right on, and the movie was followable even without English subtitles. And the Cat, as always, rocks some socks.

After seeing this film at the Taormina Film Festival, I was blown away by how intelligent the plot was. It told the story of a cat who gains the ability of speech upon eating a parrot, and in turn must learn the burden that comes with knowledge and thought. It was extremely entertaining as well as very poignant at times. Just as entertaining as the plot, was the animation. The movements of the main character, simply known as "Cat", were delightfully anthropomorphized. Every facial expression and gesture was so incredibly fluid and expressive, and this was just in the Cat's movement, that it was apparent that the animators really put a lot of thought into making this character as relatable as possible. The witty dialogue between the Rabbi and the Rabbi's Cat presented controversial topics such as belief in god and sacrilegious love to the audience without being preachy or abrasive, and it even promoted an internal dialogue about beliefs in this audience member. Since I have been back to the states, I have recommended this film to practically anyone willing to hear about it.

The was based off of a comic book written by the director Joann Sfar and carries a great many themes about love and religion, so this should appeal to a great many people who are looking for a interesting view of religion from a cat's perspective, enjoy beautiful animation or are even looking for a surprisingly educational movie that should appeal to audience members of all ages.

Such a treat - an engaging, philosophical movie. It deals with a really touchy subject in as lighthearted a way as possible. Despite its whimsical exterior, it ends with a powerful message. I almost wish it had been split into two films: one about the cat learning about Judaism, and another about the adventures (and misadventures) en route to Jerusalem. (Note: I'm pretty sure it was set in the 1920s in Algiers.)

cant wait im a fan of mister joann sfar world for a long time ..please do check for its other comics as well its worth the look ,you will love it ..that animation film is all ready a classic in french countries ,give it a go then im sure you wont be disapointed..do look as well for his first film about s.gainsbourg the french musician genius ,superb .