Film

A Cat in Paris

Name: A Cat in Paris
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Released: 2010
Cast: Dominique Blanc, Bruno Salomone, Jean Benguigui, Bernadette Lafont, Oriane Zani

Action

A stylish French animated noir about a cat who leads a double life: pet by day, burglar's accomplice by night. Shot through with jazz, playful heist charm, and the kind of elegant visual wit that makes you believe animation can be genuinely sophisticated. For anyone who loves crime capers with a wink and a perfectly timed sight gag.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love animation that trusts its audience with a quiet, lovingly drawn night-city mood, where a small story about a loyal pet and a lonely girl carries real emotional weight.

Skip it if you need fast, relentless action or sharp, constant jokes, since this one moves at a gentle, wandering pace and plays its comedy softly rather than loudly.

What it asks of you: Under seventy-five minutes, it asks you to settle into a slow, rooftop-hopping evening and pay attention to faces and rain-slicked streets more than to plot twists.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Fantastic Mr. Fox2009

Wes Anderson's stop-motion heist about an animal outlaw has the same geometric precision, jazzy energy, and theft-plot ingenuity. It's playful mischief dressed up like art, with a visual language that sings.

But Anderson's distinctive deadpan style can feel cold to some, and the pacing is deliberately unhurried rather than thrilling in a conventional sense.

The Pink Panther1963

A jewel-heist romp with an animal protagonist, charming chaos, and a jazzy soundtrack that shares DNA with A Cat in Paris. Inspector Clouseau's bumbling creates the same kind of elegant slapstick.

But The humour is dated in places, and some of the physical comedy drags. It's also live-action, so the visual sophistication lands differently.

Lupin2021

A stylish French heist series with the same Parisian elegance and gentleman-thief appeal. Sharp, playful, and wrapped in gorgeous production design that feels like the live-action cousin to this film.

But The pacing can be frustratingly slow in places, and later seasons lose some of the charm that made the first run so compelling.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Cat in Paris

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Midnight in Paris2011

Both films fall in love with Paris through visual storytelling rather than sentimentality; the city is protagonist, not backdrop. One uses animation's freedom, the other the magic realism of nostalgia.

A different kind of Paris romance: a writer stumbles through the city's past, encountering literary ghosts. Like A Cat in Paris, it's enchanted by the city itself, using locations as a character and layering mystery with elegance and humour.

But Woody Allen's neurotic voice is so strong it dominates everything. If you find him insufferable, no amount of Paris magic will save you.

Ocean's Eleven2001

Sleek heist entertainment where the fun is watching clever people pull off an impossible job. Like A Cat in Paris, it treats theft as a kind of dance, with style and humour woven through every beat.

But It's considerably longer and more plot-heavy, and if you find George Clooney's charm exhausting, there's a lot of it here.

Zootopia2016

A mystery wrapped inside a buddy cop film, animated with Disney's technical brilliance. It shares the film's playful approach to crime and animal characters solving problems with wit rather than violence.

But It's aimed at children first and adults second, so the satirical layer sits on top rather than underneath. Some find the messaging heavy-handed.

Redacted2007

If you want to see animation used for something darker—a crime drama with real stakes and moral ambiguity. It proves animated storytelling can hit as hard as live-action in completely different registers.

But It's deliberately raw and uncomfortable. The fragmented storytelling style will frustrate anyone wanting narrative clarity, and the subject matter is bleak.

Thief1981

Michael Mann's masterpiece about a professional heist man with a strict code. The minimalist approach, jazz score, and visual coolness are ancestors to what A Cat in Paris does with fewer frames.

But It's slow, deliberately distant, and built on mood rather than plot momentum. Patience required; instant gratification will leave you cold.

Only Yesterday1991

A Studio Ghibli film that uses animation's freedom to move between memory and present, inner life and outer world. Proof that hand-drawn animation can be as intimate and reflective as it is playful.

But Nothing much happens plot-wise. It's a character study masquerading as a simple story, which some will find contemplative and others will find thin.

Retro Puppetmaster1999

An obscure animated entry in the Puppet Master franchise that goes for atmospheric creepiness. It shows animation can do noir and mystery without being glossy or cutesy, closer to experimental than mainstream.

But It's genuinely weird and difficult, with production values that match its budget. The narrative is fragmented, and if you want a satisfying plot, you won't find one.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl2017

Both use animation to capture the feeling of a single night spent moving through a city—the way time bends, the way strangers become part of your story. The tone is fundamentally different (one playful, one romantic-surreal), but the structural DNA is there.

A Japanese anime that spins a single night in a city into something surreal and wondrous. It has A Cat in Paris's jazz energy and playful visual language, but pushes the animation into fever-dream territory that live-action cannot reach.

But It's deliberately fragmented and dreamlike. Plot coherence is not the goal; if you need things to make logical sense, you'll spend two hours frustrated.

The Asphalt Jungle1950

A Cat in Paris is a direct descendant—the same genre architecture, the same respect for criminal competence, the same jazzy aesthetic. But where The Asphalt Jungle is noir played straight, A Cat in Paris is noir played as a game. They're the same language in different registers.

The original heist template: a crime film that treats theft as labour and planning as artistry. Shot in gorgeous black-and-white with a jazz-inflected score and a moral ambiguity that feels close and human despite the distance of decades.

But It's a 74-minute 1950s crime film in black-and-white without a single joke. If you need contemporary pacing or humour to stay engaged, the slow burn will test your patience.